How to make change stick
Organisations talk a lot about change and transformation, but in general most aren’t very good at doing it. A recent SAP survey found that of the 84 per cent of organisations that started transformation initiatives in the past year, only 3 per cent had actually successfully completed one.
Thoughts from Colin D Ellis
One reason for this is that while senior managers get very excited about smarter, faster ways of doing things when they’re pulling their business plans together, they forget that to achieve them they have to stop doing some things and redefine the way they get others done.
Cultural evolution is frequently cited as the biggest enabler of successful change, yet very few organisations ever take it on, opting instead for quick-fix training solutions, restructures, operating model changes or (as is currently en vogue) promises of hybrid working.
It’s not that any of these things are wrong, it’s just that in order to deliver transformation and make change stick you need to establish a new foundation upon which to build them. Those foundations contain the following:
A sound business case for change. This will answer the ‘why this and why now?’ questions from staff and stakeholders alike as it’s not good enough to simply say ‘we need to transform’, there has to be a sound and logical rationale for doing so
A redefined culture. This is the activity that almost all teams or organisations forget to do and yet it’s the most important. Without redefining the vision, behaviours and collaboration principles expected of each other you have nothing to transform to
Public accountability. There needs to be a senior executive within the business who is prepared to throw their reputation, energy, money and effort behind the activity to ensure it delivers what was promised in the case for change. This person will also encourage all the other executives do their bit to ensure that the change happens.
Clear, unambiguous communication. This should focus not only on the activities required to complete the initiative, but also on the personal change required to achieve success. I don’t mean an email or poster, in Comic Sans font, pinned up on a noticeboard, but regular effort from those accountable for the transformation.
With an appropriate level of justification, definition, accountability and communication, culture change or transformation isn’t as hard as some would have you believe. If you’re not prepared to do these things, then your staff would like you to stop talking about transformation as if you mean it. However, if you are, then you can guarantee then they’ll be up for it too and that will make everything stick.
Colin D Ellis is an award-winning speaker, facilitator and best-selling author of Culture Fix: How to Create a Great Place to Work. You can find out more about him and the work that he does at www.colindellis.com
