We’ve set the stage for change. A sense of urgency has been established. A strong coalition of leaders and managers has been brought together with an effectively communicated vision. Our next step is to empower our team so that they can implement the change in the work that they do.
Get rid of obstacles
When it comes to obstacles to empowering people to change, suppressive forces usually come from these four areas: skills, systems, supervisors, and structures.
Evaluate these areas both before and during the change implementation. Do the people have the right skills to successfully complete the needed actions? Does the structure of the organization make it difficult for people to act? Are bosses discouraging their team from implementing the change? Are the systems that people use making it difficult?
Here are some examples of how structure holds back change.
Silos that don’t communicate or include stakeholders slows work down which impacts Increased speed and efficiency.
Layers of management that criticize, second-guess, micro-manage, and/or only provide lip service to change impact Empowering line-level associates.
Teams that are not fully utilized for the size of the workforce and silos that create costly programs and implementations impact Lowering costs & expenses.
When resources are fragmented and ownership is too compartmentalized and too thin it impacts the Focus on the client/customer.
Deal with your unaligned supervisors
Change advocates can demonize supervisors who are resistant to change. The advocate could think, “Why is it so difficult?” It can be hard for a person who is a change champion to see why someone else would actively push back against a change. Those supervisors probably aren’t bad people. They are a product of the style of leadership and experiences that they have had in their career journey. They are typically well-tenured in the company, having seen changes unsuccessfully come and go, and lead with a command-and-control style.
For this person to implement change, you are asking them to confront their whole leadership style and experience. It can be a daunting task with no easy solution.
The best solution is to identify these individuals and have an honest conversation with the person. Explain the current state of the industry, the vision of the future, your expectations for them, and the assistance that you need from them. Give the person an opportunity to bring up any obstacles that they see in making the change and help them work through it. Giving the person clear expectations and supporting them as they work through obstacles does a few things. It provides a roadmap to success. It gives the person a chance to get on board and it provides clarity so that if you need to begin formal coaching, the topic is not a surprise for the person.
Show the short-term wins along the way
Now that the team is empowered and we have put the change into action, it’s important to highlight short-term wins along the way. I like to think of this like a campfire being built. All the steps prior to this have created the spark and the beginning of the fire, but the work is still not done. You’ve got to nurture the fire so that it continues to grow the way that you want it to.
Short-term wins are not subtle. Launching an initiative, producing a product, or getting the team to stop storming against each other don’t count as as short-term wins. Those things are important but aren’t examples of what a win looks like. The kinds of wins you are looking for usually share some characteristics.
- It’s visible and clear. People can see the results (the so what) for themselves and see that the proposal and ask for change wasn’t just hype.
- It’s clearly related to the change and can’t be attributed to anything else.
- It’s unambiguous. The data is there and there is little argument for the win.
In many circumstances, these small wins occur about 6 months in. It takes time for the change and data to come back in a way that you can see a difference.
I once launched a one-year onboarding program for new facility leaders. it was a multi-layered approach that asked for quite a bit of change to happen for everything to come together. We knew that the program would work but the business had to trust the vision that we were casting. We did a look back at turnover for the role at the six-month mark. We had dropped the turnover rate from about 30% to 0. It was a powerful data-driven win that showed that the change was worth the effort.
The impact of short-term wins
Short-term wins play an important role in the transformation process. They reinforce the effort and allow the guiding coalition a chance to test the vision. Short-term wins are also a wonderful way to pause and celebrate the people who helped make the change a reality. They also help quiet the naysayers, retain leader support, and give you momentum to continue to push forward.
Remove obstacles to empower your people and ensure that your middle leaders are aligned so they can support their team. Be intentional in looking for those small wins along the way that highlight the impact of the change in order to recognize the efforts and establish further excitement to push for further progress.
Make a better tomorrow.
-ZH
