Nine Steps to Managing Change
Leaders understand that the best way to cultivate committed staff is to create a work environment that aligns personal values and skills with organization values and work requirements.
In essence, the ability of an employee to become a committed staff member is a function of the skill of the leader to create a workplace that promotes pride, loyalty, and ownership - the critical qualities of commitment. Building commitment to the organization's change process is the defining characteristic of a successful leader. Leaders understand and consistently demonstrate the ten most important ways to build commitment to a change process.
- Involve or engage all of the people who will be affected by the change.
- Make sure that the change works for everyone.
- Negotiate win-win solutions. Success is defined by how many individuals succeed.
- Use goal clarity to focus each staff person on the critical task that is derived from the organization's mission.
- Emphasize the dynamics of change, mainly that there are no quick fixes. Be flexible throughout the process, because change will continue to accelerate at an unpredictable rate.
- Focus on the intangible components of quality, achievement, and profitability.
- Adapt managed change strategies throughout the organization based on the unique characteristics of the group. One size cannot fit all.
- Write a positive vision of the organization's future. Look at the problems as challenges and opportunities, and be proactive.
- Nurture a sense of teamwork. Staff who share the same goals and understand their role as interdependent are much more successful than employees who work in "silos."
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