In today’s fast-paced work environment and competitive economy change is a constant presence in organizations pioneering innovation, growing and expanding or choosing to be sector leaders in the products they create or the services they deliver.
And yet, studies and research consistently demonstrate that companies struggle to fully realize the intended and anticipated benefits from their change efforts - at great cost, whether financial, human or time.
Organizations don’t change. People change. All of the project plans and task lists in the world won’t help you achieve your results if the people in your organization are not able to make the transitions required to move to a new desired state.
At minimum they will need to feel engaged in the change. They will need to feel valued and respected through the process, buy in to the need for change, and understand their role in making it a success.
More importantly, if the change requires them to give something up – real or perceived (as these are of equal value and importance in this case) – they will need to commit to sacrificing something that feels personal for the benefit of the larger team or organization. This can be something as seemingly simple as a change in a process or technology, reporting structure or even where someone sits, through to something as significant as a change in one’s role, a change requiring a geographical move, or a merger between companies.
As noted by the renowned author Margaret Wheatley in her book titled Leadership and the New Science:
"Anything living will change only if it sees change as means of preserving itself."
When a change at work feels personal, it becomes that much harder. And if members of your organization struggle to ‘make the change’ or even just partially get there, then your change effort and its accompanying results will not be fully realized.
Define success as adoption, not simply implementation. As a friend of mine in construction often says, at the end of a job your contractor can sum up his/her work in one of the following two ways: ‘It’s done right!’ - or - 'It’s done, right?’
This is the difference between implementation of a change and actual adoption of a change. Too often we settle for the former. We get the new thing (whatever it is) implemented and in place, allowing us to check it off the list and move on to our next task or priority (It’s done, right?).
This is where we miss out. Where we miss out on fully engaging our staff and supporting them through change and the personal transitions that result, and where we miss out on fully achieving our desired results and ensuring our ROI is what we want and need it to be.