“We’re preparing for a big bang in the company. How will people accept it quickly and painlessly?”
This was a question I was asked during a LinkedIn Live on the topic:
Change management – an unnecessary luxury, or a necessity you can’t afford to ignore?
I’ll be brutally honest.
It cannot be completely painless.
Even if you have built change management capability in your organisation and have an experienced expert on the project, change will always hurt.
Change will always hurt.
Someone. In some way. To some extent.
It is scientifically proven that changing habits and ways of thinking causes the same physical pain as a physical injury.
Change affects habits.
Certainty.
Ways of working.
People’s identity.
What they know and what they believe in.
Some people are open to change.
Others are perpetual resisters.
And the more changes are happening in an organisation at the same time, the more fatigue, resistance, and silent pushback grow.
The pain can be reduced. It cannot be eliminated.
How?
Clarify the WHY. Not in general terms – “we will be more efficient, agile, and modern.” But specifically – what does this change mean for leaders, for managers, for employees? It will be different for each group.
Build TRANSPARENCY and COLLABORATION across projects. Align with other projects – how you will inform each other about progress, risks, and resistance. Where are the overlaps, and where can you work together?
Name what is NOT CHANGING. People need to know what they can rely on. What in their established ways of working and thinking will remain. Communicate that regularly.
Set the RIGHT EXPECTATIONS. For yourself, for leadership, for managers, for employees. How? Have success metrics for the change. What does “accepted and adopted” mean for each group? Measure it regularly. Communicate it regularly.
This is what I consider the foundation. It is not everything.
I’ll share more techniques next time. They also form the backbone of the Change Essentials programme, which I built on my own experience in change management.