Having several children, I am always fascinated and sometimes exhausted by the sheer number of times they ask the question “why.” While it can be tough at times, let’s face it, we all strive to understand, to learn, and to feel safe when we are faced with change or told about something new around us.
In business, we must take this family dynamic and leverage it within our business environments. I base this on my own personal experiences. I have worked in various organizations of different sizes throughout my career. I have worked with individuals such as Emma Arakelyan (www.EmmaArakelyan.com) on some extensive and complex projects at various points over the past 20 years. In addition, I have run small and midsized consulting projects helping to drive transformation across organizations. One of the key aspects to the success of those projects was communication about the “why.”
As leaders, it can be easy to forget that most individuals within our organizations do not have the same level of visibility about the direction and changes the organization needs to make to achieve its goals. If you want to drive success in your projects and transformation efforts, you need to communicate early, frequently, and help people understand how the change will impact the organization, as well how it will affect them personally.
Once you have had the opportunity to communicate the change, the next level of communication must focus on how are we going to achieve the desired change. One of the roadblocks to change can be the gap between the present state and the future state. Build a bridge; make it easy to move from the present to the next state.
Finally, break down change into small manageable chunks. It’s essential to not create change fatigue by implementing too many changes at once or changes that are simply too drastic. As each of those phases are achieve make sure to communicate the success and beneficial impact each of those stages has on the organization.
Interested in Change Management and its overall impact on the organization, feel free to reach out.
