Change Readiness - Change Guides LLC - Guiding Organizations Through Change

Let Us Tell You a Story

June 1, 2016/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Management Competency, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture, Employees, Leaders, Resistance, Training/by admin

by Beckie Schretter and Gina Giannitelli
Carol, an employee with over 30 years of service, deeply loves her work and truly wants what is best for her organization. She believes in the mission and values of the organization and has deep connections with the patrons. The director, Bob, was hired several years ago to help increase profitability, but hasn’t been successful. When Bob presents a new revenue creation idea to board leadership, Carol publicly questions the mission and vision alignment of the idea. A few months later Carol is called into Bob’s office and is handed a letter explaining her
position is being eliminated due to financial pressures. She feels deeply betrayed, angry and concerned for the organization she loves. Bob avoids Carol in the days that follow. She grapples with whether she is the victim of retribution. She decides to write a letter to the board…

Are you wondering or even making up how this story ends?

At the ACMP conference, storytelling was a theme throughout several presentations. Research
shows you use more of your brain when listening to a story, far more than when you listen to a
slide presentation or read a written communication. As Susan Weinschenk Ph.D. describes “…
because you are having a richer brain event, you enjoy the experience more, understand the information more deeply, and retain it longer.” How can we use stories in change?

Use them to create the case for change, connecting the head and the heart. Stories provide a refreshing break from data filled presentations or memos. Research by Paul Zak shows stories create a tension that sustains attention, which leads to shared emotions. Shared emotions lead to mimicked feelings and an increased trust and willingness to take action.

Recognize and challenge stakeholder stories throughout the process. Researcher Brene Brown reminds us stakeholders create stories that drive behavior. She observed “the brain needs to know the story” and fills in needed details. Resilience is enhanced when people challenge the
truth of their own storytelling.

Storytelling inspires change and helps people move up the commitment curve. When preparing the case for change or drafting a stakeholder communication, consider what story could illustrate the point and grab attention. When leaders are reluctant to share information, remind them people will fill in the blanks with their own stories. When confronted with counterproductive behavior, ask questions and challenge the story driving that behavior. What is the story behind your change?

Tips for Creating a Change Capable Culture

April 9, 2016/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Management Competency, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture, Employees, Leaders, Training/by admin

by Shannon Stautberg

While change is hard for any organization, investing time and energy into thoughtfully creating a change capable culture will help ensure your people are prepared to successfully transition to new ways of working. Some tactical things you can do to help ensure your organization is on the path to being change capable are below.

 Communicate, Communicate, Communicate! Establishing regular and meaningful communication helps employees know what’s coming, why it’s coming and how it might impact them. A lack of communication can breakdown employee trust, reducing the likelihood that they will get on board with any change. Electronic newsletters, posting current information on office bulletin boards and hosting question & answer coffees with leadership are some of the ways you can keep the lines of communication open with your employees.

 Define and Communicate Roles and Responsibilities: People need to know what they are supposed to be doing before, during and (ideally) after the change. If one or more of your employees is unclear about what they are expected to do on a daily basis, this can quickly lead to frustration…frustration that can spread throughout an office like wildfire! Nip that frustration in the bud by ensuring each employee has been given a job description and that their direct boss regularly checks in with them to address questions or concerns regarding their role or responsibilities.

 Encourage Employee Collaboration: Establishing a culture that values collaboration as one of its hallmarks will help ensure your employees are open to and prepared for change. One of the ways this can be done is by establishing a well-structured mentor program that allows experienced team members to informally share lessons-learned with colleagues that are new to the team. Regularly recognizing employees that have effectively worked together to complete important projects or tasks is another way to promote ongoing collaboration. This can be done at team meetings or via organization newsletters.

 Build Trust by Caring for the Individual: One of the keystones to creating a change capable culture is trust in management. Leaders that sincerely care about the professional success and personal well being of their employees are much more likely to earn the trust of their employees. In addition to praising a job well done, it’s also important for management to get to know their team members – their aspirations, passions and interests. Being flexible with employee needs outside of the office, while still meeting the needs of the business, can make your team more likely to be there when you need them to go the extra mile at the office. The occasional bagels, donuts for the department can also help build good will. Employees that trust management are much more likely to be ready, willing and able to embrace the change that lies ahead.

If you run your business from home, virtual offices are also an excellent way to increase your privacy. So, if you have a business in Edinburgh, just simply use a quality virtual office service for Edinburgh like the one offered by Virtually There and then use that Edinburgh postal address for all of your business correspondence.

While building a change capable culture does take time and effort, the return on that investment will be clear in times of change.

