What does resilience mean to you? A struggle? A feeling that if we can get through this stage, then we’ll be back to normal?
For many people, there is a sense that the pace of change is accelerating — new technology, new ways of working, doing more for less, tax and regulatory changes. From the people I’ve spoken to recently, businesses are holding off on investment because they are waiting for more certainty. Once the UK election, UK budget, US election, Trump tariffs and so on are out the way, then they will have the clarity they need.
In one way, this makes sense — you can’t make financial decisions if you don’t know the risks and return.
But what if there isn’t a normal to go back to? There are always elections going on. There are apparently 110 armed conflicts around the world. And don’t forget those “once in a lifetime” events (except they probably won’t be): the credit crunch, the COVID pandemic, or Brexit.
So, against this uncertain backdrop, how do you pitch change initiatives to your world-weary employees? In my experience as a change communicator, here are a few things that might help:
1) Create a continuous change brand tied to the business strategy, vision and values
Change is continuous, so we need to stop promoting change initiatives as individual projects. Instead, they need to be framed as another part of an ongoing change programme.
This could be branded as something like “Making [insert company name] better” (not very creative, but you know what I mean), with a clear explanation of the programme goals and the direction of travel for the organisation.
2) Take the time for your employees to be involved in the change initiatives
This means listening, and demonstrating what changes you have made to the initiative because you have listened. Change projects are likely to be more successful if stakeholders feel part of the change (empowered state) rather than having change done to them (victim state).
3) Have a central change project office
This helps to smooth out the peaks and troughs in project delivery across the organisation so that employees aren’t hit with a new HR system and finance changes in the same week.
4) Maintain the conversation
People can deal with good news and bad news, but they don’t like uncertainty. Some clients I have worked with have felt uncomfortable engaging with stakeholders when they don’t have all the answers but, if you don’t keep the dialogue going, the rumour mill will fill the gap.
Stakeholders don’t expect you to know everything at the start of the initiative. What you can do is reiterate the reasons for the initiative, the progress so far, and when you will provide the next update.
5) Reward and recognise your employees
I had one client who offered free shares and bonuses for progression towards the change programme’s goals.
In one difficult case, a finance team were being made redundant and were expected to train their cheaper offshore replacements and ensure a smooth transition. These employees were given retention bonuses for staying and helping to the end.
Recognition schemes for people going the extra mile also help. This isn’t just about managers giving these, but also enabling employees to recognise their colleagues when they have gone above and beyond to help them.
So that’s the organisational side of being change-ready and, in my next post, I’ll talk about how we as individuals can reframe change as an opportunity, not a threat.