8. Support Change Leaders
What is it?
Change Leaders need support over the duration of the change initiative to continue to motivate and support their teams; engage with wider stakeholder groups; and remain focused on the desired outcomes of the change initiative.
Why do it?
This process helps:
- Improve change leader confidence
- Helps change leaders to engage with stakeholders
When to do it?
Supporting change leaders is an ongoing process throughout the change initiative (and beyond to help sustain the change)
Inputs
Stakeholder Analysis
Change Governance Structure
Change Management Plan
Outputs
How to do it?
- Resistance is a natural human reaction to change and you should expect resistance and not be surprised by it. Do not underestimate the power of ‘comfort’ with how things are today.
- We can help minimise resistance by following the processes outlined in the change blueprint so that people feel engaged with the change that is happening, understand why it is happening and what the future will look like for them and their stakeholders.
- We can also develop a proactive approach to managing resistance and anticipate likely areas of resistance and plan accordingly.
Understanding the root cause of resistance to change:
| Managers | Resist change because of a lack of awareness, loss of power or control, and overload of current responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Employees | Resist change because of a lack of awareness of why the change is happening and ‘what’s in it for me?’ Comfort with the status quo and a fear of the unknown |
A useful model to consider a person’s journey through change has been developed by Prosci and is known by the acronym ADKAR. These are 5 steps that are sequential and cumulative. For a change to be implemented and sustained an individual must progress through each of the milestones:
ADKAR
Awareness of the business reasons for change. Awareness is a goal/outcome of early communications related to organisational change. ‘ Smart Engagement & Communication’
Desire to engage and participate in the change. Desire is a goal/outcome of effective sponsorship and resistance management. ‘ Visible Change Leadership’
Knowledge about how to change. Knowledge is a goal/outcome of training and development.‘ Strong Individual Performance’
Ability to realise or implement the change at the required performance level. Ability is a goal/outcome of additional support, practice and time. ‘ Supportive Organisation & Culture’
Reinforcement to ensure change sticks. Reinforcement is a goal/outcome of change measurement, corrective action and recognition of successful change. ‘ Meaningful Change Measurement’
Some key steps for managing resistance individually:
- Listen and understand objections
- It is critical to listen to concerns – in many cases people simply want to be heard and to voice their objections
- Understanding these objections can often provide a clear path to resolution
- Listening can also help managers identify misunderstandings about the change
- Focus on the ‘what’ and let go of the ‘how’
- For some changes it is effective for managers to let go of the ‘how’ and simply communicate ’what’ needs to change (focus on outcomes)
- This process transfers ownership of the solution to the employees
- Employee involvement and ownership builds desire to support the change
- Remove barriers
- Fully understand the individual situation with the employee. What may appear to be resistance may be disguised barriers that the employee cannot see past
- Identify barriers clearly
- Determine ways in which the University may be able to address these barriers
- Provide simple clear choices and consequences
- Building desire (see ADKAR model) is ultimately about choice
- Managers can facilitate this process by being clear about the choices employees have during change and about the consequences
- By providing simple and clear choices along with the consequences of those choices, you can put the ownership and control back into the hands of employees
Some key steps for managing resistance:
- Create hope
- Many people will respond to the opportunity for a better future
- Managers can create desire to change by sharing their passion for change and by creating excitement and enthusiasm
- People will follow a leader who can create hope and who they respect and trust
- Show the benefits in a real and tangible way
- For some employees, seeing is believing. Demonstrate the benefits of the change in a real and tangible way:
- Share case studies
- Invite guests to provide testimonials
- Visibly demonstrate the success of pilot programmes or trials
- Make a personal appeal
- A personal appeal works best with honest, open relationships where there is a high degree of trust and respect.
- A personal appeal may sound like:
- ‘I believe in this change’
- ‘It is important to me’
- ’I would like your support’
- ‘You would be helping me by making this change work’
- Convert the strongest dissenters
- If you can convert the strong and vocal dissenter they can become the strongest advocates
- They are often equally vocal in their support as they were in dissent
| Statement of resistance |
How can I overcome this resistance? |
|---|---|
| I don’t understand or believe the change is necessary |
Build people’s understanding of the business case, vision and desired |
| The journey there looks too painful |
Develop plans to support people’s emotional reactions through the change process; break the initiative into stages and celebrate success at the end of each stage – take a pause to reflect and revalidate the next steps |
| I don’t understand what is |
Build and communicate the vision; share the change strategy and roadmap so that people can see what to expect; ensure there is a clear and specific change charter for this initiative |
| I don’t know who is in charge of the change |
Ensure that the sponsor and change leaders have clear roles and that these are communicated to employees and impacted stakeholders. Ensure that people know how to contribute and provide feedback |
| They say one thing and do |
Ensure that the sponsor, change governance and change leaders are making the personal changes required of them to model the desired mindsets, behaviours and culture |
| They don’t understand what is happening in the business |
Ensure that the drivers for change and the desired benefits are communicated clearly but also ensure that the approach is flexible enough to handle unplanned changes; ensure regular feedback to stakeholders; ensure everyone understands the change impacts |
| People don’t have time for this |
Adjust people’s workloads to create adequate time to support the change |
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The ’ Circles of Control’ tool is a useful exercise to use at team meetings to share and classify concerns and create an action plan to address issues within the team’s control. |
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The Force Field Analysis tool provides a way to consider blocking and driving forces that can hinder or help your change. Again, the focus is on developing an action plan. |
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You can combine your actions to tackle resistance into a single plan that can be updated as you progress through the change initiative. Managers may want to develop a resistance management plan with individuals in their team – this can form part of PDR /PDP discussions and is built on in the ‘ Strong Individual Performance’ theme. |