How can organizational change align with your strategic goals and vision?

Organizational change should be driven by strategic goals and vision, not necessarily the other way around. External change, such as an economic recession, global market changes or inflation can influence your strategic goals and vision.

Most organizational change efforts fail because they're not caring for the HUMAN element of change. According to Gartner HR, our capacity to handle change is half of what it was in 2019. So we have to lean on practices that help change feel less threatening. One of the key practices to keep coming back to is aligning and anchoring all change with how it helps amplify and further the organization's purpose and how it aligns with core values. Strategic goals can ebb and flow but should always be in service of and aligned with a clear purpose and operationalized values.

> Ensure that organizational change initiatives directly support and contribute to the achievement of strategic goals and vision. > Involve employees in the change process to foster understanding, buy-in, and active participation in achieving desired outcomes. > Regularly assess the effectiveness of change initiatives and make necessary adjustments to ensure ongoing alignment with strategic objectives.

Again, I believe the Vision precedes the change. Strategic goals should be aligned with the Vision - where the organization wants to go. Strategic goals should drive the organization's business plan which result in organizational change.

The purpose and values (and vision) need to be the unwavering North Star for any change - period. Then, we have to be clear on what type of change we're dealing with - adaptive or technical. *Technical challenges and change have a known, straightforward solution and path. We can use our existing thinking, knowledge and skills to navigate through them. *Adaptive challenges and change are messy and elicit discomfort because we have to let go of what is familiar and known and shift our mindset. The biggest failure in leadership is treating adaptive challenges and change like technical problems. Many organizational change efforts are largely adaptive, but we fail to care for what that entails and wonder why people struggle.

Implementation and execution are crucial when introducing new changes. To align these changes with overarching goals, businesses must employ impactful and creative methods to emphasise their importance. One engaging approach is to allow employees to experience the benefits firsthand through processes like gamification, which helps maintain enthusiasm and engagement. Additionally, innovative strategies such as mentoring and peer coaching circles are beneficial. These, combined with personal growth plans and sessions & workshops, ensure that everyone not only accepts the changes but also becomes excited about them.

I agree change management is crucial to ensuring change is successful. Change champions will help to get buy-in for the change. A good change management plan will first start with getting buy-in prior to actually implementing change. Step one is creating the awareness about the reason and need for change. The second step is to create a desire for change in this group. The next step is to provide the knowledge on how to change, what the change will look like (usually with input from the impacted group), followed by providing the tools and training that enables the organization to make the change. Many organizations skip the first two steps and jump to showing employees what the change will look like - then wonder employees resist the change.

Margaret Wheatley has a great saying that "people only support what they've helped to create." If we don't find a way to include people in the change process, they will show up as saboteurs. We leverage the network of Culture Ambassadors with our clients to support any major change; this provides a two-way flow of communication and gives voice to all employees and perspectives many times neglected by those designing the change.

Organizational change is not an event, it's an ongoing, agile process and practice. It's important to ensure everyone understands any changes taking place and how they ladder up to the business strategy, how it will impact them, and their role in contributing to it.