7 Key Principles for Real-izing Change Management Efforts

Context Note: What follows applies 100% to Change Management in the context of business. What follows also equally applies 100% to change in the context of your personal life.

Have you ever instituted a new process (or adapted an old one) in the name of 'Change'?

Change is trendy these days. All the cool kids companies are doing it. If you aren't embracing the concepts of Change and Change Management, you are putting your company far behind the proverbial 8-ball.

Change is growth--both literally and metaphorically. Change is as vital to a company as it is to a human being.

If you are embracing Change and Change Management, you may have encountered a frustrating conundrum:

"I've implemented _[number & type of]_ Changes by creating new programs and have updated _[number & type of]_ existing programs. We have invested $_________ and _[number of]_ employee and consultant hours to Change Management. Why do we only have __[relatively small number representing percentage improvement]__ to show for it?"

Over a career spanning 14 years (so far) and more than 5,000 clients in at least 30 industries who have asked some version of this question, surprisingly, there is one answer that applies to all of them:

M O M E N T U M .

Momentum is: "the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity."

Or, put more simply: momentum is a moving freight train.

Both the speed of the train and the number of cars attached to it determine (1) how long it will take an outside force - Change - to have a measurable impact upon the train and, (2) how strong of an outside force will be required.

Your company is a moving freight train. Your company moves at a certain rate of speed and has a certain size just like a freight train.

"How long will it take our Change Management implementations to impact our bottom line?"

It depends on the size and speed of your train.

Smaller companies can implement Change more quickly. This is why the concept of 'Agility' is so highly lauded and sought-after these days.

Larger companies will real-ize the fruits of their Change Management implementations more slowly, due to the fact that their freight train is moving faster (typically) and has more cars (always) than smaller companies' trains. A greater amount of initial effort is required and that greater effort must be applied for longer, in order to account for the greater mass and velocity of a large freight train (relative to a smaller one).

"How long will it take our Change Management implementations to impact our bottom line?"

It depends on the size and speed of your train.

There is no manual for how long it should take. All companies are different in some ways.

However, there are some key Principles you can keep in mind which will help you (1) weather the storms of doubt and fear while (2) keeping your finger on the pulse of objective reality so you can know if you truly do reach the place where the time has come for a re-route.

Key Principles to Weather the Storms of Doubt & Fear

• Momentum is physics, not punishment. You did not do anything 'wrong' in order to bring this challenging time upon your company and your team. You were practicing doing business a certain way for a certain amount of time (in some cases, perhaps a very long time). If the effects of Change are not promptly real-ized, this does not mean the Universe is punishing you. Respect the energy you put into your past way of being. You worked hard to do business that way, and to do it as well as you could. Honor this past version of you that thought that old way was a great idea. It may have been, at the time. Now, you are simply deciding that this new way is the best way forward. Honor your past choices by acknowledging the strength with which you make your decisions. Then, acknowledge how it is that very same strength which will carry you into this new chapter as well.
• 0.1% of a marathon is results. 99.9% is process. Results are important. They let us know the quality (or lack thereof) of our plans and strategies. However, results need to be kept in their proper proportional perspective. 99.9% of a marathon is process. Unlock love of the process, unlock happiness.
• Backward steps can still lead to progress. Soccer may not be as popular in the US as American Football, but soccer has within it a wisdom that business strategists of all nationalities would be wise to embrace: Sometimes the best way forward is to take a step backward, regroup, and advance from a position of greater strength. If you have embraced Change by implementing new policies, processes, and/or strategies in your company, you have done the 'take a step backward' portion already. Take a breath. Acknowledge that you took a step backward. Acknowledge the physics of that. Then, acknowledge that you made that choice deliberately, and with intent. You chose this backward step because you know the forward step will be worth the investment. Own this.
• Find peace in the knowing that you are not the first to feel this way. (Nor will you be the last.) Change always accompanies a certain sense of 'uncharted waters'. It's ok that there is no trail or map. The fact that there is no manual does not mean you're wrong. It means you're innovative. All discovery and exploration you have read about in history books happened through the exact same process you are now experiencing. You are not alone.

Key Principles to Keeping Your Finger on the Pulse of Reality

• Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control. Remember that very strange day in mid-March of 2020, when the entire world officially went sideways? Question: Do you think the pandemic was properly accounted for when companies were having their "2020 Strategy Sessions" in Q3 and Q4 of 2019? This is an example of a 'Shifting Context'. No matter how excellent, how robust and groundbreaking your plan for 2020 may have been, Covid shifted the context. It changed the ground beneath your company's feet. This is not your fault. However, acknowledging the impact a Shifting Context can have may mean abandoning Change (and other) implementations which looked like a great idea just a few weeks earlier. This is not weakness of character, poor leadership, or wishy-washiness. This is reading the newly-prevailing winds and making the best choice you can for your team and your company in this new context.
• There is a difference between 'committed' and 'stubborn'. A fine line, but a definitive one. You must commit to Change in order to see it through. You must. See the above description of the sheer physics involved in order for Change to take hold. However, there can come a point where we cross over from commitment into stubbornness. How can we tell the difference? In short: Commitment is towards a vision. Stubbornness is towards a position. Commitment is what we feel when we are moving towards this... 'thing'... this idea that feels so real we could almost touch it. Stubbornness is what we feel when we want to be right... when we want to prove something. Commitment is towards a greater good. Stubbornness is in service to an individual's ego.
• Data by itself is meaningless. Context gives data meaning. Data is vital. It enables us to know what is working and what isn't. However, data without context is not only meaningless, it can be harmful. Are "sales down for another quarter"? Ok... "down" in relation to what? Where are we right now? Are we in the middle of the pandemic? Then, the pandemic is our context. "Down" does not look (or mean) the same in all contexts (i.e. pandemic vs. 2018). This is a much larger conversation, but the main take-away here is: Keep an eye on the data, but keep a much sharper eye on the context. Context may tell you it's time to re-route, even when the data doesn't (...yet). Data may tell you it's time to re-route, but if the context is shifting favorably, that data may cause you to jump-ship just before the big pay-off. Data and Context are in an inseparable relationship. Like Day and Night. Heads and Tails. Inhale and Exhale. Both are vital. Neither is more important than the other.