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Change Series Part 4 – Art of Communication

Posted on July 3, 2020July 3, 2020 by nrg2perform in Article

By Craig Johns

It isn’t easy to change attitudes or relationships; they’re deeply ingrained in organizations and people. The heart and soul of change processes is communication, as people thrive in their comfort zones and are reluctant to move into a place of uncertainty. A communication plan is just as important as the project plan in a change process, and needs to be developed concurrently. Communication includes: what the change sponsor will say; aligning key messages with other leadership team members and middle management; preparing team members readiness for change; external stakeholder management; a means to creating a community; and supporting the emotional components of team members and the leadership team.

“At one extreme, a short project led by a skilled, motivated, and cohesive team, championed by top management and implemented in a department that is receptive to the change and has to put in very little additional effort, is bound to succeed. At the other extreme, a long, drawn-out project executed by an inexpert, unenthusiastic, and disjointed team, without any top-level sponsors and targeted at a function that dislikes the change and has to do a lot of extra work, will fail.”
Harold et al., (2005)

This article is the final article of a four part series discussing transformational change from a variety of different angles and providing an insight into some of the organisational changes I have personally experienced. Part one considered why change is important for organisational success, ways to manage change, and organisational impact through change. Part two took a look at how to prioritise change, while investigating the challenges and resistance faced during change. Part three highlighted factors for successful change and implementing a continual change culture. This article, part four, will bring to light effective communication strategies during a change process.

Communication Strategy

A good communication strategy is the heart of any successful change process, and should be maintained throughout the entire duration. It needs to take into consideration changing audiences, leadership styles and team dynamics. The strategy will need to focus on aligning team members expectations, supporting the development of cohesive teams, emphasising leadership commitment, and explain the perceived need for change. To be effective, a communication strategy should define the reasons, benefits, plans and proposed effects of that change.

Poor communication, during a change process, leaves a feeling of uncertainty, loss of control and a feeling of unfamiliarity. Communication impacts team member’s emotions and reactions, and because of this can be a major determining factor for the outcome of the change process. Team members want to be kept up-to-date, whether it is positive or negative, and if communication is lacking, the uncertainty leads to work disruption, loss in productivity, lack of trust, and a feeling that they aren’t part of the decision-making process.

Being able to connect emotionally with your team members requires asking the right questions. William Bridge (2017), an organisational consultant, focuses on the emotional and psychological impact of change through three simple questions:

What is changing?
What will actually be different because of the change?
Who is going to lose what?

To ensure an effective change communication strategy, messages need to have clarity; take into consideration the emotional tone and delivery; reach the right people with targeted messages; timely scheduling of messages; and a supportive feedback process to enable genuine two-way communication. The communication strategy needs to address the following:

Change objectives
Key messages
Communication reach
Information to be communicated
Timing of information
Level of detail and how much information
Mediums to disseminate messages
Feedback process

It is useful to disseminate the information widely, openly and early. To help team members feel more included, committed and have some control, it is valuable to include them as part of the change process. Leaders need to provide justification through clear communication of the change process vision and purpose. (Johansson & Heide, 2008)

“Words shape the world, questions illuminate it. Communication is the beginning and an indispensable part of change.”
Eva Snijders

Reducing Uncertainty

Under-communication is one of the key reasons change efforts fail according to Kotter (2007) in “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail”. Kotter notes that, “Transformation is impossible unless hundreds or thousands of people are willing to help, often to the point of making short-term sacrifices. Employees will not make sacrifices, even if they are unhappy with the status quo, unless they believe that useful change is possible. Without credible communication, and a lot of it, the hearts and minds of the troops are never captured.”

Let’s take a look at what some of the more common communication failures are during a change process:

Many leaders find it difficult to deliver the tough messages
Timing of messages isn’t delivered appropriately.
Team members miss messages as they aren’t delivered in the right mediums or formats.
Inconsistent messages.
The wrong people are delivering the messages.

Leaders face the challenge of how to motivate team members to see change as both desirable and necessary. They need to ensure that team members become willing participants rather than road blocks to change.

There is a clear relationship between uncertainty and communication according to Johansson & Heide (2008), and “that without effective employee communication, change is impossible and change management fails”. They discussed research that suggested successful change is dependent “on the accurate management of uncertainty associated with change, since poor or insufficient information will initiate rumours and gossip”. They also noted that “Uncertainty is often mentioned as a major source of psychological strain during the process and outcome of organizational change”. Their paper talked about communication reduces “uncertainty but also increases a sense of control over personal circumstances related to change and job satisfaction”.

