5 Elements of Successful Change
Adapted from "How to Deal with Change: A workbook for managing planned change and surviving sudden change"
Many times, change is accompanied by feelings of confusion, anxiety, resistance, and frustration. If you're leading a change movement and you see any of these attributes, take the time to reverse-engineer the problem and fix it. Use the 5 Elements of Successful Change below to strengthen your cause.
1. Vision
If you aren't clear about where you're going, you lack a clear vision. When you try to follow someone who doesn't have a clear vision, you're bound to be confused. You don't want confused people on your team. Go back to your vision and make it simpler. Preferably, it's one sentence, clear, and easily repeatable.
2. Skills
By definition, change involves doing something different. It may be to stop doing something just as easily as it could be to start doing something new. Both require learning new skills or brushing up on old ones. This often causes anxiety. That's because there's a fear of lack related to the perceived skill level required. People don't like not knowing what they need to know. Worse, most don't readily acknowledge what they don't know. As a leader of the change, you must help people identify and acquire the skills they need to make the change happen.
3. Incentive
"What's in it for me?" is a common question that is either implicitly or explicitly asked by people who are being told to change. Yes, there are good spirits and altruistically motivated people, but everyone needs an incentive to take action. Sometimes, it's based on fear and hate; sometimes, it's love and devotion. A change without an incentive is going to meet resistance. Eliminate the resistance by increasing the incentive for the change.
4. Resources
In my opinion, nothing is more frustratingly stupid than the stereotypical "You need to do more with less" command some people make. Resources are often time, treasure, or talent. An effective leader gathers resources and deploys them where they make sense. Excellent leaders of change focus on talent and make the time to create confidence, foster ingenuity, and build a unifying esprit de corps that finds resources where the lazy leader never bothers to look.
5. Action Plan
Wishing is beautiful, but wishing for successful change does not bring it about. It takes a disciplined plan of action to move forward and measure ongoing progress. Teams without an action plan might run but probably in circles and with whim. Whim does not ensure lasting change.
Set a clear vision, acquire the necessary skills, offer the appropriate incentive, gather the essential resources, and act on your plan. You will be better equipped to move forward with any change.