Managing Change

One of the more difficult things that managers are called to do is manage a department or team through significant changes in the company. Those changes may include new product introductions, new marketing campaigns, new IT systems, new policy and procedure, budget changes, new personnel, structural realignment, compensation and/or benefits, and so on.

It is vital to understand that change is inherently threatening – perhaps not to all people, but a significant number of people will have a tendency to fear the worst. For example, for certain personality styles, change in and of itself presents a problem. Others individuals will fear change because of organizational dynamics: Will I lose my power, authority, or influence? Will I have to work longer or harder? Will I lose money or prestige? At the same time, there is a natural tendency to become comfortable with certain ways of doing things (“we’ve always done it this way”), even when we know or can demonstrate that doing those things isn’t working very well.

Change is often complicated by the fact that managers rarely have any training in managing a change process. In the absence of any training, perhaps the most important thing to consider is that creating an environment of trust is crucial to working through any type of organizational change. Further, the cornerstone of developing a trusting environment is effective communication.

If your organization is creating change of any kind, here are a few things to remember:

• Communicating the “big picture” – the vision for the change – is essential to creating buy-in. Many companies create major change and fail to communicate the vision and/or objectives of the change.

• In the absence of good communication, many people will assume the worst and/or believe all the rumors that reinforce their perceptions.

• One-time communication is rarely effective. Reinforce key points consistently through a variety of mediums – staff meetings, all-employee meetings, memos, e-mail, etc.

• As the organizations works through a new project or change initiative, keep everyone up to date on progress. If changes must be made to the original objectives or methodology along the way it is critical to communicate those additional changes effectively.

• Enable and encourage feedback from those involved and affected by change. Remember that one-on-one meetings or small group meetings are much more effective in soliciting feedback from employees and/or managers.

Although this is far from a comprehensive list of items to be considered during a change initiative, it will certainly help the process. For owners and executives: if managers aren’t trained to manage change effectively, they will often compound the problems by struggling with the same issues that employees deal with during change: discomfort, speculation, worry, fear, and even resentment.

When you plan changes, make sure you include plans to manage those changes effectively with your managers and employees.