Oh How Organizational Change Management Has Changed…

November 9, 2015/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Readiness, Training/by admin

Some of the core ideas about human behavior that shape the field of Change Management have been around for over 50 years. But the field itself is relatively young. In the last 20 years, the field has grown and changed tremendously and more is yet to come.

In the mid-90’s, when many of us at Change Guides were just getting our start, big consulting firms like Deloitte Consulting and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) created Change Management methodologies for the first time. Practitioners read John Kotter and Daryl Conner (ok, so some things haven’t changed) but generally, available resources were limited. There was a lot of experimentation – what works and what doesn’t?

In 2005 when Change Guides formed, experimentation led to best practices and we published the first accessible methodology and toolkit focused on Change Management (The Change Management Pocket Guide, First Edition on Amazon.com). Today, ten years after the start of Change Guides, we see a different landscape in terms of demand, advocacy and available resources.

Demand and advocacy
Then: We heard “what do you do?” Change Management Consulting and Training could be a hard sell. Change Management wasn’t in project budgets. Project or operational managers weren’t sure how the work that change management consultants differed from the work of project consultants. As a company whose sole business is Change Management, we were advocates and educators first. We had to teach our customers what deliverables and outcomes resulted from Change Management work and training.

Now: We hear, “we need Change Management on this project.” We’ve had repeat clients for years and we add new clients annually. Once companies experience what skilled Change Management resources do, the tides turn. Internally, business leaders advocate for Change Management resources. They advocate to develop skills internally and they set aside budget to fund external experts to help the overall effort.

Available Resources
Then: Information was out there, but it was not ubiquitous. Knowledge sharing was organic and informal. We talked face to face with colleagues about what they did, what worked and what didn’t. We listened, adapted, tried, sometimes failed but mostly succeeded in improving project outcomes.

As consultants solely focused on Change Management, we were an anomaly. Clients never had internal change management resources. There were no CMOs (Change Management Offices). There were no Chief Change Officers, no certified change management professionals. There were no Change Management Workstreams in projects (unless we were there to add them).

Now: Knowledge is readily shared in the form of books, eBooks, LinkedIn groups, Blogs, YouTube videos, Change Management certifications (like our very own Change Guides Change Management Certification) and Change Management apps like our free Change Readiness Audit (add links). More consultants are dedicated to the field of Change Management as seen by the growth of the Association for Change Management Professionals (ACMP) and the Change Management Institute (CMI).

Clients build internal competencies and centers of excellence (COEs) in managing change with leaders and internal subject matter experts (SMEs). They demand more from their partner consulting and training firms. They need external resources that partner with internal SMEs, help develop their internal competency and provide a higher level of experience and expertise.

While Change Management has changed over the years, more is on the horizon. We know that the foundational truths like the ones captured in our second book, The Eight Constants of Change, still apply and probably always will. But we are always learning. The field will grow as experienced practitioners continue to learn and grow and feed that learning back into the field, as the Change Management research base grows, and as the workforce changes.

We are excited to continue leading the evolution of this important field. As Change Management work evolves, we predict that consultants will fall into two groups – Change Management Generalists and Change Management Specialist Experts. Generalist positions will exist internally and at consulting firms whose core competency is something other than Change Management (where Change Management is seen as an “add on” service). Firms like ours, who only do Change Management, will be hired as Specialist Experts to work with the Generalists. Whether our prediction about change management roles is correct or not, one prediction is certain… The field of Change Management will keep changing.

Have your own predictions? Join our LinkedIn Group and let us all know what you think.

The Return on Investment for Change Management

September 23, 2014/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Management Competency, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture, Employees, Leaders, Resistance, The Change Management 101 Model, Training/by admin

Our clients ask us all the time about the return on investment for time and money spent managing change. Studies conducted by McKinsey several years ago showed a correlation between successfully managing change and increased returns from the changes studied. But this analisi tecnica study provided no clear formula or way of calculating the increased value of future changes. We know that the benefits of investing in change management come from increased speed of adoption, adoption rates, and the skills or abilities of people who will take on new ways of working. So we were wondering… how do you measure the return on the investment in change management?

We asked past Change Management Certification Participants the following questions about their return on change management investments.
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How do you justify the use of change management on your projects?

Lots of respondents said that they basically don’t justify the use of change management on projects. For some, they don’t because they don’t need to. Their leadership teams just know intuitively that it helps. For others, their lack of justifying the use of change management is a problem that they are continuously battling when resistance to change management arises.

