How do you tailor your change approach?

Tailoring requires a deep understanding of the organizational culture, vision, goals, and the change objectives, roles, and context. You must choose the right change model and methods that suit your change objectives and context and engage your audience by effectively communicating and collaborating with them. For example, I reach out to stakeholders to test and validate my change strategy and improve my change management skills. I also learned and improved my stakeholder analysis and management skills by attending training sessions and joining professional networks. Additionally, productivity tips from LinkedIn Learning experts can help you make your activities more efficient and get the job done right. 🤝💻📈

Many companies rush to change management plans without carrying out a thorough change readiness assessment when dealing with change management initiatives. This is a costly mistake. Why? In change management, one size doesn't fit all. The company has to identify who are the impacted groups and how the change affects them. It is also crucial to define the level of change saturation in the organisation. This information will feed into a customised and scaled change management strategy. The development of random change plans is going to fail to work. For example, instead of sending the same communication to all the employees, make sure that you identify your audience first and its requirements and tailor the messages accordingly.

Q - What do you do for a living? A - I am a change management director. Q: Oh, you deal with communication and training, then. A - No, I facilitate change. This is a familiar conversation if you work in the change management space. Many organisations look for change managers (when they should look for SMEs, change management practitioners). Why? The most important roles are the primary sponsor and the people managers. The sponsor is the preferred sender of messages regarding vision, strategy, and the why of change. People managers are the preferred senders of personal messages: Do I still have a job, and what will be different going forward? Change management practitioners orchestrate change behind the scenes.

"We sent them an email and invited them to a training session". I hear many clients telling me this when it comes to change management. Comms and training are essential but must be tailored to your audience. A simple email is going to fail to work. When you talk with your impacted users, first of all, you must let them know why we are changing. Most people could be pleased with the status quo and do not see the need to change. You also have to convey the What's in it for me (WIIFM). This is the bare minimum of information to provide. You have to use different channels, and face-to-face is non-negotiable. Make sure to tailor the message to your audience and to communicate frequently. Lack of comms creates disengagement and rumours.

Like any evaluation of impact and effectiveness, the magic is in the what and why. What are you actually measuring and why is that the right measure to demonstrate the success and impact of your change initiative? In my experience asking those impacted by the change their opinion is a great first step. This should be part of the change discussion from day one, not an implementation phase afterthought. A few things to consider. Should you be focused on outcomes, or activities, or mindsets, or all of the above? Once you have that in mind, think about how you can realistically measure and connect impacts back to the change initiative. Plan ahead, be intentional, and follow through.