Being ready to change is a pre-requisite for effective change, according to Elving (2005). Elving maintains that it is crucial to establish a goal to prevent or reduce resistance to change, otherwise change will struggle to be implemented. He also mentioned that reducing team members “uncertainty of their future situation” will create readiness for change and support the sense-making process.

Change processes are situation dependent, unpredictable and non-linear. This is a result of different people’s perspectives, understanding and the way they make sense of the change. Team members will analyse a change initiative, when they are first presented with it, and will aim to understand the ambiguity and potential effects on the organisation, department, colleagues and themselves. To try and understand what the change means they will “act, test and experiment”. (Johansson & Heide (2008) Sense-making is a social process, which occurs through communication. Effective change interventions, generally occur during everyday conversations, as “people in an organization have different backgrounds, interests, experiences, education, positions and so forth, they will also make sense of the very same situation in multiple ways” (Johansson & Heide (2008).

High Performing Organisation Best Practices (Barrett, 2002)
From the research into the company examples of effective employee communication, the following best practice definitions emerge:

Strategic objectives – In high-performing companies, employee communication reinforces the company’s strategic objectives. There should be a one-to-one correlation between what the company has established as its strategic objectives and what is listed as the objectives for the communications. In addition, the communications must be structured to translate the central strategic messages (from vision to performance or financial goals) to all employees.
Supportive management – Top-level and mid-level management must be directly involved in and assume responsibility for communications up, down, and across the organization. In a major change situation as well as for day-to-day operations, communication is not just what the communication staff does. Managers must model the behavior they expect of their employees, the old adage of “walking the talk.” They set the tone for an open or closed flow of information. Without them, the channels of communications cannot flow freely.
Targeted messages – Targeted messages are very simply, information tailored to the audience (i.e., messages in different words for different people when necessary), so that the information is relevant and meaningful, at the same time that it is consistent. Thus, each business unit or division must tailor the important messages to their employees, and if necessary, convert the overall message of the corporate center into the digestible and actionable messages the employees can understand and act upon.
Effective media/forums – Effective employee communication uses all vehicles to reach its audiences, but most importantly, it relies on direct, face-to-face communications over indirect, print or electronic media. Thus, interpersonal communication training, meeting management, and facilitation skills are necessary for all managers.
Well-positioned staff – The communication staff needs to be close to the most important business issues, involved in the strategic and business planning processes. They must have a “seat at the table.” Being a member of the senior management team allows the senior communication officer to understand the company’s strategy and to participate in the decision making. In addition, the communication staff should be seen as facilitators of change not just as producers of publications.
On-going assessment – The effectiveness of the company’s communication needs to be measured company-wide formally and frequently against clearly defined goals on an on-going basis and throughout the key stages of any major change. In addition, communication effectiveness needs to be evaluated as part of each employee’s individual performance appraisal with the appropriate recognition for excellence.
Integrated processes – Communication needs to be integrated into the business processes with communication milestones included in the business plan and as part of the business planning process. Thus, communication should be placed on the agenda of meetings and built into the management discussion of strategic objectives and planning.

Change Communication Phases

Axero Solutions provide a very effective 4-phase change curve that considers team member productivity and morale over time. (Eisenhauer) During a change process they discuss how team member emotions go through denial, resistance, exploration and commitment phases.

Denial Phase — People need information, when change is announced as team members often experience feelings of shock and/or denial. This is due to a feeling of uncertainty that there comfort zone is being affected. As the reality of change sinks in, team members need to understand what the change involves, what are the goals, will their role or team be affected, what is the timeline and what the help process is.
Resistance Phase — People need support after the initial shock, as they begin to react to the news of change. Team members tend to resist change as they feel anger, resentment and fear. As this is a very emotionally charged phase, internal communications need to be carefully planned. A concerted team effort from the leadership group needs to carefully think through the feedback and objections from team members. This phase requires consistent messaging and well designed support for team members.
Exploration Phase — People need direction once they have digested the majority of negative emotions and begin to accept that change will happen. Team members will now be ready to comprehend what change will mean to them, how their role will change, how they fit into the organisations bigger picture and what training will be provided. It is possible that productivity can drop during this phase as team members are learning new skills, understanding new processes and building new relationships if their team has changed.
Commitment Phase — People need encouragement as the change has been fully embraced and excepted as a normal part of everyday life. It is an exciting time for the organisation as productivity begins to increase and processes become more efficient. Communication is still very important as team members need to see and hear that the change has achieved its goals and the leadership team showcases that the change has made a positive impact to the organisation. Team members can smell insecurity from the next postcode, so it is crucial that leaders continue to communicate encouraging and inspirational messages which celebrate successes, achievements and how far all team members have come.

