The Magic of Rough and Ready Change Leadership Templates.
This is the third article of six, starting with Leaders Everywhere: How Can You Lead Changes In Your Team? (Article # 1 of 6) then moving to the second article where we cover change management as an investment.
Templates and easily-updated collateral are your new friends. Change toolkits, like these toolkits and engagement suggestions are available to the public and may be helpful for implementing your change.
But what if you need something even more pragmatic? Especially if your change doesn’t warrant a dedicated Organisational Change Manager? For example, you aren’t commissioning a massive system implementation, target operating model change, nor a business transformation?
You may be moving some of your teams to a different office location in a few months. Or you might rebrand one of your team’s names. Whatever your aim, you are introducing small and consistent incremental changes to the way your teams work. It might be one change, for all I know. You might want one change done well, or you need your team to be more resilient in the face of many small changes ahead.
Start with a goal.
Everything a change leader does should contribute towards their change objective. So what is your change objective, for every change you want to focus on?
Frame your change objective in concrete terms. For example:
“By [date], [X] employees will stop using [current state] and will use [future state]. They will show [behaviour], as measured by [measurement method].”
Like with most operational problems, you can manage what you measure. Defining your change objective in a measured way; frame it as a SMART goal.
Why are you changing, and WIIFM?
The “What is in it for me?” (WIIFM) is an important part of drafting a concise case for change. This case for change complements your change objective as a tangible step in locking down a SMART goal and easily understood reason for your change. Your case for change can lead to one or two powerful sentences which can feature in your change communications.
Calibrating your case for change with your team(s) is also worthwhile, as your teams may have a better way to articulate some or all parts of your case for change.
Next, what ingredients will you need to contribute to your change goal?
In this example, six change streams feed into your change objective. In practice, you may not need six streams — this example often applies to relatively complex changes undertaken by a change professional dedicated to supporting you.
Even so, as an operational leader and accidental Change Manager, these six streams may help you think through many necessary ingredients for your change. Each stream might feature in your “change plan on a page”. The example below is for a sizeable system implementation, yet you can adapt this approach to many types of change.
Return to your employee’s WIIFM by examining the features and benefits of your change. Copywriters teach us that features and benefits are two distinctly different concepts.
What are the features and benefits of your change?
What about change communications?
We are in a strong position if we know our change objective, case (or rationale) for the change, and a few features and benefits for employees and managers. Can we systemise our change communications? Yes.
Notice in the example below the variables you can insert into a change communication.
The next example illustrates the different message themes throughout the lifecycle of your change. Lifecycle? Yes — lifecycle. The concept of a lifecycle again illustrates how implementation is but a small part of your change.
We need to warm up the audience and raise their awareness of an impending change. I strongly recommend a dialogue (not a monologue!) with your employees and managers before implementing change. Their feedback helps you draft a better case for change, not to mention a positive momentum from having your team(s) onside. This dialogue might reveal potential Change Champions who can help with your change implementation.
Before implementation, you need to signpost what employees and managers need to start, stop, and keep doing.
During implementation, you need to determine how you can make the change stick. There is no point going through all this effort and investment when the change will not stick.
In the next article, we discuss how you can create a regular drumbeat and influence team habits.
We examine systems thinking applied to how you lead change in the fifth article. The last article examines the psychology of change management. Arm yourself with psychological insights to help you influence change in your teams.
Our book — The Change Manager’s Companion — is available now. You can also check out our online course on Change Management.