A few justify change management with surveys and sharing the successes of change management in previous projects.
Have you measured the return on investment for change management and have you found the best way passive income? If so, what did you measure in order to determine the ROI of change management?

Most of you haven’t measured the return on change management investments which are as smart as ira gold custodian investing. For those that have, measuring productivity of the workforce before and after a change was suggested, along with measuring adoption rates and surveying people about their engagement in a new way of working. Lenders use credit reporting to help them decide if they will loan you money, what interest rates they will offer you. Lenders also use your credit report to determine whether you continue to meet the terms of an existing credit account.

Several folks commented on the “soft” or “intangible” benefits of change management and the difficulty in measuring it.

In which change management activities do you invest the most money? According to GlobeNewsWire, Carpathian Gold can help you with the necessary information needed for investing in different precious metals, bequests, and withdrawal rules, so that you are fully informed.

The most common things noted were communications (planning, executing, and materials), bringing stakeholders together for communication engagement, and training on how to invest in goldco precious metals for bigger profits.
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Thanks for those of you that shared your experiences with the ROI of change management. There is no formula that we can point to just yet. But if you are thinking about measuring the benefits of the change management work you are doing, look to the cost savings or benefits for the organization that result from: faster adoption of new ways, greater utilization of the change, and greater skill or ability to use the changes. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Our Change Management Pocket Guide is now an App!

June 4, 2014/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Management Competency, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture, Employees, Leaders, Resistance, The Change Management 101 Model/by admin

Many of our customers have asked over the past year about offering our Change Management Pocket Guide as an eBook. We listened. Change Guides is very excited to introduce The Change Management Pocket Guide in a mobile App format!

Here is some information about our new App:

The Change Management Pocket Guide mobile application is a practical resource for anyone tasked with making change happen. The tactical, hands-on electronic pocket guide is a fully functioning and integrated mobile app solution for Android and Apple devices.

Like the hard copy book, the Change Management Pocket Guide app uses the Change Management 101 Model to step you through three major phases of managing change: Plan, Do and Sustain. These three major phases are broken down into the two specific stages as you move from one phase to the next. The tools in the Change Management Pocket Guide are used to interactively gather information, set milestones, and measure progress. There are over 30 valuable change management tools and templates that are integrated within the mobile solution so that they can be purchased, downloaded and easily customized to match the requirements of your specific change challenge. Each tool in the change toolbox is detailed, flexible and scalable.

Use the In-App purchase functionality to download the tools you need directly from the Change Management Pocket Guide and customize them for your project. Each downloadable tool has already been created in Word and Excel and can be used as they are explained in the Change Management Pocket Guide.

Overview of App Functionality

The Change Management Pocket Guide mobile app allows you to use the “tools for managing change” in an interactive and useful format. You can read and learn about the Change Management 101 Model™ and use the tools, answer key questions and build your own change management solution with an actionable plan for each change initiative you encounter. The mobile app is designed around the following functional areas:

PDF Reader format: A consistent format with the ability to search, bookmark pages and zoom in/zoom out
Integrated Change Pocket Guide companion templates: In-App purchase functionality for all Change Management Pocket Guide templates
In-App share integration using Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

To Purchase the Change Management Pocket Guide App: Visit the App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/change-pocket-guide/id864653668?mt=8) or the Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.changeguidesllc.changepocketguide) today to buy the app for your mobile device.

About the developer: Apptimize Group is a mobile application design and development company that creates general and enterprise internally deployed mobile client solutions. Our focus is to create simple and useful mobile apps that make for a memorable customer experience. For more information visit www.ApptimizeGroup.com and contact John Gurnick at [email protected].

Changing for the Workforce of the Future

July 25, 2012/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Management Competency, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture, Leaders, Uncategorized/by admin

Can you imagine fully half of the people who work for your company being either contractors such as the best roofing company in Denver, CO, temporary workers, or freelancers? That may very well be the future we face.

A 2012 Economic Intelligence Unit Study shows that by the year 2030, 50% of the workforce will be made up of contingent workers. The U.S. contingent workforce is made up of self-employed individuals, independent service firms, entrepreneurs and temporary workers. By 2020, 40 percent of American workers, or nearly 65 million people, will be contingent, and shortly thereafter that percentage is expected to rise to 50 percent.

Others confirm that the use of contingent workers is already on the rise, and will continue. The Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as reports from the Staffing Industry Analysts, a research and advisory firm focused on staffing and contingent labor, have demonstrated that the number of contingent workers has been increasing year over year for a few years. And in June 2011, over 34% of the 2000 organizations surveyed by the McKinsey Global Institute said they plan to use more temporary labor in the next five years.