Communication Checklist

Prosci, an organisation that focuses on change management, has developed an effective ten question checklist for change management communication. The checklist provides an easily understood, step-by-step process for leaders to connect with their team members and assure everyone is aligned. (Prosci, 2014)

Use the change sponsor to deliver key messages about business issues and reasons for change, and immediate supervisor for personal impact on change.
Answering the questions, “Why is this change happening?” and “What is the risk of not changing?”
Answering the question, “What’s in it for me?” provides a compelling case to show how the team members will be better off and what they will get out of being involved in the change process.
Communication should be through the change sponsor or immediate supervisor, rather than the project leader.
Use face-to-face communication as predominant form of communication
Repeat key messages five to seven times.
Creating opportunities for two-way communication so the team members can share their concerns, provide feedback and ask questions. It also helps to create buy-in.
Preparing the communicators to deliver effective communications and have the necessary conversations. Share the important messages, align messages between senders and plan the delivery sequence.
Finding effective ways to reach your audience through a variety of communication channels. Be creative with your messages and include channels such as meetings, one-on-one conversations, newsletters, presentations, brainstorming workshops, lunch and learns, Intranet Q&A forums, CDs, screen saver messages, etc.
Use assessment tools to evaluate the effectiveness (hearing and interpreting) of communication messages.

“If we aren’t communicating with the intent to change something – an attitude, a feeling, a behaviour – then we are just creating noise.”
Anonymous

High Performance

It is very important for leaders to coach management into understanding that team member communication is a valuable ingredient in becoming a high performing organisation. Once management grasp this concept, they will assert more time and energy into enhancing their communication skills and strategies. Barrett (2002) discussed that change communication serves three purposes:

“to illustrate effective employee communications in the context of the high-performing organization (one way to get senior management to listen),
to provide an analytical tool to diagnose a company’s communication strengths and weaknesses, and
to frame the change program and the resulting recommendations to improve employee communications so that communication will be positioned to help drive the change.”

Being able to deliver meaningful conversation that inform and educate team members of the change strategy, and also motivate and position team members to support the change, is crucial to ensure success is possible. Barrett (2002) identified five key high performance characteristics, required during a change process, from the book “The Real Change Leaders” by Jon Katzenbach:

Committed leadership group
Clear performance goals
Well-designed playing field
Right people in the right places
Meaningful communications”

High performing organisations will ensure change communication covers five main goals (Barrett, 2002):

“ensure clear and consistent messages to educate employees in the company vision, strategic goals, and what the change means to them;
motivate employee support for the company’s new direction;
encourage higher performance and discretionary effort;
limit misunderstandings and rumors that may damage productivity; and
align employees behind the company’s strategic and overall performance improvement goals.”

To ensure communication connects with team members, it is important to understand the previous change ability of the organisation. As a leader you need to ensure the change process is achievable, and it is more effective to under-promise and over deliver on key outcomes of the change process.

Being proactive during a change process and providing clear, transparent and supportive communication is central to completing a successful change process. Your ability as a leader to be consistent in your messages and upfront when the journey towards the desired change outcome takes a new path is required for your team members to ‘get on board the bus, sit in the right seat and trust the driver’.

References

Anand, J., Barsoux, J., (2017). What Everyone Gets Wrong About Change Management. Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec 2017. link

Ashkenas, R., (2013). Change Management Needs to Change. Harvard Business Review, Apr 2013. link

Barrett, D.J., (2002). Change Communication: Using Strategic Employee Communication to Facilitate Major Change. Corporate Communication: An International Journal, Vol 7 No. 4. link

Bridges, W., (2017). Strategies for Managing Change. Website. link

Eisenhauer, T., (2017). How to Communicate During Organisational Change. Axerosolutions.com. link

Elving, W.J.L. (2005). The role of communication in organisational change. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 10, pp. 129-38. link

Immelt, J.R., (2017). How I Remade GE. Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct 2017. link

Johansson, C., Heide, M., (2008). Speaking of Change: Three Communication Approaches in Studies of Organizational Change. Corporate Communications: An International Journal. Vol 13 (3). link

Katzenbach, J.R., Steffen, I, Kronley, C., (2012). Cultural Change That Sticks. Harvard Business Review, Jul-Aug 2012. link

Kotter, J.P., (2017). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review, Jan 2017. link

