Orgs that are change-ready vs orgs that aren’t
|
Hey Reader, Most of the time, when I ask leaders if their organizations are change-ready, they’re honestly not sure. So at our last office hours, we dug into change readiness: what it is, how to tell if your organization is change-ready, and what leaders can do to start building a change-ready culture today. As far as what it is, the easiest way to define it is right there in the name: are employees and the organization ready for change? But wait…the employees or the org? Change in general or a specific change? Ah ha. That’s where things start to get tricky. A helpful way to understand readiness is to break it down into four buckets like this: Organizations that are ready in all four of these buckets — especially general motivation and capacity (the top row) — will be able to implement and sustain more successful change. However, organizations typically only address readiness when there is an actual change about to happen (the squares on the bottom row). They consider motivation or capacity that is change-specific without considering general individual motivation and organizational capacity for change. But trying to build readiness while implementing a specific change is a lot harder than sustainably building motivation and readiness as part of your everyday culture. That’s one reason I was excited to kick off the Q&A at our most recent office hours with a great question: What’s the difference between teams that are change-ready…and those that aren’t? Change-ready teams need motivated individuals and strong organizational capacity, but the ways to move teams from not-change-ready to ready differs between teams and organizations. This is why it’s hard to make a blanket statement about exactly what differentiates teams that are change-ready from those that aren’t (and why organization-specific strategies to build readiness are more effective than generic advice). One company may have enthusiastic employees who are motivated by the org’s mission and values, yet the organization may lack clear and effective processes and procedures that enable successful change. At another organization, employees may have available resources to drive change, but they may not feel valued and heard by their managers, which can stop a change before it starts. There is only one thing that clearly separates change-ready teams from not-change-ready teams every single time: leadership. Ineffective leaders who can’t be trusted, who place the burden of change readiness solely on individuals without acknowledging their organization’s gaps, or who simply don’t care about their people will never have change-ready companies. They can try to push through all the change they want, but it will lead to fatigue, burnout, turnover, and a huge waste of resources. Leaders who are effective, compassionate, and actually lead might not have change-ready orgs right now, but the key difference is that they will provide strong sponsorship of change readiness when they do realize that their employees or their organizational capacity isn’t as change-ready as it should be. And if you are that good leader who suddenly takes a step back and realizes that things can definitely be improved when it comes to change readiness? That’s okay! Because when you know what your goals are and you define your key problem areas, you can then design a strategy that builds a change-ready organization. And your people will thank you for it! If you don’t know where you stand as far as change readiness, but you suspect that there’s space for improvement, get in touch. We can put our heads together, chat about your team and organization, and figure out your next best step. Talk soon, P.S. — Our next Organizational Change Office Hours are on Thursday, March 21st. You can register for free here. And if you have a question you need answered, simply reply here after you register and I'll be sure to prioritize it during the Q&A. Check out these communitiesI'm lucky to be a member of some great communities, both formally or informally organized and paid or unpaid. I'm also very discerning about how I spend my time and energy, and only participate in communities in which I feel I can both add value and get great information and support myself. So I get a lot of questions about community recommendations! Here are two led by members of my network who I can definitely vouch for:
Love today's newsletter? Forward it to a friend or share this link to it on your socials. We appreciate you! |