How To Manage Change

Is there change happening in your organisation, are you responsible for contributing to it?

Not sure?

Check out some of the eBook below.

How to Manage Change Introduction

Welcome to this eBook on change, thank you for taking the time to continue your personal development.

I am excited to share with you the tools and strategies that I know will help you get what you want out of the change you are implementing.

It is your job to consider each section, apply it when implementing a change, and come up with your own conclusion on what I am suggesting.

Each section you apply will help to improve the outcomes you are aiming to get, by implementing change in your workplace. All I ask is that you go ‘full out’ with each suggestion, and if you need a hand, let me know and we can arrange a quick support session.

Remember. Ask questions, and most of all, have fun. You can also connect in with me via the comments section of my website, www. robertway.com.au.

---

4Matt of Change

If you are responsible for implementing change at work, regardless of scale, there are four key things you need to be able to answer for the people affected by change.

Why is the change happening

What is the change

How will the change be implemented

What are the potential rub points (what if)

Why

There are people in this world that like to know the why! They ask questions like”why do we need to change”, or say things like “yeah, but why”. The why person needs the why up front, if you don’t mention why the change is happening and you go right into how you want them to change, it is entirely probable that they will not even hear you, until they know why.

What

The what person is looking for the evidence, the details, the background and any other information that describes what is changing and how that decision has been made. Though they may not overly focus on the why, they will not listen to how the change will happen, if they believe you have not sufficiently described what is changing and the background behind it.

How

The how person is the one waiting to be told how to implement the change. What do they need to do, what action do they need to take. They mostly don’t care about the why and the what, they are waiting for the how.

What if

The what if person is thinking about all the things that could go wrong, they are thinking about the other ways you could implement the change, they are thinking about how it could be done better. The what if person wants an opportunity to talk about all of those things and will be able to point out where there could be issues. The what if person may show some interest in the why, what and how, but to keep them on board you will need to give them a chance to be heard.

What does all of this mean? When thinking about implementing a change you will want to be able to answer the why, what, how and what if. Then, when it’s time to as people to change you have the perfect template to communicate with.

You might say something like the following if you were responsible for changing how staff are rostered:

“There are changes happening to the roster.

The reason why this change is happening is to provide an opportunity for new team members to work at busy times for the store.

What has has happened in the past is new members have been rostered on in the quiet periods, providing time for training, but not exposing them to enough customers. As a result, the area manager and my self decided to change the roster to have one experiences member on, on Saturdays, with two new team members.

How this will work for the next few months is, I will need all experienced members to give up two Saturday’s per month. These shifts will go to the new team members.

What’s the rub? For the next few months some team members will miss out on Saturday shifts. To try and bridge the loss in pay, we would like to offer an extra hour of work for each team member that has given up a Saturday shift. Though this won’t cover the losses time, we hope the shortening in training times will have an overall improvement to the team. Once training is complete, we plan to return back to the standard rostering process.

Are there any questions or issues people would like to raise?”

Though this example is highly specific to a retail scenario, the theme of what, what, how and what if should be clear.

Towards and Away From

So if you know the 4matt of the change you are implementing, the next thing you want to be able to answer is what you are moving towards and what you are moving away from.

This comes right out of NLP ‘Meta Programs‘. Among other things, people will either be ‘towards’ focused or ‘away from’ focused. What this means is, some people are more motivated by what they are getting away from and others are more motivate by what they are moving towards.

An example of each might be:

Towards

When I go to the gym, I am thinking about how good it will be when I am stronger, fitter, leaner and really, really healthy.

A person that is thinking like this is focused on the destination, what they are aiming for, where they are headed, they are focused on what they are moving ‘towards’.

Away From

I go to the gym because I don’t want to be weak and unhealthy anymore, I keep going so wont be fat when I am older.

A person that is thinking like this is focused on where they are coming from, what they are trying to get ‘away from’. They are interested in getting away from something.

Depending who you talk to, each is the right way of thinking about it. For you, as a person responsible for implementing change, you want to be clear on both. This will mean you can clearly communicate what you are moving away from and towards, when describing change.

For example:

The reason for X change, is so that we can get away from people hurting them selves in the storage room, and move towards a healthier and safer work place.

So in short, you want to know what you are getting away from and moving towards, as a result of the change you are implementing.

A Possible Mindset

“Ultimately I don’t care how we get there, I support the outcome”

If your team knows the outcome of a change and they all agree they want to get there, how hard the change is or how it is executed can be pushed past if people can get their minds to ‘I support the outcome’.

So the question you need to answer is, what is the big picture? What is the outcome?

The short version of my work on Goal Setting and Outcomes is:

State in the positive exactly what you want

Ensure it is focused towards what you want

If you can answer these two things, and your team wants what you state, then the mindset of “Ultimately I don’t care how we get there, I support the outcome” just might be in reach for you and your team.

---

Made it this far? Fill in the form and I will send you the full eBook ASAP.