Lawrence, P., (1969). How to Deal With Resistance to Change. Harvard Business Review, Jan 1969. link

Luna, T., Cohen, J., (2017). To Get People to Change, Make Change Easy. Harvard Business Review, Dec 2017. link

Prosci (2014). Change Management Communication Checklist. http://www.prosci.com. link

Schaffer, R.H., (2017). All Management is Change Management. Harvard Business Review, Oct 2017. link

Stebbins, S., (2017). Change Management Methodology And Strategic Communication: An Essential Partnership. http://www.forbes.com link

Sirkin, H., Keenan, P., Jackson, A., (2005). The Hard Side of Change Management. Harvard Business Review, October 2005. link

Tasler, N., (2017). Stop Using The Excuse Organizational Change is Hard. Harvard Business Review, Jul 2017. link

Unknown, (2018). Change Management. Wikipedia. link

Walker B,. Soule, S., (2017). Changing Company Culture Requires a Movement, Not a Mandate. Harvard Business Review, Jun 2017. link

Change Tantrums – Change Series Part 2 Link
Why Change? – Change Series Part 1 Link
Unleash The Niche Link
Ask A Question Link
I Make No Apologies This Is Me! Link
Leaders Are Hired To… Link

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CHANGE SERIES PART 3 – ACHIEVING SUCCESSFUL CHANGE

Posted on June 26, 2020July 3, 2020 by nrg2perform in Article

By Craig Johns

Any leader can instigate a change, but managing effective and successful change requires something special. A meticulous attention to detail, outstanding people skills and the stamina to succeed are just some of the important factors that great leaders possess in delivering effective changes over a long period of time.

This article is the third part of a four part series discussing transformational change from a variety of different angles and providing an insight into some of the organisational changes I have personally experienced. Part one considered why change is important for organisational success, ways to manage change, and organisational impact through change. Part two took a look at how to prioritise change, while investigating the challenges and resistance faced during change. This article (part three) highlights factors for success during change and implementing a continual change culture. Finally, part four will bring to light effective communication strategies during a change process.

WINNING HEARTS & MINDS

To successfully effect organisation transformational change the most critical aspect is the ability to win the hearts and minds of the employees in relation to the change. Four key processes are necessary to impact change from a people point of view:

Understand how the changes fit into the entire organisations environment, through a systematic diagnosis of the current environment, as well as determining whether there is a need for change and if the organisation has the capability to develop, manage and implement.
Determine what adjustments the organisation will require to effect the change.
Continually train all employees so the changes are integrated into the organizations culture.
Ensure buy-in and win support from all employees through influencing appropriate adjustments.

It is so important to bring your team along for the ride. They need to grasp the purpose of the change, believe in it and be willing to give one hundred percent commitment. As a leader you need to plan and prepare how you will win the hearts and minds.

Jeff Immelt, who recently retired as CEO of General Electric (GE) after seventeen years at the helm, was successful at implementing a change culture that could comprehend multiple organisational transformation changes. In an article called ‘How I remade GE’ (4), he noted that you can’t have transformation without revamping the culture and the ‘ways things are done around here’ mentality. Jeff provided seven important attributes that contributed to his leadership of transformational change at GE:

Discipline – Leaders require the discipline to ensure that new initiatives fit with all organisation initiatives and they release those that don’t fit.
Soak – Good leaders are curious and always absorbing information about new potential trends and developments. They don’t instantly react, but instead contemplate, read about, listen to expert opinions and engage in a ‘soak period’ to reach a conclusion, understand what it means for the organisation and how to act on it. They must be profoundly convinced that the organisation must transform itself.
Make It Existential – Treat every big change if it were life or death, and instill this type of psychology in the management team.
Be All In – People can smell a lack of commitment, so you can’t improvise with half measures. You require a 100% commitment to ensure adequate financial and human resources are committed to the change and you are prepared to go all the way to the end.
Be Resilient – Any change transformation requires ‘staying power’, grit, perseverance, risk taking, time and resiliency. You have to be prepared to open another door, every time one closes.
Be Willing to Pivot – It is unlikely that you will get the strategy right, straight off the bat. You have got to be open to pivoting on the basis of what you learn, while still having the courage to act and motivate your team to continue moving forward.
Embrace New Kinds of Talent – As a leader of organisational transformational change, you need to be prepared to protect new employees until they are fully integrated. You also need to be prepared to building a new culture, new ideas and new ways of doing things.

