10 Ways To Implement Change Successfully

In last week's blog, we looked at why most change efforts fail: they focus on superficial alterations rather than looking first at the root of why things are done the way they are – aka the culture and values-in-use.

So, how do you use your influence to help your team get excited about making necessary changes? Here are 10 ways you can implement culture change through honoring the past and still leading into the future!

1. Gather your team.

Successful culture changes involve key people.  Not only are people more emotionally committed when they’re involved in the change process, they also become the biggest advocates of the change. Throughout the change process, a common language and shared culture emerge so that individuals are able to relate to each other in ways that ensure everyone on the team feels “safe, comfortable, and productive.” [1]

And as levelsof trust amongst your team members increase, so will their interdependence uponeach other and ultimately their ability to achieve a shared vision together. [2]This significantly increases the likelihood that the changes will beimplemented successfully!

2. Start with the end in mind.

Once your team is gathered, start with the end in mind byenvisioning the desired future. As a team, answer these questions:

• Why does our team exist?
• What is the vision of our team (thedesired future)?
• What is the mission of this team (howdoes it hope to realize this? What do you do to realize the mission?)?

3. (Re)establish priorities.

Once you haveyour envisioned future, you need to (re)establish priorities with the team’soverall purpose. The priorities are the pattern of choices leaders maketo ensure a successful and enduring legacy over time and reflects the team’suniqueness. As a team, answer these questions:

• What makes this team distinct to accomplish our mission and vision?
• What are the priorities of this team?
• How will these priorities fulfill the mission and vision of this team?
• What do we do and what do we not do as a team?

4. Identify the current values-in-use.

Remember, organizational culture is made up of shared values, beliefs, and norms. [3] Values are so deeply ingrained that they are often hard to put into words. And often what leaders believe to be the core values of the organization may not be the actual values-in-use. We all have blind spots about the prevailing values on our teams and in our organizations.  However, strong organizational cultures are dependent upon consistent espoused and values-in-use! [4]

Before implementing change, your goal is to identify thecurrent values that drive the behaviors throughout your team because in orderto see any sort of lasting change, these must be addressed.

• So,ask yourselves, what core values have gotten us to where we are today?

5. Identify the gap between here and there.

Once your vision has been crafted, and you have a realistic pulse on the current values and culture of your team, the gap between the two must be detected.  It's in this gap between what is now and what could be that tangible change occurs.

Because team cultures are made up of deeply held beliefs, values, and norms, moving forward you have to guarantee that new values, norms, and behavior will support the new culture you seek to create. Examining your current values-in-use alongside your desired future may reveal that there are some current values and behaviors that no longer enable the team to fulfill its vision.

6. Fulfill priorities.

Once the vision and priorities have been (re)established,your team can determine how they will be fulfilled.  Your team can now focus on the question:

• How will the team fulfill its priorities inorder for our team to realize its new vision and mission for the long-term?

The answer to this question might be to continue the same priorities that you have now and tweak the culture and values-in-use. Or, it could be that some priorities need to wind down and/or other priorities need to be established.

7. To change or not to change, assess the difficulties.

In order to determine the order in which changes can mosteasily be implemented, the difficulty level of each change needs to beconsidered.  The next questions that needto be answered are:

• What changes do you need to make in order to realize your vision as a team?
• How difficult will each change be to make (i.e. how much time with they take to make)?

Once you know how much time each change will take tomake, rank them in order of most difficult to least difficult (most time toleast amount of time to change).

8. Determine the sequence of change.

After calculating the difficulty levels of changing different elements, the next step is to figure out the sequence of change. The goal is to determine the sequence of change that would cost your team the least time, emotional energy, money, and momentum.

Changing all elements at the same time would be entirelytoo chaotic and costly. And, even changing simply one element may createalignment or misalignment for other elements.  So, you need to determine how much it willcost to change each element and how much it will cost to leave each element thesame. The ideal sequence of change is one that costs the organization the leastin the long run.

9. Model the way.

Once your new values have been identified that will get you from here to there, then new behaviors need to be identified that will support these new values. There will be some current behaviors that need to be modified, or altogether stopped, in order to support these new value(s).  Determine clear behaviors that you can model in order to communicate the new values and culture through your actions.

In their book, The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes and Posner shared that “Leading by example is how you provide the evidence that you’re personally committed.  It’s how you make your values tangible.”

Modeling the way as a leader communicates to those watchingthat you genuinely believe in what you say. It also serves as an example forothers to follow.

So, ask the questions:

• How can we demonstrate our commitment to the newvalue(s)?
• If we genuinely believe x, y, & z, what willbe the visible evidence to others?

10. Modify the organization to support the culture changes

The last step is to determine which systems of the organization will need to be modified in order to support the culture change(s). We all use systems, whether they are formal or informal, to reinforce our culture and values. When you implement culture changes, different systems are also needed to reinforce these changes.

So, you’ll need to determine whichsystems will need to be modified. Make sure to consider all systems (be theyincredibly informal or well-defined), such as:

• Decision-making
• Information processing
• Technology use
• Hiring process
• On-boarding
• Communication between staff
• Communication with shareholders
• Leadership development
• etc.

Making adjustments while continuing the day-to-day

A word of warning.  Making changes does not, and should not, mean everything comes to a halt until perfection is realized.  Rather, the last step is to identify the critical events.  Critical events are those that your team, after having considered the costs of changing (or leaving) each element, have determined must be dealt with first even while the organization continues with its daily operations. [5]

While changes are being implemented, employees must continue to be paid, your customer’s expectations must still be met or exceeded, vacancies must still be filled, etc.  So, you'll need to answer the question:

• Which elements must be dealt with nowwhile everything else stays constant?

Before you go ahead and start to implementyour changes to realize your envisioned future, there are a few things that arevital for you to keep in mind for successful culture changes. We’ll look atwhat those are in next week’s blog.

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1. Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership, 4^th ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
2. Kouzes, J.M. and Posner, B.Z. (2012), The Leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations, 5^th ed.  San Francisco, CA: The Leadership Challenge.
3. Cameron, K. S. & Quinn, R. (2011).  Diagnosing and changing organizational culture:  Based on the competing values framework, 3^rd ed.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
4. Hultman, K. (2002). Balancing individual and organizational values: Walking the tightrope to success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
5. Burton, R., Obel, B., & Håkonsson, D. D. (2015), Organizational design: A step-by-step approach, 3^rd ed. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University.