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Change Management: Getting People Excited About Change

Guest post by: John Cameron

Article Overview: Because of this scary world, people are resistant to change. Communicate differently and you can reduce resistance and get people excited about change.

Change Management: Getting People Excited About Change

The only constant nowadays seems to be change and uncertainty. Because of all the scary changes going on-stock market gyrations, housing prices plummeting, political instability in the Middle East-most folks feel powerless in many ways. People are resistant to change because it feels as if it is a loss of control. The way to get people excited about change is give them a feeling of gaining more control over their lives through the upcoming change.

So, John, how in the heck do I do that?

Think about how change is implemented at most places. A directive comes down from on high that the organization is going to go to a new software system or move to a new location or bring out a new product or... And then leadership has to sell change to the staff. This is not how it happened, but it is how it is communicated. Let's use a new software system as an example.

What happened was, hopefully, that there were problems with the old system. It crashes, data is corrupted, it requires a lot of tweaking, there are security problems, it doesn't do every thing you need it to do and so you have to do a number of things manually. Staff brings these problems to management and management says "We don't have the budget, it can't be fixed now, the need is not pressing enough, we don't have the resources..."

Eventually someone, usually in finance, looks at the problem, sees an opportunity for some ROI and glory, runs some numbers, presents the project as their own, it's approved and comes down from above as the next big thing.

So the people with the problem suggest a fix and by the time the fix arrived it was perceived as being a directive from management.

The same process, when communicated correctly, becomes a win and empowering for staff. How? The organization pays staff for great ideas to reduce costs, implement more efficient process, generate more sales, improve the life of kids, improve literacy, establish world peace in our time. Managers keep track of these great ideas, have meetings about which ones are doable, make the most sense, can be easily done to give the organization a win in these trying times. AND, MAKE SURE THE ORIGINATOR GETS THE CREDIT AND REWARD.

Management constantly goes back to staff and says something like. "We are looking at the list of changes you guys have asked for and we are trying find a way to implement XYZ. Can you guys give me more ideas on how to make it happen, how much time or money it would save? And if you know someone else who has done this, could you find out what barriers they ran into, any tips or tricks of the trade that might help us do this painlessly?"

Then staff goes back to co-workers and says, "Hey, you know that XYZ we've been asking for? Maybe those idiots in management aren't as stupid as we think! Mary, didn't you work on an XYZ conversion while you over at International Widgets?"

"Yeah, and we saved a ton of time and money, but the implementation was a nightmare. What we learned was..."

Action Items.

1. Keep track of and reward great ideas.

2. When the great idea gets upper management support, celebrate it as a win.

3. Ask for input constantly from staff. Chances are they have great skills and ideas that will help make implementation work.

4. Enjoy change rather than dreading it.

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Article Tags: change management, getting people excited about change, leading change, managing change



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