Demonstrating actual change early in any transformation is vital – for both business and cultural reasons.
When an organisation sees and feels that leadership is serious about effecting real change:
- Business benefits will be realised faster
- People will be more committed to contribute and be part of the change
It sounds obvious but the big danger is an organisation committing to change – and then allowing its previous focus and habits to drown out any chances of success. This situation happens because real and continuous transformation is not an ‘on-going fitness’. There’s often no ‘corporate memory’ around the tangible and intangible rewards around doing things differently.
So …
There are some simple ways to signal that it’s full steam ahead and no turning back. The changes can be small or large – as long as something is actually done straight off the mark.
Early actions can include:
- Shifting the cadence of how and why people meet
- Reorganising roles and teams to focus on key strategic themes
- Be flexible about where you put people, and why
- Focus will shift as true transformation occurs
- Changing the workplace environment to facilitate collaboration
- Also allow for individual work
- Recognising people’s individual and collective efforts differently
- Engaging the organisation differently
- Stop cascading and start listening
- Provide meaningful two-way channels
- Continually communicate why the organisation is transforming
- Provide ways for people to understand what it really means to them
- Engage people outside of the traditional realms of stakeholders
- Shows the organisation that others care about their efforts
There are many other ways to demonstrate actual change … the main point is to just get on with it – and let people know it’s happening. If you don’t act quickly, people will too readily assume that the transformation is just going to be another corporate initiative doomed to fail. It will reinforce cynicism and the idea that people SHOULD NOT contribute to the change.
