Change is Inevitable

"Change from the top down happens at the will and whim of those below. "
              -- Peter Block 

Change is an integral part of many workplaces.  If there is no change, one becomes stagnant and does not improve.  As a result, a company not moving forward is falling behind.  (If everyone else is moving and you are not, soon the others will leave you behind for better things) Places that want to accelerate and be innovative need to constantly change to keep moving.

There is nothing wrong with change and change is important.  It is crucial however that the company or organization have a well defined goal.  What is the point of a change if we do not know if we are actually moving forward?  Without a clear goal the change does not make sense, because we never know if we are stepping backwards.

Once a clear goal is defined, and it is verified that the change will put us closer to the goal, the next important step is to make sure everyone is on-board.  It is impossible to make changes if crucial members of the team are not on board.  Whether it is management or individual contributors, one needs to convince them that the change is required.  It might not be a trivial task and at the end all levels of management need to cooperate.  

There are many ways of communicating change.  

- Change is always happening, so deal with it

This forces people to adapt to the change regardless if they care about it or not.  Communicating  this change as a law from above will not make this change widely adapted.  There will be hostility, unwillingness to change and avoidance of change.  Individuals will find ways around the processes and changes to continue with what they believe is working fine.

- I understand your concerns, but this is what we were told to do.

This will certainly lower hostility to an immediate superior, because an individual knows that there is nothing they can do to stop the changes.  It will not however avoid unwillingness to change and avoidance of change.  At the end the person that delivers the change will need to work hard to make that change happen within the organization.

- This change will bring us to an organizational goal

Sounds good right? But what's there for me? Again, there may be unwillingness to change.

You are probably asking, so what can I do to deliver change and make people eager to help with this change?

The solution is not as hard as it seems.  

A CEO will certainly base changes on organization goals because the CEO needs to think about organizational goals.  A middle manager should think about the people they manage.  If they were in the place of the employees, how would they see the change?  How can their behaviour bring the organization closer to its goals?  What can be the benefit to them if they change? 

Placing yourself in the shoes of your employees creates not only better understanding of what the employees do, but also improves the connection between the manager and the employee.  When the change is delivered at the same level as the employee, showing the employee the reason for the change, as well as pointing out immediate or future benefits of the change, the amount of resistance to change is minimized.  

Such an approach would need to be delivered all the way down to the individual contributors.  

Many managers attribute the lack of such an approach to the amount of time and effort required to explain the change to their subordinates.  In many companies time is often very important and changes need to be applied immediately. However, if we look at the big picture, do we want 50% participation in immediate change?  Why not spend a week and develop the required communication to achieve 90% participation of the whole organization?