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Change Management Wisdom
People Matter and Urgency During Change

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Here are additional words of wisdom about change management spoken by participants in my change management survey. The words of my participants demonstrate the nuances of change management: change strategy, planning, implementation, and courage, much more graphically than any I can offer on my own.

People Matter Most During Change

"People can become far more than many expect them to become, if they are taken seriously, listened to, and given some help."

"Work on how each person will be affected and how to make that fit their needs as well as the organizations, while broadening participation in the process."

"Belief in the value equality/role differentiation among people in the change."

"Prepare employees for the change. Outline detailed plans and timelines for the change."

"Don't fatigue people with constant small changes. Choose big impact changes that an important segment of your constituents will support immediately. Change for the good of the organization and your customers first, change for profit only second at best, change for yourself last."

"The organization and individuals must be able and willing to learn (as in double-loop, etc.) and take responsibility for themselves."

"The focus is always on helping transform the entire system to make it more what they want it to be."

"Do not assume that the level of enthusiasm will continue, put methods in place that will help sustain that enthusiasm during the long road ahead. Prepare for sabotage, not everyone gets on board and those that don't will sabotage implementation with or without known intent to harm. Capture the opportunities that exist within the times of transition, this is the most creative time for employees and given permission to explore, many wonderful things can result."

"Acknowledge and allow people to go through the stages of change (like Kubler-Ross's stages of dying - denial, anger, etc.). They will anyway, whether or not you accept it. And expecting it allows you to better cope with it, and not overreact to early denial or anger, which ultimately helps the overall change effort."

"Start at the top. Start with each individual. Start where they actually are (not where you want them to be). This means sometimes you start from short term planning and sometimes vision and values and sometimes individual mentoring."

Persistence in Change Management

"You need to continue at the process until the change is anchored in the culture."

"You need to monitor the process through its entire lifecycle."

Sense of Urgency in Change Management

"Urgency does not equal fear. Fear hurts. Urgency helps."

"Keep the momentum up. 2 - 3 weeks without visible activity causes the effort to flounder."

"Anticipate and deal with objections and resistance. Like in a political campaign, if you let them sit, people will assume they are true. Stay flexible. Be willing to modify the process in the face of public opinion and evolving events."

"Set the stage by creating urgency and why the change is important("unfreezing" through communication."

"The best change efforts a) like Socio-Technical Systems Planning -- involve external/environmental, technical and social issues concurrently. Faster is better. If things draw out too long without noticeable results and recognition, folks "wear out" and go back to old ways."

Trust During Change

"Fix the trust thing. Everything else, the vision, values, shared sense of purpose, and purposeful change will all follow, simply because people want them to."

I think I'll end with this trust thing, because I agree with this final comment. If you fix the trust thing, you've removed many of the barriers to positive change. So, fix the trust thing; walk the talk; communicate; tell the truth; involve the people; set goals; help people learn and develop; measure results. We know that these are the foundations, not just for effective change management, but for effective organizations as well. Now, go forth and create them in your organization. As one university HR department decided when given a guiding principle of "Making People Matter," as HR professionals they are, "People Making People Matter...Not Madder."

More? See Strategy, Planning, and Communication During Change.