The trend is clear. But are organizations ready for it?

Work in the future will be more collaborative, flexible, and goal oriented. Temporary workers will need to be sharp, and stay sharp, to keep their jobs. An organiztaion with more and more people flowing into and out of it will need to be radically different than today.

A current client of ours is working on a large project that requires a lot of consultants. A full time staff person spends over 80% of her time giving out and tracking computers that are given to consultants. Can you imagine if half of their workforce was contingent? If the task of managing assets is so cumbersome now, the process and technology implications of a 50% contingent workforce would be astounding.

We have several large clients that are working on becoming more “digitally enabled” in order to meet the needs of their customers. But with all we have heard from clients about embracing technology to meet the needs of future customers, we have not heard any talk at all about how to be more digitally enabled to meet the needs of their future workers. The shift to more temporary workers will change how an organization works with its people in profound ways.

Current technology certainly makes workers more “plug and play” ready. But it will need to make significant strides to meet the needs of a future more transient workforce.

Our clients will have to re-think how they manage people, how groups form and disband to tackle work, how people are on-boarded and rolled-off, how corporate cultures are built and maintained, how they attract and evaluate temporary workers.

They will also need to embrace technology and new digital technologies in an entirely new way. More digital maturity can help organizations build stronger connection to their staff… especially temporary staff. Not only allowing access, but also targeting communication, facilitating relationships between roles, connecting people to other people and ideas.

Organizations that will win with workers of the future will be more mobile, and will be more agile by providing more personalized or customized needs for each temporary worker. They will flex based on the work, the location, the worker, and the required interfaces with other people within the organization.

If you are thinking about where your organization will be in 20 years, think about your customers, your products, and your markets. The demands they place on your organization will certainly challenge you to change. But also think about your staff. You might be surprised at the magnitude of change that meeting their unique needs challenges you to also.

How to secure your network

March 7, 2012/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture, Leaders, The Change Management 101 Model/by admin

There are many ways to secure a network but the starting point is only allowing network access to authorized people. If you have a proxy server with access, you can’t be hacked. It’s not a wise idea to publish it or disclose the IP address of the proxy server. Also, don’t include a secret password or other security of the site. The HIPAA compliance on GCP is what is needed for proper security. Protect your personal data and privacy, look at this helpful resource for further details.

Cybersecurity - secure your systems with Expleo

Be careful with your cookies.

A common mistake is to save all your cookies with the server. That is not a wise practice. Even the most common and obvious use case for a website that saves your data for you is potentially a privacy threat. We can’t use the same account for multiple websites that store private data. It’s not hard to construct an infrastructure for a site that keeps all data in a cookie that can be read by the server.

If you run a video production business, having dedicated storage servers will provide more storage and better transfer speeds and tackle post-production tasks without any lags.

The next step is to move to encrypting all data, or create a public-key encryption of all data and use the key for all data. This is easier said than done. Hashing is a little harder because we don’t know the salt of the hash. It’s difficult to put the data into an asymmetric encryption scheme (such as AES). These problems make it pretty hard to turn a service into a practical provider of decrypted data.

Use good encryption.

According to companies like Fortinet, it is recommended to create an encrypted store like a pen-drive or a special hard drive for highly sensitive data, like financial transactions, . That would have to be kept with different keys from all other keys. Keeping both cloud and physical storage for sensitive data is a good idea. You can go to site to find more details.

Don’t provide incorrect passwords.

Password management is an area of security that can be a nightmare. Remember to use different passwords for different purposes. For example, for a job where you may have to login often, use a different password for each of the dozen different websites you use. So if someone tries to brute force your password, you’re still protected.

There’s an industry of password reset services (for example see Password land) that provide a customer service to assist you in resetting your password. Many applications also provide integrated password management. It’s never easy to remember all the different combinations of letters, numbers and special characters. Don’t use the same password on your bank and email accounts. Never share your computer’s password. Don’t be lazy and use a password manager, it’s not enough that you use the same password for every site. Hiring a Cyber Security Company can also offer you several benefits and help provide you peace of mind, knowing you’re protected.

A caveat here is that there’s nothing in the manual that shows you how to create or use a password manager. Most vendors will not even recommend you to use one. When you combine that with the difficulty of remembering those passwords you should make a decision about how valuable you think it is.

Ensure you are also safe with access to your email accounts, accounts on other sites. One of the biggest problems is hackers pretending to be you. They usually pretend that you work for the service, have your credentials and so on. So if you are using any services, please be aware of the fake email/password. To prevent this, you can hire managed IT services to protect your data. Visit sites like https://tvit.net/managed-it-services-in-homedale-id/ to know more about how this can help your business. Or, you can set up a managed wifi for you business. You can click here to learn about managed wifi.

