Making Change Happen: a Corporate Priority

By Florence Stone

Change is an ever-present fact of life within corporate corridors, as companies respond to competitive pressures and vie to capitalize on marketplace opportunities. As we move toward 2006, however, we see a shift in priorities in change management. In the last year, much of the attention was focused on growing business by identifying new markets and products and services. Today, attention is focused on making those ideas a reality.

Companies have discovered that ideas mean little until they are implemented, and that change isn’t easily implemented. You need to get buy-in into the change at all levels. But if you are put in charge of a change effort, be prepared for opposition. It it’s strong, consider one-on-one meetings with each of those colleagues who are obstructing plans. During such meetings, it may help if you adapt your communication style, changing your style to best suit each individual. Each of us has a dominant communication style, and often we can win people over to our way of thinking if we adapt our communications to their style.

Let’s Talk
Basically, there are four dominant communication styles: activator, analyzer, affiliator and conceptualizer. We all practice each of these, but we generally have one dominant style.

1. Analyzer - places high value on facts, figures, data and rational thinking.
2. Conceptualizer - values ideas.
3. Activator - focuses on the present. He or she won’t listen if you talk about future opportunities. This person has lots of drive and gets things done but often acts before he or she thinks, and is often regarded by peers as impulsive.
4. Affiliation - places high value on personal relationships and interpersonal contacts. This person is warm and understanding but may also be defensive or thin-skinned, very emotional or moody and easily swayed.

When communicating with analyzers, you might say, “Let me walk you through this proposal, step by step…” or “Let’s look at this in a logical, systematic way….” To an affiliator, you might offer: “Let’s get re-acquainted again, before we get down to business…” or “Why don’t we talk about it over lunch….” Or “It would be helpful to get you involved in this from the very first stage.”

In persuading a conceptualizer, you might open the discussion by saying, “I have a rather unique approach for you—something that has never been tried before….” Or “This will pay off in the long term….” Or “Let me begin by first giving you an overview of the key concepts involved.” Activators are best approached this way: “We can get on it right away….” Or, along the same lines, “Suppose I skip the details and just hit the highlights.” Or you might try, “We tried to select the most practical approach…. What do you think?”

If ringleaders of the opposition emerge, confront them and try to alter their attitude. If they won’t give their support and, worse, if you discover that they are behind pernicious rumors about the change or otherwise negatively impacting the staff’s morale, you may want to transfer them to another department, even consider termination.

Living with the Change
Mistakes are part of the learning process, and you can expect problems to arise. Unfortunately, they may arouse resistance to the change all over again. Tell your staff that the only failure you’re concerned about is the failure to try anything at all. You should explain that solving those problems may generate other problems, which will cause further problems. That is just the nature of change. “All we can do is to address each problem calmly as it occurs.”

You may also want to organize your change effort so you begin where you are less likely to encounter problems. Build on one success after another until you have completed the change effort.

Plan Your Change Process
Detailed, step-by-step plans are essential for change projects. Many change programs fall by the wayside simply because insufficient thought was given to the plan and the problems that were likely to occur. Make sure that you give due consideration to all of the most likely problems, such as technical bugs, delays caused by suppliers or unanticipated costs—don’t way to formulate plans for such contingencies halfway through the change effort.

Although you may think you have a clear idea of the end result from the change, put in writing what you hope to accomplish from the change—not sweeping generalizations but easy-to-understand, easy-to-measure, task-related statements. Write down the start and completion dates for the entire project, as well as milestone dates for the completion of each stage of the project. Now define the various areas of responsibility and who will be held accountable for each part, what resources you will need and how you will make assignments. If you need support from other parts of your organization, include that information in the plan.

To make sure that the plan is complete, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why is the change being introduced?
• What results do we expect?
• How will we achieve those results?
• What resources—people, money and time—will we have to commit to the plan?
• How will we monitor results as we go along?
• What can go wrong with Plan A? If a problem occurs, do we have a Plan B?

Additional Tips:
If you decide to assign a staff member to oversee the project, don’t rely solely on past performance appraisals in making your selection of the project leader. Past work isn’t necessarily a good assessment of an individual’s capacity to plan, lead, manage and implement a required change. Technical competency may be a consideration but so may dedication to the idea. Look for someone who has played a key role in a change effort in the past—someone who is innovative and has demonstrated this in the past.

If the change involves the entire organization, and you must work with peers, maintain a professional attitude. Don’t get in a flap about what other managers are or aren’t doing. Focus on completing your responsibilities effectively and efficiently. Don’t share your fears about other managers’ efforts with peers or, worse, employees. During periods of organization-wide change, stress is high. Take positive action to manage your stress, and don’t contribute to others’ feelings of anxiety.

If the change initiative is limited to you and your staff, make an effort to celebrate their accomplishments as you experience success. Reinforce the positive behaviors that led to the success. Initiating a major change is an uphill battle and employees can become depressed in the midst of the effort unless they see progress. If there is real concern among employees—even you may have doubts about the change--consider a pilot program to test the idea. If the pilot effort is successful, you can expand the change to the entire department.

Reward and recognize those behind the success. In today’s workplace, change is a continuous process, and you want to build a team of experts in making positive change happen.

To learn more about tapping into your own creativity, consider these AMA seminars:

• Planning and Managing Organizational Change
• Dealing with Change: Strategies for IT and Technical Professionals

AMA On-site: Every one of AMA’s 170+ public seminars can be delivered on-site. This flexible, money-saving option allows you to train ten or more people, when and where you choose, at a low cost per participant. Click here for more information.

Author Bio: Florence Stone is editorial director for the American Management Association. A recognized authority on management, she has authored over 15 management books, including The Essential New Manager’s Kit and The Mentoring Advantage. For more information, e-mail: fstone@amanet.org.