Competition

Leading Successful, Sustainable Change

By Erica Olsen ⋅ November 14, 2006 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Blog post by Skip Reardon

http://sixdisciplines.blogspot.com/2006/10/leading-successful-sustainable-change.html

Many change efforts within organizations are declared failures and abandoned before they are given a chance to succeed.

Most
major change initiatives fall far short of the goals and expectations
set for them. Here are seven steps that make the critical difference to
make change succeed and last.

1. Create a sense of urgency.
For an organization to change, it needs to have something like a heart
attack-a wide-spread sense that if we don’t change our ways, and soon,
we may die. This pain and fear is behind almost every major change
initiative. You don’t go through the expense and hassle for the fun of
it. You do it because you believe you have to.

2. Build a strong guiding coalition.
Most change initiatives flounder or fail because of problems in the
management team, even when there is no evidence of discord. Everyone
sits around the conference table nodding their heads in agreement when
the change initiative is proposed and discussed.

3. Develop a clear vision.
What will success look like? What’s the plan for getting there? How
will this plan overcome the pain of not changing? Articulate the vision
in a few forceful and memorable words.

4. Ask different questions.
If you want a different response-a different set of behaviors-then you
should ask different questions that are aligned with the new strategy.
If you create a sense of urgency around your plan, anticipate and fix
problems in the leadership team, develop a clear vision of the end
state you want, and encourage behavior change by asking different
questions, you will have a strong foundation for change.

5. Work the plan.
Get the leadership group into strong alignment, develop and communicate
the vision, and stress the need for urgent action first. When people
know why the change, they can figure out what needs to change and how
to change it.

6. Design in a short-term win.
Major change initiatives take time. The disruption, the learning curve,
the initial clumsiness-all of these take a human toll. Look for the
things that are going right, publicize and celebrate them. Early wins
are critical to creating a climate where people will keep motivated.

7. Embed the change in the culture.
New behaviors take time to become habitual. Spaced repetition is the
best way to embed new ways, and means, and attitudes. If you skip this
simple follow-up, all the expensive, painful, disruptive process of
changing is wasted. Over time, people revert back to the old, familiar
ways, and one more change initiative fails and is forgotten. Spaced
repetition is a highly effective way to make change last and to make the idea of change a permanent characteristic of the culture.