Our KimbleCo team loves writing blog posts that provide you with information based on our expertise and market knowledge. Today we turn to Dr. Jim Bohn to showcase his deep expertise in change management—a topic we all need to know more about! Julie and Ericka were colleagues with Jim when we were all at Johnson Controls. How fortunate we were to get to know Jim and to be the recipients of his vast insights into organizational excellence. Thanks, Jim for agreeing to be our guest blogger!
Below are Dr. Jim’s top 10 tips for managing change. Think of these tips as the initial questions to ask yourself, or a checklist of sorts, as you navigate change.
1. Why do you want to change?
This is so often overlooked in our busy world. The first word a small child learns is “no”. The second word is “Why?”. We expect adults to overlook a rationale.
The “why?” takes a LOT of work yet is often quickly swept over to get to the work of change. Yet if you do not know why you’re changing, you’re already at a disadvantage. At all costs, avoid ‘corporate speak’ in your rationale. Ensure anyone in your company will understand the ‘why?’.
Elements of the ‘why?’ include things like
Financial impact
Customer impact
Regulator impact
Employee satisfaction
Long-term organizational competitiveness
Take the time to understand the ‘why?’. In the end, when things get tough and your team is struggling to stay the course, the ‘why?’ will save the day.
2. What is the change?
Articulating precisely what the change is (and is not!) is a critical element of managing change. Uncertainty causes people to imagine all kinds of things as part of the change. Clarity is critical.
Put a boundary around the change to (1) ensure that people know precisely what is changing and (2) to avoid the temptation to add ‘scope’ to the change.
3. Who is involved?
If you sit down with a group of invested team members and ask them “who is involved with this change?”, you’re going to find out there is more to this change than meets the eye. Specifically, these are people who are going to do something different as a result of the change and who will provide input along the way.
4. Who leads the change?
People will want to know who to turn to once a change is underway. A leader is critical. Who is the person people will turn to for (1) decisions, (2) breaking down obstacles, (3) resources and (4) ultimate accountability for the project?
5. Who needs to know about the change?
You’ll be amazed at who will be impacted by a change. Most projects impact far more people than we expect, and if we don’t alert them and keep them in the loop, we fail. Communication is a critical component of any change. If you can, hire a communications leader for your change.
6. Where are the true organizational influencers?
This may be the most critical element of the change. Not all influencers are on the organizational chart, but some people have a dramatic impact on the success of the change. Within your company, there are people who have (1) long tenure, (2) a legendary history of accomplishments, (3) relationships with an owner (typically in family owned businesses), (4) multiple patents, (5) power derived from informal relationships, and/or (6) significant financial achievement over time. In other words, they are revered, respected or (sometimes) feared by the rest of the group.
These people have dramatic impact on your organization, yet they are rarely part of the standard organizational chart. In fact, they may have been on multiple organizational charts through the years. It is their expertise, experience and competence that gives them their power.
Discover who they are, work directly with them and learn their objections. You’ll be glad you did.
7. Who will support those affected by the change?
We get very excited about a change … at the beginning, but as things roll on and times get tough, we forget people are living with the change. They need to be supported. Once the change is moving, it’s easy to forget some things may not go well for those affected. Having support for them ensures buy in because they know you took the time to help them if things go wrong.
8. What is the organizational impact?
Imagine a Venn diagram with overlapping circles. How many organizational projects do you have going on at the same time? If you’re going to initiate a large change, what can you set aside for a while (or better yet, eliminate completely)? You don’t have infinite resources and everything can’t be priority #1.
9. Where are the risks?
Get your team in a room and focus exclusively on risks for a solid 90 minutes. Financial risks, employee risks, customer risks, supplier risks—nothing is off limits. Brainstorm these risks and then prioritize them. Add them to your project plan.
10. Who is in charge of the details?
Without a good project manager, your change will fail. Someone needs to know the budget details, timing details, staffing details and how they all fit together.
Addressing all 10 of these elements will set a strong foundation for change success. Ignoring one of them will weaken your change effectiveness. Ignore three or four of them and you’ll fail. In the end, deciding if you want your change to be a trophy of success or a monument to failure is up to your change leadership efforts.
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Dr. Jim Bohn has organizational expertise and insight stemming from decades of successfully leading leaders. His business insight derives from observing the organizational behavior of multiple Fortune 500 organizations, ranging from hospitals and healthcare, to retail and finance, to manufacturing and telecoms. Dr. Jim is founder of The Blue Collar Scholar. He has written several books on change management including “Architects of Change: Practice Tools to Build, Lead and Sustain Organizational Initiatives” and “Getting I.T. Right: A Leader’s Guide for Installing the Organizational ‘App’”