Change is not a simple process, especially when it comes to managing your team. You have to be very observant, sense the mood, understand your people, and communicate with conviction, clarity and consistency.

(Photo from http://www.fortune.com)

Case Study: Thanyapura
Below is my Thanyapura experience based on Jeff Immelt’s GE 7 Attributes
Discipline – It is very easy to say yes to new ideas and hard to say no to initiatives that have already been implemented. Working at Thanyapura, we were pioneering, and prepared to take on the world and show them something special. We had a lot of talented people on staff with amazing ideas. It was a challenge for the leaders to keep a calm state and ensure only the best change ideas where executed.
Soak – With so many industries (Sport, Mind, Health, Education & Hospitality) blended together, and huge pressure from the owner to gain a return on investment, our soak periods were very short. It was extremely difficult to gain a quality perspective on what changes had the most potential as we were always on a bullet train, moving at light-speed, down the express line.
Existential – You have to be very disciplined and creative when creating a sense of urgency. We had to convince the staff that if we didn’t make the change we would lose our competitive advantage. This was challenging with multiple change processes occurring simultaneously and most staff involved in more than one change process.
100% – This was the area that was make or break at Thanyapura. With competing change processes and resources, staff were unsure as to where the priorities lie. Many changes were still in progress while other changes were commencing, leaving staff wondering whether there would ever be an end in sight. You can see it the team members commitment and productivity when they are unsure of where the priority lies.
Resilient – Having to deal with regular new projects and change processes meant dealing with a lot of physical and emotional energy. Being prepared to deal with roads being rerouted, closed or side-streets opening meant there was always disruption to deal with. It didn’t mean it was a bad thing, it just tested you as a leader.
Pivot – We had an opportunity to create a world-first in women’s tennis. An agreement was difficult to finalise as we were competing with legal systems and insurance coverage from multiple countries. We changed strategy at least four times to try and find a solution so we could implement the change. Unfortunately we had to pull the pin as there were other competing priorities that needed our time and energy, after Lawyers said it would be too resource-consuming to seal the deal.
Embrace – This is an area that we didn’t spend enough time on. It was almost expected that new team members fitted straight into the culture. It is such an important component of every organisation to invest time into new staff to ensure that the can fit in and excel.

SUCCESS FACTORS

As a leader it is important that you are effective at influencing and persuasion with your organisation, so that they are used to a culture of successful change. This is due to the common thought that most change projects are unsuccessful. Nick Tasler (6) recently debunked the myth that only 30% of change projects are successful, showcasing the percentage came from misinterpreted facts in a 1993 book titled ‘Reengineering the Corporation’. Tasler summarised a 2009 survey by consultants at McKinsey mentioning that “a third of executives believed that their change initiatives were total successes, and another third believed that their change initiatives were more successful than unsuccessful. But only ‘about one in ten admit to having been involved in a transformation that was ‘completely’ or ‘mostly’ unsuccessful’”. We need to be more realistic in determining the success of each change project and influence our team members that 9 times out of 10 a change process will have some level of success and that a third of the time you will enable full execution.

Katzenbach, Steffen and Kronley (7) found that “almost every enterprise that has attained peak performance—including the Four Seasons, Apple, Microsoft, and Southwest Airlines—got there by applying five principles. Such companies see culture as a competitive advantage—an accelerator of change, not an impediment.” They provided five principles, based on research and client experience, that “can help an organization achieve higher performance, better customer focus, and a more coherent and ethical stance”:

Match Strategy and Culture – Too often a company’s strategy, imposed from above, is at odds with the ingrained practices and attitudes of its culture. Executives may underestimate how much a strategy’s effectiveness depends on cultural alignment. Culture trumps strategy every time.
Focus on a Few Critical Shifts in Behaviour – People find it very difficult to alter behaviour even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they should. Ask the people in your leadership groups, “If we had the kind of culture we aspire to, in pursuit of the strategy we have chosen, what kinds of new behaviors would be common? And what ingrained behaviors would be gone?”
Honor the Strengths of Your Existing Culture – It’s tempting to dwell on the negative traits of your culture, but any corporate culture is a product of good intentions that evolved in unexpected ways and will have many strengths. Find relevance of the organisations original values and use storytelling, as the existing culture’s assets make major changes feel more like a shared evolution. It is also valuable to emphasise desired behaviours that already exist in the organisation.
Integrate Formal and Informal Interventions – Whether formal or informal, interventions should do two things: reach people at an emotional level (invoking altruism, pride, and how they feel about the work itself) and tap rational self-interest (providing money, position, and external recognition to those who come on board).
Measure and Monitor Cultural Evolution – Rigorous measurement allows executives to identify backsliding, correct course where needed, and demonstrate tangible evidence of improvement—which can help to maintain positive momentum over the long haul. Four areas to pay key attention to are: business performance; critical behaviours; milestones; and underlying beliefs, feelings, and mind-sets

