By Erika Andersen, Founder/Partner
If you’re working in an organization – from the smallest start-up to a Fortune 500 – I don’t have to tell you that the pace of change is dizzying. From where and how you work, to the goods or services your company produces, to who your boss is, and even who owns your organization… nothing stands still.
Understanding the Impact of Change
You’d think we’d be used to it by now, but no. Especially when change is imposed upon us, and it’s not our idea – we generally don’t like it. Our first reaction is most often that change will be difficult, costly, and weird – that is, it will make our lives harder, take from us things we value, and feel strange and unnatural.
How Leaders Can Facilitate Change
Over the years of our work with clients, and in response to the changes we’ve had to go through ourselves, my colleagues at Proteus and I discovered that almost everyone has three questions they want answered when a change is first proposed to them. A leader who provides thoughtful, honest answers to these three questions has the best chance of helping their team view necessary change more positively.
In service of that, below are the three questions, and some support for answering them well:
Question number 1: What does this change mean for me?
Because we tend to think that changes imposed upon us (as almost all organizational changes are) will be problematic, we first want to find out just how bad they’re going to be. If, as a leader, you can honestly let people know the key things that will be changing for them, and – even more importantly – how they’ll be supported to make those shifts, it will often reduce their anxiety dramatically. It also helps to communicate what won’t be changing, because when confronted with a big change, it’s easy to assume that everything will be different.
If, as a leader, you can honestly let people know the key things that will be changing for them, and – even more importantly – how they’ll be supported to make those shifts, it will often reduce their anxiety dramatically.
Let’s say, for instance, that you’re talking to your salespeople about a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system the company will be installing. You can let them know that the new platform works somewhat differently and that they’ll be getting both in-person and online training to understand and work with the system. You won’t be switching over to the new system till everyone has had a chance to have that training. Their customers and sales targets will stay the same, and they’ll be working in the same internal teams.
Sharing the impact of the change in this balanced way – hopeful without being unrealistic – will give most people what they need to start preparing for the change.
Question number 2: Why is this change happening?
Since most people tend to prefer the status quo to a change initiated by someone else, this question is a way of saying “You’d better give me a pretty good reason to change, because I’d rather not.” When you’re thinking about how to answer this question, focus on the reasons for the change that will be meaningful to the people asking the question.
In our sales CRM example, the company may have decided to go with the new system primarily because it’s less expensive than the old system. But that’s not likely to be particularly motivating or meaningful to the salespeople. Hopefully, there are other reasons for the change: perhaps the new system makes it easier to do automatic scheduling of client check-ins, or the system overall is more efficient – meaning they’ll spend less time on sales administration and have more time to spend with clients and value-added activities.
Sharing the “whys” that your team appreciates will help them see the change in a more positive light.
Question number 3: What will it look like when it’s changed?
It turns out that one of our deepest fears is fear of the unknown. So, when an organization says to its folks, in effect, “This change is happening, and it’s going to be great – let’s go for it!” it’s kind of like asking people to walk into a dark alley in the middle of the night without telling them what’s in there. Yikes!
The more clearly and accurately you can paint the picture of the future you’re anticipating post-change, the better. People will be much more willing to move toward a future they can envision. And again, being balanced and realistic in your description is best – you’ll lose people if you pretend everything will be roses and unicorns.
The more clearly and accurately you can paint the picture of the future you’re anticipating post-change, the better.
Envisioning the Future Post-Change
Once you’ve answered these three questions you’ll be better equipped to help your team communicate the necessary change more positively. For example, in the new CRM example, you might say something like, “It will take quite a bit of focused effort for everyone to get trained on the new system. We’re scheduling it for our slowest sales period, but still, we know it will be an added lift. We’ll have both systems up for a little while so you can complete your training while still using the old system, and that might be a little confusing. But once you’re all trained and we’ve taken the old system down, we think the new system will save you as much as an hour a day because it’s so much more efficient, and a lot of the things you’ve had to do “by hand” will be automated. Three months from now, you’ll have a lot more time to focus on what you do best: selling and supporting clients.”
Preparing for Change
By getting clear on your initial answers to these three questions before communicating a change, you’ll be able to give people the insight and information they most want, while demonstrating your commitment to being as transparent and realistic as possible about the change and its impact on them.
These initial questions will no doubt lead to others, and if you keep listening and being thoughtful and honest in your response, you’ll have the best possible chance of getting people on board and being able to make a successful transition. Good luck!