Leading (Successful) Change Initiatives

CUNA’s E-Scan Website
August 17, 2010 | COMMENTS

Change is often crucial but it's never easy. When top executives rally their troops to forge ahead, many of them often find that the employees are neither ready nor willing.

Why the resistance to change, when it may be the one path to a more secure future?

In firms that have downsized, restructured, or engaged in strategic shifts in recent years, the last thing many employees want is more change. They may be distrustful of management, and they may not feel they have a stake in their company's success. The idea of another transition leaves them cold.

Leaders of these companies need to get their employees to let go of the past and move forward as quickly as possible, according to Mitchell Lee Marks, associate professor of management at San Francisco State University 's College of Business, writing in the MIT Sloan Management Review. The process takes place on both on an emotional level and in terms of the work they do, says Marks, who is also president of the consulting firm JoiningForces.org.

This entails two steps:

1. Leaders need to weaken support for the status quo — most importantly by acknowledging the difficulties of the past and uncertainties of the challenge ahead. This also means convincing employees that change is necessary.
2. After support for the status quo has been weakened, support for a new initiative must be strengthened.

Executives can foster enthusiasm by offering a clear, detailed vision of where the company is headed, and sustain it by supporting employees emotionally as they figure out new ways to do their jobs. On the practical side, executives need to involve employees in establishing new operating procedures.

Essential elements in successful transitions include:

Empathy

Empathy is a powerful tool during transitions. Employees are more likely to hang on to the fear and other emotions that big changes bring if it seems to them that management has no clue about how they feel. Leaders who acknowledge employees' feelings and fears have taken the first step toward creating an environment of cooperation and trust.

One way to demonstrate empathy with employees is to be honest with them.

The CEO and senior executives can begin by leveling with employees that an intended transformation will be a difficult challenge for everyone. That's often a switch from the tendency to send out mostly sugar-coated messages. Marks urges the executive team to follow up with balanced communications to employees during the transition.

Also, employees sometimes just need to vent. If so, meetings led by an outside facilitator can help to surface issues and protect employee confidentiality.

The Business Case

While executives are connecting with their employees on an emotional level, they also need to engage them on an intellectual level: Everyone in the organization needs to understand the business case for change.

To fully make the case for change, executives need to convince employees that it's necessary and achievable — which can be a hard sell when employees already have been asked to do more with less.

One key is to keep discussions from getting bogged down in everything that has to be done to arrive at the ultimate goal. Instead, encourage employees and managers to set priorities together, agreeing on immediate changes that point the business in the right direction and generate some confidence-building quick progress.

Looking Toward the Future

As they loosen their grip on the old ways of thinking and working, employees begin to look ahead. Executives then need to get people excited about where the company is heading and to support them as they figure out their roles in taking it there.

In communicating a vision to employees, detail is important. Change-oriented firms do the following:

• Provide abundant information about how the company intends to achieve its goals.
• Outline how the company can win a prominent market position. Assert the need for the company to become more aggressive in selling its products and services.
• Accelerate the review of products and services, and communicate decisions on which will be retained and which will be eliminated.

People can, of course, be excited about a new opportunity for their company and still be anxious about their own future. Worries like that can sap their energy. Managers can keep employees engaged through more frequent performance reviews, while department heads set achievable short-term goals.

Establishing New Procedures

Employees also need to be involved in translating the company's new vision into everyday procedures. Their involvement bolsters their commitment by helping them maintain a sense of control. At the senior level, this may include:

• Translating leadership's vision into mission statements and guidelines for employee behavior, to be conveyed by managers and supervisors in each department.
• Monitoring company progress, which allows executives to quickly recognize any detours.

All of this pays off not just for whatever transition a company is going through now, but also for the future. Change comes to most businesses frequently these days, and companies whose employees have learned how to let go of the old and embrace the new will be in a better position to succeed in that environment.

This article originally appeared on CUNA's E-Scan Online Research & Advice Portal. Reprinted with permission.