Organizations Don’t Change, People Do – Tips for Navigating Change

Think about a boat that is off to discover new shores in search of gold and riches. Some people think that they just need to craft a project plan and that will be enough to get them there. However, think of a project plan (i.e. project management) as the technical side, so in this story: “the boat builders.” They make sure that the boat is equipped and stable enough to make the journey from shore to shore on a specific timeline with specific milestones and deliverables.

What if no one wants to get in the boat though because they do not understand why they are there or what they need to do. What if they do begrudgingly get into the boat but then are not all rowing in the same direction? Ultimately time is wasted, people are frustrated, morale drops, and you can end up forever going in circles, never finding the treasure. That, in a nutshell, is change management.

Change management is all about creating and communicating the vision or change and then working diligently to get people engaged in helping you reach it. You can create the best strategy, tool or process and invest lots of time and money planning and implementing a change, but if you don’t take the time to get employees or members to adopt and embrace the change or utilize the new system, you will have spent a lot of money and not fully realized the potential.

Another way to think about it is “organizations don’t change, people do.” It is the people within an organization that must shift from what the current state is to the desired future state, including a transition period in between.

Here are five key things to keep in mind when your organization is going through a change:

Start with fully communicating the why

Creating awareness of specifically what is changing and what the driving forces and factors are in why you are changing. This may be competition, environmental factors, financials, etc., so explaining the why is critical. Think of when you ask children to do something, the first question you get is “why.” It is a normal human instinct to ask for a reason or purpose.

Also, there is no such thing as over-communicating. Remember, it takes most people hearing things 5-7 times before it sticks with them, so you need to communicate things multiple times and in a variety of ways so that it resonates with different people. These could be emails, meetings, videos, one-on-ones, and the like.

Transitions can induce stress

Do not underestimate the power of comfort people have with the current state. You should expect stress and resistance to change, so do not be surprised by it, as it is a normal human reaction. Even positive changes can be stressful, think of buying a house, getting married, having a baby, starting a new job. All these things, while they are desired, can lead to stress and overwhelm.

Think about what parts of your change will cause to people in different roles in the organization, then consider what you can do in advance to mitigate that stress. For example, if you are shifting work amongst employees, first prepare for how you will communicate with that person how their job is changing and what it means for their day-to-day work and job description. Be sure to tie it back to the overarching reason for the change in resourcing (see above).

Desire to change is a personal choice

Accepting a change is not something you can force someone to do. You can only try to influence and motivate people to want to change by helping them to see the benefits of the change or perhaps even the consequences of not changing. To reiterate what I said above, “organizations don’t change, people do,” and they do it one by one.

Sponsorship is key

For people to believe in the mission and vision, it has to draw them in and that can be heavily influenced by active and visible sponsorship (read as: a promotion from the top person ultimately responsible for the change). When there is frequent communication from the leader about what you are doing and why you are doing it, people tend to want to engage in it and be part of a broader community, a bigger picture, or a compelling cause. Frequent and consistent communication from the sponsor is critical.

Celebrate successes

To reinforce changes, you want to make sure that you are celebrating the wins along the way. This includes recognizing the behaviors that you want to reinforce, even if the result is not yet achieved. This reinforcement of the right behaviors shows people what is valued and helps them commit to “doing it again” when they are recognized and rewarded. A trap we often get into is not reinforcing the change and moving too quickly onto the “next thing” and what happens is that people revert to their old thinking or ways of doing things. Worse yet, you create a culture where nothing sticks and it is forgotten about, which leads to a lack of trust and disengagement in current and future changes that you need to make.

Project management has been around for a long time and people understand and see the value in it. I encourage all of you to additionally see the value in change management in the same way and know that these two things need to run on a parallel track to ensure successful adoption of the initiatives and investments your organizations are making. Having a dedicated focus on change management will pay off more than you can imagine. Not only in time and money but also in employee engagement.

Jennifer Ashooh, People & Culture Business Partner, Virtual, Inc.

Jennifer is a Business Partner on Virtual’s People & Culture team. She has worked in Human Resources for over 25 years, working for both large and small companies. She was employed at Comcast for 15 years. Since 2015, Jennifer has held a Change Management Certification from Prosci.

Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn.