100 Change and Transformation Tips

100 Change and Transformation Tips from Change Factory

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1. Clearly communicate the vision and direction of the change.
2. Measure along the way, to see how you are tracking against your milestones.
3. Instil the desire to adopt new, better habits.
4. Lead by demonstrating new behaviours.
5. People need to believe the change is good for them.
6. Identify your change supporters, as well as your opposition.
7. If you plan the change project well, then the implementation becomes relatively straightforward.
8. Help people understand that they can implement the change – they have the capacity, authority and tools to do so.
9. Reward and recognise people who demonstrate the new desired behaviour.
10. Consider using gamification techniques for engagement.
11. Understand your organisational culture before embarking on change.
12. Don’t let rumours fester – communicate.
13. Build a team to drive the change.
14. There is an opportunity in every change if you embrace it. There is a threat in every change if you ignore it.
15. Inspire people, let them see and share your vision.
16. Accept change management as an art form in its own right. Call in the experts!
17. Change = effort / time.
18. Persistent, consistent, insistent changes in behaviour have a huge impact.
19. Formalise and systemise to create the new “normal”.
20. Find your Change Champions.
21. Tap into people’s emotional engagement for intrinsic motivation – make the change positive and contagious.
22. Tell them early and tell them often.
23. Do not allow yourself (and others) to slip back into old habits because it feels ‘easier’.
24. Use multi-channel communication tactics to cater for all preferences (formal and informal).
25. Business transformation requires context, to determine if the change should be revolutionary or evolutionary.
26. Following a model that worked for another organisation won’t necessarily result in the same level of success. The key is in getting the small things right.
27. The old adage, “To fail to plan is to plan to fail” is never truer than when attempting to transform a business.
28. Don’t just consider the mechanical, organisation aspects of the transformation. Include concrete plans for human transformation at the individual level.
29. Accrue the appropriate skills, to ensure that execution is done with a high degree of skill.
30. Harness the power of influential stakeholders (passively or actively) supporting the business transformation.
31. Devise tactics to flush out stakeholders that passively oppose the transformation, to enable dialogue and debate.
32. Communicating with people causes them firstly to feel something, then think something, and then do something. This may take a nanosecond…or a week.
33. Business transformations require some of the “stick” approach, as well as the “carrot”.
34. Get key performance indicators around the transformation accepted as part of a balanced scorecard.
35. Involve the Audit team in the planning and the definition of the key desired outcomes.
36. Develop a coaching/feedback approach to the behavioural changes required.
37. Ensure that the outputs of the project are well integrated into the operation of the business.
38. Individuals should be evaluated against the competency required to determine training and development needs.
39. The competency requirements to execute the new processes and operate in the new culture should be mapped.
40. The organisation structure must reflect the desired power structure of the transformed entity.
41. The “What’s in it for me?” should be clear, to achieve the desired behaviour changes at the individual level.
42. Devise tactics to ensure that baggage from previous failed initiatives does not cloud people’s judgement.
43. Clarity of purpose is best expressed in a vision (where we want to go) and mission (how we get there) and through the expression of how risk will be managed.
44. No business transformation should be undertaken unless it creates value for one or more stakeholder groups, whether they are shareholders, customers or staff.
45. Consider the value of the change: the difference between the perceptions of benefit over the perception of cost.
46. Without a clear demonstrated ROI, other projects begin to take precedence as time passes and the project cannot be seen to make a return.
47. Most transformations are actually led from the middle, not the top.
48. Ensure that appropriate budget is allocated to the change, taking into account change management, communication and training costs.
49. Tasks should be prioritised in terms of their relationship with each other, for their impact on the end goal of the transformation, and their ease of doing.
50. Any business transformation requires new skills to be built and old habits to be discarded.
51. Change requires full engagement: from the senior executives to the front line team leaders.
52. Training should be designed to take people from a state of ‘unconscious incompetence’ to ‘conscious incompetence’ to ‘conscious competence’.
53. Leaders must insist on minimum standards of performance as a result of the change.
54. If there is no personal belief in the change, then the likelihood of individuals adopting the change is severely diminished.
55. When communicating change, leaders should use a combination of facts and symbols.
56. Consider: What further support do we need to have to ensure we transfer the skills, knowledge and attitude back to the workplace?
57. Get people asking questions and making suggestions to improve your capacity and capability to achieve the change.
58. The responsibility for communication outcomes during change rests squarely with the sender rather than the receiver.
59. Don’t assume that people are made in your own image and therefore will feel, think and act like you do.
60. Email alone is NOT a suitable channel to use to communicate major change or to affect changes in people’s behaviour
61. Don’t use novelty and ‘fun’ as the single means to attract attention to the change and affect changes in people’s behaviour.
62. Consider the various choices you have in delivering against the purpose of the change.
63. Without governance, business transformations meander. Check that decisions and actions are consistent with the purpose and strategy of the change.
64. Consider the skills that are needed on the project team, and the development opportunities needed to effectively execute your plans.
65. Install checks and balances through appraisals, rewards and recognition and audit processes, so people understand that you are serious about the transformation.
66. Consider which processes you need to re-engineer, to lock in the transformation.
67. Ask yourself: What culture do we need to support our new way of working and how will we change our culture?
68. When communicating change, leaders should do so with an obvious degree of emotion and personal passion for the change.
69. Consider Kaizen: performing small, continuous improvement activities frequently, which can add up to significant improvements over time.
70. Leaders must be able to articulate what people will be doing, how they will be behaving and what the results will be.
71. If leaders do not believe in a change they have been directed to create, they are better served to state their disbelief and move on.
72. Communicating during change: get their attention!
73. Important news bears repeating. Repetition of your message also increases the chance that it will be heard.
74. Give your team plenty of notice of the expected change.
75. Clear, basic language is the best. Don’t use fancy words. Don’t use jargon or descriptive language.
76. Tailor your messages. Address your audience’s motivations and concerns about the change you are proposing.
77. Tell people when things are going to happen and who is going to be involved.
78. As time ticks away and milestones come and go, tell people.
79. Creating an internal brand enables you to cut through the corporate noise and help staff see and hear your change message.
80. Get your CEO to publicly endorse the change: in presentations, meetings, on video, on the intranet…
81. Focus learning model design on transferring learning to the workplace, not training.
82. For every change project, aspire to leave a better world behind.
83. Remember that people don’t resist change. They resist being changed.
84. Don’t implement change after change too often.
85. When in doubt, conduct a change readiness survey.
86. Assess the external and internal environments to determine the context of change.
87. We must have the courage of our convictions and implement change. As leaders, we have final accountability.
88. Ensure that changes in processes are embedded into “the way we work here”.
89. Help your employees cope with change.
90. The leader of the change must be in control.
91. When leaders do not believe in a change, the probability of failure of the change rises dramatically.
92. Be empathetic: take others’ perspectives into account when making decisions and taking action.
93. Leading people to perform at a level which will allow the organisation to reach its goal requires leaders to have the right attitude.
94. To motivate employees to change, leaders need to understand the motivational needs of individuals and groups.
95. Manage the transitions, as well as the change. Change is external to an individual and transition is internal.
96. People need to believe that change is the norm (everybody’s doing it).
97. Don’t get side tracked by issues and revert to multiple goals with no hierarchy.
98. Ask yourself: What coaching do we need, to deliver to reinforce capability building through training?
99. Leaders who talk the talk, but do not walk the walk, will never engender true cultural change.
100. Consider: What skills, knowledge and attitude do we need to build in our staff and how should we do that?