Leadership
Moving Your Team Effectively
Helping your team navigate transitions
Becoming the leader that people will follow requires communicating and introducing change effectively. We understand teams performing at a high level get into a rhythm of how they work, interact, and deliver.
Introducing change in ways that enhance the team and not break their stride is an art.
Large scale change
For large scale change, there are well-defined models to help an enterprise navigate a new environment. For example, the Prosci process has been adopted by many firms. On their site, they proudly report “80% of fortune 100 companies partner with Prosci”. Its certification is one of the most highly sought after in the change management profession today.
Most change management frameworks appear to follow a similar process. To a layperson, Prosci is easy to understand. A common sense, 3 phase approach where organizations prepare, manage, and reinforce change. Large-scale transformation requires frameworks giving leadership the best chance of making changes stick.
Changing the direction of an organization is less about the firm than it is about the people doing the work.
Overview of leading change management
DeAnne Aguirre of Strategy and Business does an excellent job of laying out how leading a change management initiative works.
Small scale change
In contrast to the large scale, micro change might be a bit different in practice. Those running departments and teams must be more creative and agile in approach.
When we have high performing teams and individuals we understand there is a reason. Disturbing their rhythm can have negative consequences on morale, effectiveness, and efficiency. We need to engage them on their terms and find ways to introduce a change that makes sense; we do it by asking for their help.
Leaders understand material change in team structure, direction, or process may temporarily result in lower performance.
This situation exists until the teams and individuals can clearly see the new road the organization is taking. Afterward, they can contribute, and evaluate their desire to take the new course themselves. Exemplary leaders introduce change in ways that help their followers feel safe and offer hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Communicate change thoughtfully
Before communicating a material change, think about how it will impact the team. Thoughtfully craft a message with a narrative they can relate to using shared experiences and values. In short, it must make sense to them.
Do it openly
After the message is ready to be shared, leaders invite their people into a safe environment. We communicate what is going to happen openly and invite questions. We are careful to explain how the change impacts them and the organization. We describe what the future will look like afterward so they can begin to find their place in it.
Extend an invitation
The best leaders don’t stop at announcing a change. Instead, we ask people to follow us. We continually work to earn followership.
We must remember our people were committed to the current approach, therefore, our success depends on their buy-in to our new direction now.
The leaders we want to follow extend an invitation that offers us a choice to reaffirm our commitment to the cause.
Last thoughts
Helping others change is an art. Whether a firm-wide transformation or incremental changes at the team level, as leaders we ensure we respect our people. We share where we intend to go and invite them to come with us.
Shepherding: The art of becoming the leader others want to follow.
