For a class assignment, students had to interview a leader who had been involved in a change effort. These leaders’ organizations varied widely, including a software company, an academic department, the military, city government, banking, and a retail store. Although the context was diverse, several themes emerged that applied across all of the change efforts:
- The change effort took longer than expected. Universally, everyone said it required more buffer time, more testing, more revisions, and longer to achieve buy-in
- In retrospect, all the leaders would have spent more time on internal communication to help people understand the process, rationale, and desired outcomes
- Akin to that, they would have invested more time in the “human side” of the effort
- The leaders would have sought more bottom-up feedback earlier in the process to learn about details and implications that those further removed could not see/anticipate
- The process required adaptability and was not as linear as initially conceived
- Listening was a key skill — to give voice to ideas, fears, questions
- Several leaders recommended implementing change in phases — doing things rapidly instead of gradually caused more resistance
- It was important to provide encouragement, incentives, and recognition for the small wins along the way
None of these are new ideas, but for the students to hear them from a leader of their choosing gave the concepts more credibility and weight. If you’re about to embark on a change effort (and who isn’t?), give some thought to external input about the process before you jump in. Having your team hear lessons from someone outside your area may help reshape how you craft the process upfront instead of in retrospect.
