Preparing a team for change

Given this is being written in December 2023, I thought it’d be useful to get some help from Santa Claus and New Year Resolutions. Firstly, Santa Claus will provide some context and then New Year Resolutions will be brought into play.

For all of us, it’s very likely that as children we experienced the excitement of preparing a wish list to send to some super being who, if we’ve been good, will magically make all our wishes come true.

Let’s assume that as change professionals we’ve been very good in our previous change transformations; so how come this current change transition is proving just a little bit (maybe a big bit) more difficult than we’d hoped?

Maybe why this change is proving a bigger challenge than hoped is due to us as change managers, having trusted consciously or unconsciously on “our Christmas List to Santa” i.e. hoping rather than having a robust change transition plan fully supported by the change sponsors.

Another item on a Change List for Santa is a robust (second use of robust) reality-based Business Case rather than some “wished for” future state. Often there is more hope placed in Santa than the business experience of the Board, Key Sponsors and Stakeholders in the creation of the Change Programme Business Case including reality based OKRs (Objectives, Key Results).  Closely linked to the change business case should be appropriate delivery measurements tailored to the actual delivery of the individual elements of the change plan rather than “hoped for results”.

Some shops around where I lived as a boy, had signs just over the cash register saying “please do not ask for credit as refusal can offend”. This was clearly intended to deter those who wanted to promise payment and take the goods away on the same day. This introduces the shopkeeper and the customer into a real-world trust exercise.

How often do Boards, Key Stakeholders, Steering Committees trust in Santa rather than introducing professional consequences when measuring plan, actual and promise?

How often in your change delivery experience do you hear the word “team” applied to those involved with the change transition? Take the “change team” for example. How much time and effort goes into the creation of the “change team” other than creating that naming convention?

How, as the change managers, do you measure the efficacy and effectiveness of change team delivery? If you were to ask those in your change activities to define the efficacy and effectiveness of their personal interactions with team colleagues what is your confidence score on a 0, 1,2,3,4,5 rating where 0 is none-at-all, 3 is some and 5 is high-performance team working based on effective team working delivering planned/expected results to the quality required? Or are you trusting in Santa to deliver a high-performing team effort?

I’m sure you get the idea. Now we move to New Year Resolutions!

Given the reason we use teams in change transition is what is wanted to be achieved is complicated and cannot be delivered by one or two people. Why not spend some time front-end loading the change team by working through what the benefits of team working will bring to the change transition, team members professional development and the good health of the organisation?

Main reasons for not completing Resolution 1 are likely to be the perception change transition is already late to the plan and the fallacy that the organisation already works as an effective team.

Spend more time actively creating team working standards that everyone adheres to with consequences should this not be achieved on a consistent basis.

Empower ourselves as change management professionals with the mindset and behaviours to present a professionally documented challenge when the plan “bumps” into organisational reality. An example of this related to the business case, is where promises possibly commitments, to supplying appropriate resources are not met while the deliverable associated with these resources remains as stated in a paper commitment contained in the business case. Should this have resonance for you, we are definitely leaving professional change management and heading back to Santa Claus’s land.

The importance of how change transition delivery is measured is extremely important. Most organisations habitually fit the planned change into the current organisation reporting frameworks. Why so? Likely there is some legacy thinking and comfort with the reporting processes at play.

However, for Resolution 3, as with Resolutions 1 and 2 above, the organisation is transitioning, transforming to a defined future state to better serve its stated purpose. Surely this requires appropriate, fit for purpose reporting and measuring as agreed by all the key players? This, plus professional understanding, as to the reasons for the plusses and minuses of the plan and the associated corrective action is key for success. Let’s avoid promises to be really, really good next time if we are excused this time!