1. Understand Current State

This is about defining and clarifying the issues you are facing in your organisation. Is there a trend of decreased revenue, high expenditure, or perhaps a new competitor in your market? Commonly, you may hear comments from your leadership team, it could manifest as complaints or frustrations. These are early signs that something needs to change.

2. Talk to your customers

I use the term “customers” loosely here, it could be your stakeholders, employees, clients, general community or business partners. It is in your best interests to spend the time to talk to those that will benefit or lose from your organisation changing. This is often the most neglected component in change planning as it takes time and energy, both of which is costly in business. However, when done well, it will improve not only your likelihood of implementing a successful change but having it stick. If you don’t have the option or luxury of time, then it is possible to go ahead, just be conscious of your blind spots.

3. Set vision for Future State

You will note that number 2 precedes number 3 on this post. For good reason, talking to your customers creates a better informed Future State. The Future State is a fancy term for where do you want to get to. Having tangible outcomes here is best, such as increase revenue, or improve customer service scores. Taking the time to measure how things are currently, will help you know you are on track for the Future (and keep you in check). Future State can be a vision, a Utopian workplace with a Zappo’s-esque[1] culture, or hitting sales targets, but unless you know where you are going the Future State will not be achieved.

4. Accept incremental change

In the World of instant everything and wanting to get from A to Z at 100 clicks, I acknowledge that everyone will be responsive to change in different ways. That’s why I approach it with identifying what are the incremental changes I want to see? Where are those little signposts that say “keep going”, a great example are the comments you receive from colleagues or clients that show a shift in thinking.

5. Be flexible in your approach

Following on from incremental change, being flexible allows for when new information comes along and you need to “pivot, adapt, or evolve” or whatever buzz word gets the Board’s attention. In essence, don’t be a pain in the arse and stick with a plan if the plan isn’t working. It’s not about falling on your sword but saying, hey, I thought it would work, but it’s not, here is what we are going to try next, then go back to step 1 above and try again.

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[1] DD Warrick, “What leaders need to know about organization culture”, Graduate School of Business, University of Colorado 2017