Photo by Brigitte Pellerin from Pexels.
Dear Change Leader
Welcome back. Hopefully, you have spent some time sitting with the question we asked in Part 1 – What is in it for me to lead and land this change well or get it right this time?
Ok, where to next?
Use your drivers to pinpoint what will help and what will not.
It is really tempting to use the sense of energy you may have at this point to hare off into action. Focused activity is much more effective – think zen-master here. So, 2 more questions:
How am I doing as a change leader – what can I keep doing, stop doing or start doing?
You can use an established assessment to help, for example ‘Prosci’s Sponsor Competencies assessment’ – I find it helpful to look at the 3 areas of focus and the types of activities to that can help with the project team, the coalition and employees. For example, you might be doing well at attending meetings and updates but could communicate the reasons for the change more clearly with employees.
If you have Prosci-certified practitioners in your organisation, ask them about it and you might find this Prosci blog helpful.
If you are working with Human Synergistic’s LSI 1 and LSI 2 to look at constructive behaviours, there is a powerful connection between being an effective change leader and working to blue. Ask yourself: How can you involve more people in designing the change? How can your effort be more effective in mobilising resources?
Do I have what I need and if not, how do I get it?
Once you are clear on what you want to keep doing, start and stop doing, it’s stock-take time. Do you have the time, resources, headspace, permission, expertise, skills, knowledge to do this? If not, how will you get them?
Examples of things that may come up here are:
- I need more information about why we have chosen this vendor or productI need to check with the Project Lead about where things are really up to
- I’d like to practice how to explain why we need to do this change now when I know my team will probably not react well at first
- I need time to talk with my peers about what they are doing or saying so we have a consistent message
- I need to clear my diary later this week to have an ‘open mic’ session with the team
If you have a Change Manager on the change, consider sharing your plan with them and how they can best help.
Summary
Taking time to learn about what is driving you to lead the change well puts you in the best position to achieve the outcomes that are important to you, your organisation, your team and customers. Being honest with yourself about your drivers and what you need to deliver to them builds resilience and clear actions.
How can we help?
- Coaching – bringing in an ‘outside’ coach can help and that’s where we come in. We are ‘neutral territory’ and our focus as a coach to you is helping you achieve the outcomes you need of the change.
- Plan to Land Change Workshop – we work with the change leader and their steering committee or project team to build the change strategy for the change and the action plan.
- Leading Change Program – using Human Synergistics LSI1 & 2, we explore the current and future change leadership behaviours for individual leaders and their real-life application.
- Leader’s Roadmap Pack – leading change in a crisis – we work with the leadership team to build a short-term, quick action plan.
