Change Can Be Hard
As a consultant I have come to the realization over the years that not every company who says that they want change, really does.
The reasoning varies and here’s just a few of the reasons I have observed.
5 reasons I believe that organizations don’t change:
- Leaders are not willing to be honest with themselves.
- Some people are just not willing to do what it takes to commit and see the change all the way through.
- People don’t like to be uncomfortable.
- People fear the unknown (change).
- Some folks prefer the status quo … even though it’s not working!
Change can be hard for many reasons here are a few:
- It requires leaders and their employees to let go of old beliefs and find new ways of thinking and doing.
- It requires the willingness to sacrifice short term comfort in order to get a payoff that is not always immediate.
- It requires the leaders of a company to really examine the fears that have prevented them from moving forward and to take 100% responsibility for the results they are creating in their organization.
- It takes time, sometimes more time than people are willing to invest.
Here are 10 ideas that need to be embraced if you want an organizational transformation to be successful:
- ALL of the leaders (especially at the top) must be bought in to the change or your process will be slowed dramatically and more than likely fail.
- Have a clearly defined vision, mission, and values (beliefs) of the change you wish to see.
- Communicate that change throughout the organization down to the very last employee consistently and in a variety of venues.
- Involve key leaders and positions in various levels of the organization to increase the buy in and begin weaving the change into the culture of the organization.
- Remove the obstacles and barriers that prevent change from flowing up through the organization. Communication needs to flow bidirectionally between the different levels of the company.
- Realize that not every person is the right person in the right position and that not everyone of your employees has unlimited potential (including some of the leaders).
- Be willing to go “all in” in order to get where you want to go, there really are no short cuts.
- Let go of the people who are not willing to change.
- Define measurable attainable milestones to make sure you’re on track and moving forward.
- Remind yourself of the “why” (the reason ) you are changing. This will help especially when you bump up against obstacles … and there are always obstacles!
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