As a leader you need to reduce as much complexity as possible and simplify the change process to overcome potential barriers. “Over a century ago, the philosopher Guillaume Ferrero proposed that humans operate on the Principle of Least Effort: given several paths, we pick the easiest. More recently, Harvard psychologist Shawn Anchor suggested that the behavior we choose is the one that’s just 20 seconds easier to start.” (Luna & Cohen, 2017) Asking yourself how you can make the process more simple is a good start.

To be successful in leading change you will need to be disciplined and focused so that everyone can see how the puzzle connects. You need to rewire you brain so that you 100% believe the survival of your company depends on the change. Being able to convince your team members that they need to get on board the train and come along for the ride, is crucial. You must be committed over a long period of time, because, as they say, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. The process of change will challenge your resiliency as there will be tough times while your organisation is creating a better future. You will need to constantly listen and act simultaneously as the organisation will need to pivot during change which requires a lot of courage, especially when you learn something new. Most of all, you will need to embrace new ways of doing things, a new culture and the rise of new talent.

To increase the likelihood of change being successful, you can employ the following tactics:

Create a step-by-step plan that includes a clear business case for the achievement of measureable aims, which can be continuously updated.
Ensure there is a consistent, clear and effective communication plan that includes the reasons for change, details of the change and what the benefits of a successful implementation will look like.
Provide each team member a part to play in the plan, and even more importantly the outcome.
Monitor key aspects of the change process such as implementation, costs, risks, assumptions, return on investment and effects on culture.
Develop a training, education and skill enhancement program for the organisation.
Be proactive in realigning any resistance to change to the overall vision of the organisation.
Protect your team and stand by them, when there is any interdepartmental conflict.
Show empathy and if required provide counselling to team members who are finding it a challenge to adhere to the change.
Be prepared for setbacks, identify challenges early, reassure your team members that it won’t derail the whole change process, and determine how to manage it.
Encourage your team members to think critically and ask questions as part of the process.
Symbolise the new identity and embed it in the organisation’s culture.
Establish early successes and celebrate the wins.

CONTINUAL CHANGE CULTURE

An effective leader is able to stimulate a culture of continual change, where they are able to turn an organisation into a perpetual motion machine where change becomes a part of everyday life rather than a major turbulent event. We are brainwashed into thinking that change is hard and difficult, as an occasional disrupter, rather than an important part of an organisation staying relevant. Leaders are more effective when they view change as the very essence of their role and believe that all management is change management.

Being able to set tough goals, establish processes to achieve them, lead the implementation of the processes, and carefully learning from both successes and failures should characterise the underlying culture and daily life at every level of an organisation. People find it much easier to see and achieve in the short-term, so by providing a clear picture of where the organisation is aiming for in the next month, quarter or year will make it much easier for team members to comprehend and accept the change. (8)

If we hold our managers accountable for continuing improvements, it will support their capacity to lead continual change while their team members develop the capacity to implement the change. They need to gather supporting evidence and advice from specialist experts, but need to take hold of managing the actual change. Leaders need to instil the culture of “change management being management, and management is change management” (8).

Walker and Soul (9) carefully articulate an organizational culture being similar to the wind. “It is invisible, yet its effect can be seen and felt. When it is blowing in your direction, it makes for smooth sailing. When it is blowing against you, everything is more difficult”. They talk about movement research which suggests that change starts with an emotion. It generally starts small with “a group of passionate enthusiasts who deliver a few modest wins”. Regular small wins get the wheels of perpetual change motion turning and gradually they gain momentum. Using the momentum and the power of influence, a leader can commence institutionalising the cultural change.

The following practices can lead to a successful cultural movement that thrives on change (9):

Frame the issue so it stirs emotion and incites action.
Celebrate small wins to bring the heart and minds along the journey
Harness networks and build coalitions that share a common purpose
Create safe havens where creativity and discussion leads to a strategy
Embrace symbols to create a feeling of solidarity

“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening, because it means things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better.”
KING WHITNEY JR.

Success lies in the hands of the leader as without one hundred percent commitment, discipline, awareness and influence, it will be a steep mountain to climb. In part four, I will dive into communication strategies that can assist you as a leader during every step of an organisational change.

References