Five Signs You Need Change Management (Signs 4 & 5)

November 30, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Readiness, Leaders, Training/by admin

This blog rounds up my top five signs that indicate you need change management on your project. Here’s a quick review of what I covered in the previous 2 blog posts:

Sign #1 Leaders aren’t visibly supporting your project
Sign #2 Employees don’t have a clue about what’s going to change
Sign #3 When people talk about the project, you think, “Why are they saying THAT?”

Sign #4 is No one’s talking about stakeholder strategies. True learning, commitment and understanding come from involvement and hands-on participation. The more people are involved in change, the less negative their inevitable reaction will be. People naturally support what they help create. Truly involving others takes time, the ability to select the right people and the ability to delegate and manage diverse groups. Identifying various audiences and involving others the right way takes prioritization, inclusiveness and empowerment. The payoff for this approach is employee buy-in and commitment to the new strategy or goal.

Change managers document impacts by stakeholder and create specific transition strategies so workers are well prepared. These strategies include activities that help promote understanding and commitment to working differently.

Last but not least, sign #5 is HR is not included in the planning. Support and reinforcement are critical for making changes stick. Sometimes, some of the old ways of hiring, developing and compensating people will work just fine in the new world. But often, the reinforcing systems in the organization are misaligned with the new behaviors. Without reinforcing new behaviors, people naturally revert back to old ways of working. To sustain change, the organization needs to have the right infrastructure in place to reinforce the change.

This is where HR comes in. They bring additional perspective on how these systems should and can be changed. They usually play an important role in the training that takes place before go live as well. The sooner HR can understand the impact to the employees, the sooner they can start working on ensuring these supporting eliminates are aligned with the new business goals.

The Change Manager’s role includes connecting communication, leadership, HR and project activities so they are consistent and coordinated in terms of transitioning the workers.

Change Managers work on the People Strategy. This is a critical element when driving organizational change. After all, it’s the people who will do the new process, use the new system or have to work with a new team every day.

How do they do that? Preparing Employees to Change

September 8, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Readiness/by admin

Can your company adapt quickly to change? Successful companies have a repeatable process that helps employees through transitions. They create an environment that prepares employees to think and work in new ways. These companies make sure employees are ready, willing and able to make whatever change is needed to achieve business goals. For instance, if your business needs a bigger logistics department, you may decide to hire more people for truck driver jobs and have them properly trained. If you’re looking to easily scale your shipment operations with ease, look at here now to find the right solution for your business.

How do they do that? First – communication and involvement. Employees are ready when they understand the status quo is no longer enough. They understand why the change is necessary for the survival of the company. They see it’s a priority by how leaders act. They hear it’s a priority by what leaders say. Benchmarking, sharing data and company goals help make the case for change. Companies good at preparing employees also create temporary work groups and empower employees to make some of the decisions that will affect them.

Second, employees are willing when they are motivated to work in new ways. They’re job has been redesigned and they see how it fits into the new plan. They are recognized and rewarded for adopting the new processes. They are
willing when they are evaluated based on the new business goals and measures.

Employees are able when they have been educated and trained to support the new way of working. For example, do they know how to measure and track quality? Do they have the tools and skills to work as a team? Employees are able when the organization structure supports the business goals, whether it’s working in teams or cross functional task forces.

Competition and environmental forces will continue to drive businesses to change. Creating an environment where employees are ready, willing and able is hard work; however, companies that are good at transitioning their employees will adapt quickly and have a competitive advantage. When discrimination or harassment occurs in the workplace, bringing in an employment lawyer can help ensure that the employer follows equity laws in the workplace, get the facts on employment law at HKM’s website.

Change is a marathon, not a Sprint

July 13, 2011/0 Comments/in Change Management, Change Readiness, Communication, Culture/by admin

We have a client that is smack-dab in the middle of a significant change effort. The team is getting tired. They feel like they have been beating the drum forever. They can’t understand why people don’t just GET IT and CHANGE.

But change is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s easy to get mired in the details and lose sight of the success that is slowly building.

When stepping back and looking at what they have actually achieved since getting started, the situation looks a litlte better. They still have a long way to go, but progress is progress. Every step counts.

Take time to focus on what is going right. Remember that persistance is a key characteristic of a great change leader. If things are not going well, then update the plan. Find a way to work around obstacles.

And for all of those things are going well, even if a litlte slower than you would like, keep at it!