Preparing for Change

Planning a change initiative carefully is imperative

Not only must we plan a way to reach everyone, follow through effectively, and mentor the use of methods and tools, we should also plan how to prepare our organization to accept the initiative rather than fight it.

Few are the organizations today that have not already engaged in an initiative to install a continual improvement methodology and program of some variety. Not all of those efforts have paid off or otherwise succeeded. That leaves a great many of us in an uncomfortable paradox.

We recognize that we need a methodology to continually solve problems and improve performance, but our entire organization is skeptical of embracing another doomed initiative to change the culture. It is organized to resist, rather than accept.

Even if an organization is not jaded against continual improvement movements, it is still natural to resist change rather than embrace it. Of course, there is one caveat to that statement. We embrace change when we believe that it will make life better.

Regardless of our starting place, the understanding that we resist what we don’t ask for, but embrace what we perceive as betterment, is the key to preparing any organization to accept a movement to change the status quo.

Given that, we must change general perceptions such that people find our proposal to incorporate a continual improvement program desirable instead of regrettable.

To change those perceptions, we must encourage people to believe in us. We must demonstrate that our intent is to make things better, not just to talk about how things appear to be better. We must demonstrate a believable, actionable value of betterment. Talk is so much garbage to the jaded victim of failed initiatives.

The best way I know how to encourage an audience to listen receptively to a plan for change, whether it is jaded or merely apathetic, is to first address and fix the immediate concerns and problems it already has. Importantly, those needs don’t necessarily need to be fixed by the methodology to be introduced, or even related to continual improvement.

Why don’t those solutions need to be related to the change we propose? It is less important to demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology than it is to demonstrate our commitment to making things better, to a value.

We all know that the best methodology in the world will not work if it is not utilized, or utilized effectively. Most of us have learned that lesson through experience. What we need to believe is that our leaders really and truly intend to make things better, in which case what methodology it selected is just a matter of preference, not a determining factor of success or failure.

That point critically distinguishes the difference between an effective demonstration of intent and a pilot program. Pilot programs generally demonstrate how a methodology works as a means to convince an audience of its potential effectiveness. Unfortunately, because they lack total commitment, they are a first attempt, and they are an opportunity for the secret resistors to exercise passive-aggressive sabotage, pilot programs often demonstrate how an initiative will fail to work.

There are times where a pilot program is warranted to let folks see a methodology in action, but it is not the effort that will encourage a greater audience to believe in you or your proposal to make things better. To do that you must first actually make things better.

Examine the problems, needs, and desires of the people in your organization. Pick a few to address and solve. Some will not be viable opportunities. For example, if everyone is hoping for a significant pay increase, but the business is not healthy enough to enable it, such a need is not a good opportunity to demonstrate your intent.

Look for solve-able problems and fix them. You may need to address several problems in order to affect a significant portion of the organizational population. A solution that enables engineers to more easily access solid-modeling software while out of the office will not win over production or sales personnel, for example.

However, once you have serviced or upgraded an ailing machine on the production floor, cross-trained personnel to provide relief among bottleneck skills or processes while expanding personnel growth potential, eliminated some unnecessary or redundant paperwork in the office, made it easier for engineers to access critical job tools, clarified source selection guidelines for purchasing teams, and upgraded database tools for the production planning function, you can talk about how a widespread change will make the business healthy enough to enable some pay raises. Once a great many people are talking about how you are committed to improving things, the greater audience will listen to your plans to reach beyond the little things.

A series of discussions with a health insurance advisor to discuss the details of the business’ heath care options and the impact of the Affordable Care Act upon the coverage offered might be very well received by some personnel. It has nothing to do with improving on-time delivery or quality for a particular underperforming value stream. However, if it demonstrates that you are trying to make things better for the people who work that value stream, they will be inclined to listen to how you intend help them with it too.

It is less important to demonstrate how you intend to improve things than it is to demonstrate that you are committed to doing so. Therefore, improve some things that matter to people in your organization. Then talk about the far-reaching program of change that you plan. Give people a reason to believe in you before asking them to believe in your plan. It prepares the audience to accept your change, even embrace it, rather than resist it out of habit.

Stay wise, friends.