Peter Senge quoted: “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed!”
As a consultant, don’t you think this is true? You may have faced several such scenarios in your assignments where people in the client organization struggle to resist changes for obvious reasons. The apologies dished out range from: we’re doing it right, so why change, why now, etc.?
To begin with, it is essential to understand the mindset of those who will be part of the change process in the client organization. Second, a consultant needs to show empathy to understand the factors surrounding the change process. Ensuring that the “affected parties” understand the need for the change not only helps them to accept the change but also to support and drive it within their teams.
To help your customers manage such change, follow the following step-by-step approach:
1. Help people overcome resistance to change:
When change is inevitable, most organizations follow a specific pattern. Change usually begins with changing existing activities, beliefs, behaviors, and practices, replacing the old with the new. While this sounds easy, managing such a transition can be tricky business. Expert consultants enable organizations to first recognize the need for change and then plan to manage the emotional needs around the impending change. Consultants must acknowledge and respect the fact that change creates chaos and confusion in the minds of stakeholders, subjects them to immense stress, and generates defensive behavior stemming from fear (of the unknown).
People resist or are slow to change, unable to understand how their (work) environment will change, for better or worse. Does a change in the organization bring you more work or no work at all? This is the persistent question on the minds of people who are part of a change process. People want to know and understand the reason for the change and the magnitude of the change (how big or how small). Making this reasoning clear and easy to understand ensures that the transformation from resistance to acceptance is seamless.
2. Give meaning to the change:
Consultants must understand that in difficult times, emotions are more pronounced than pure logic or reasoning. It is important to build rapport and trust with each stakeholder in order to win their support to drive the change as planned. The critical aspect here is understanding how the suggested change causes a change in your environment, scope of work, control, and other aspects. A simulation of the modified scenario and how these processes or systems work helps to understand the consequences and manage failures effectively.
Selling the need for change to stakeholders with its obvious advantages in the future state, and having them visualize the disadvantages of resisting the change, helps ensure buy-in for the change. When stakeholders see the need for change and can relate to it in a positive way, they will stand up to support the cause and drive the change more willingly.
A consultant can use a three-pronged approach in the change management process:
A. Inform and educate stakeholders (and their influencers) along with target groups about changes to systems and processes.
b. Design a strategy and action plan on how to implement these changes.
vs Enable stakeholders and other change carriers to drive planned changes
You may want to consider Prosci’s three-phase process and the ADKAR model, which describes managing change using a planned approach.
3. Choose change agents:
To ensure that change management is a seamless affair, it is highly beneficial for a consultant to identify an existing group or employee (known as change agents) from the client organization who will own the change management activities. Through detailed observations, discussions, references, and analysis, consultants should select these “influencers” and seek their agreement to take ownership of the activities and processes involved in driving the impending change.
It is essential to identify these change agents and work on building a relationship to establish trust and credibility in yourself and the suggested solution. These change agents provide valuable insight into critical issues, such as where people are in today’s business landscape and how these suggested changes result in variances in their environment, scope of work, control, and more. With these inputs and the trust developed, the consultant can leverage the relationship with such change agents and draw on their support to “sell” the envisioned solution to key stakeholders or decision makers.
4. Decide when to change:
It is extremely vital for a consultant to perform a thorough analysis of the issues at hand and consider whether they can be fully resolved. Ask yourself, “when is the right time to make these changes?” For example, changing the marketing message in the middle of a promotion can send mixed and confusing messages to customers or end consumers. Furthermore, it could further aggravate problems resulting in lower product sales or loss of market share.
Estimating the time it would take to make the proposed changes is another important element to consider as a consultant. It is often perceived that the longer a change process is, the more likely it is to collapse. This perception stems from certain beliefs that change agents can lose interest in the long term, opportune moments can close and goals can be forgotten. However, studies show that long-term change processes that are reviewed frequently are much more likely to be successful than short-term changes.
These four steps are crucial in defining how all affected parties perceive the change. It is important for a consultant to always keep the client’s best interest in mind and recommend solutions. Ultimately, it is the customer who owns the solution and the impending change. The customer decides whether to implement the solution and drive the change. The success of any consulting engagement is helping the client agree to seamlessly integrate the “new” into their organization’s culture.
