What I've learned doing change
Here are my 7 tips for taking a practical approach to change management.
In this post I’m going to run down what I’ve learned doing change over the past 15 years, starting in change communications and then moving into change management and project management.
If you’re a change manager yourself — or a leader who wants to lead yourself and your team through a business or project change — these lessons may be useful to you.
Analyse your stakeholders
All stakeholders in a business or project need to be respected and treated as customers, but that doesn’t mean all stakeholders are equal — some are critical to the project, and some are, well, … not. The way to work out which stakeholders are which is to undertake stakeholder analysis.
My approach is to, first, list stakeholders with the support of SMEs, and then analyse them according to what I call the 4 ‘change levers’: change readiness, change impact, stakeholder influence, and collaboration potential. Taking this approach usually does a good job of shaking out the critical stakeholders on any change or transformation.
Make it about them
Too often I see project teams or businesses try to communicate their change process (‘first we’re going to do this; and then we’re going to do that’) instead of what matters most to stakeholders: what the change means for them. The best way to engage everyone — and I mean everyone — across your business and/or your process is to:
listen to them, and
talk to them in simple, consistent and easy-to-understand ways.
Leaders need to own the change
A project team is only there to rearrange the furniture — the furniture still belongs to the business. By that I mean: business leaders must own the change that results from the project, program or transformation. Practically, that means that CEOs (in the case of transformations) or project sponsors (in the case of projects) must communicate to stakeholders (ideally, written in their own language, with advice from communication and/or change advisers).
And these business leaders must reiterate — again and again and again — that their business fully supports these initiatives and cares about the future state that is being delivered.
Leaders must explain the past and paint the future
If you thought the leaders’ roles ended there, well, I’ve got news for you: it doesn’t.
I’ve managed enough change programs to believe that change can’t take hold without a vision. Each and every senior executive must clearly and consistently explain the ‘why’ behind the change (in other words, the past) as well as spell out what the future looks like: the end-state (which can be encapsulated by the business and stakeholder benefits, and the business, stakeholder and — if applicable — solution requirements delivered).
Fortunately, there are people on project teams who can discover the answers to these questions — so, use these people to uncover the past and paint the future. And then communicate that information — and don’t deviate, either as a leader yourself, or as a group of executive leaders. A single narrative between you matters — it only takes one executive to tell a different story for stakeholders to doubt the entire story.
Leaders should acknowledge the collective wisdom
As you’re probably starting to tell with me, leaders factor large in terms of managing change. Here’s another tip involving leaders …
You are NOT the fount of wisdom — your people are. Too often I see leaders use the knowledge their project team — or consultants — have told them (through talking with employees), and then not give any acknowledgement that it was regular people in the business who had the answers all along.
No one likes to be ignored or unacknowledged. And it’s especially galling when it’s a leader who should know better. Don’t be selfish — acknowledge your community and your community will acknowledge you.
Change management is an attitude, not a process
I am a firm believer that change management is an attitude more than anything else.
Sure, processes matter (just ask a project manager), but process doesn’t have to be prescribed — the best processes are based on common sense and the context at-hand. But what matters more than process when it comes to change management is attitude.
And by ‘attitude’ I mean:
having empathy for your stakeholders
treating every stakeholder like a customer (not just the important people)
realising your change plan is only as good as the number of people who contributed to it (and, even then, it probably isn’t realistic in the face of the cold, hard reality of talking, and listening, to critical stakeholders)
behaving like the kind of leader you want your business leaders to behave like, and
never forgetting your business’ core value stream — and, therefore, who are the most important employees essential to your success.
The best way to capture this attitude is by creating a list of change principles that you include in every change management artefact. And then living those principles day-in-and-day-out.
Change comes from the people, not the CM
This may sound ironic, but I am no fan of the term ‘change management’. In fact, I positively dislike it. Why? Because I think it’s misleading. A change manager is no manager of change at all. The business leaders are (see above).
The change manager is simply there to provide support and advice to leaders in the people aspects of projects or transformation — to be the person who does what they can (within the constraints of the business) to facilitate stakeholder adoption of the future state.
To follow this logic to its conclusion, that means that stakeholders hold the power as to whether they adopt the future state or not — so, it’s incumbent on the leaders and the CM to recognise where the power lies, and to influence that power in a myriad of ways that are ethical and aligned to your change principles.
Never forget: change can only result from the people. So, treat them with respect.
Question:
These are my key learnings as a change manager and project manager over the past 15 years. What are yours? Share them in the comments below, under my LinkedIn post or by emailing me at rohankayconsulting@gmail.com.