Making Change Stick

This time of year is one for reflection and planning. Often by now, we’ve already forgotten our successes from the past 12 months, and when it comes to making personal goals for 2019, all of our new year resolutions (at the time of writing, January 14th) are usually thrown out of the window. We then berate the stupidity of having them, dust ourselves down and carry on. In the world of business, if we are to deliver on expectations for 2019 then we need to drive change, and so we are faced with the huge challenge of how to make change stick.

So why is it so hard?

When driving results through others, all change is about managing the most difficult, complicated and unpredictable raw material there is - human emotion. Our default reaction to change is ‘what will I lose?’ and emotionally - not rationally - we need to help our people work through the fear of loss that any change we’re looking to make is perceived to bring.So, as we look to what we want to achieve this year, my energies with clients this month have focused on how we engage, communicate and connect with our teams to make change work. These include:

1. As Simon Sinek said ’Start With Why’. Make clear the rationale for change because even if we don’t agree with the change itself, we can believe and ‘buy’ the reason for making it. 
2. Be specific about what is expected. What should our people now know, say and do as a result of this change? 
3. Identify measurables that demonstrate progress. Change doesn’t happen overnight and our team need to know that we’re making meaningful progress. 
4. Keep talking about behaviour. Change in results only come from changes in behaviour and we can never over explain what needs to be different. 
5. Make time for people. By far the most valuable use of our time is where we stop being a keyboard warrior and talk to others. Easy to say; harder to do. We must make and defend time to do it regularly. 
6. Listen and coach rather than tell and talk. 
7. Celebrate early wins. 
8. Heighten curiosity around failure. All too easily we move to fixing problems rather than getting to root cause. 
9. Stay optimistic and work out the resources that help us to remain authentically and genuinely so. 
10. Steal with pride. Driving change isn’t new and all leaders need to do it constantly. So how often are we connecting with others to learn best practices, avoid oft-repeated mistakes and steal some great ideas.