Making change happen — with less stress

by Paul Vittles, Transformational Change & Sustainable Success Facilitator

In my career, I’ve led or facilitated many transformational change initiatives and been involved in many more as a researcher, coach or consultant. Some of my assignments have been genuinely transformational, ground-breaking, pioneering. Other ‘change management’ projects have been seeking more of an evolution than a revolution but they can still be tricky. So what are the key lessons I’ve learned along the way?

Well, first of all, organisations make ‘change management’ more complicated or complex than it needs to be. Yes, it isn’t easy, but why make it even harder?! Why keep telling everyone how hard it is and, in the process, convincing yourself that you are wrestling with a monster?!

Secondly, organisations get bogged down in process. Sometimes, they are so obsessive about process, they seem to forget what they are setting out to achieve and, as they descend further into process detail, why they set out to change in the first place.

Third, they hire ‘change managers’ and specify that they must have specific qualifications rather than transferable experience which then exacerbates the problem of getting bogged down in process. I sometimes joke with clients that ‘there’s rarely any strategic thinking in the Strategic Planning department!’ but it’s a serious point when organisations recruit ‘Transformation Managers’ who are plodding project managers or only good at producing paper plans!

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But, let’s get positive. What works? What helps? Well, after hundreds of projects and many months reading all the academic literature as well as reflecting on the practical lessons from my projects, I concluded that there are only really three key dynamics of change and one key measurement process.

Change happens when there is a powerful Push factor (pushing away from an undesirable current state), a powerful Pull factor (pulling to a motivating future state), and/or a powerful Engagement factor (with those required to change being suitably involved in the change process). Get all three change dynamics right, and the change can take place surprisingly quickly and smoothly.

I’ve established an approach for ‘Creating and Delivering Inspiring Shared Visions’ which I’ve applied many times, spoken about at many conferences, and run workshops to enable others to apply this winning approach.

The Push factor, in terms of active dissatisfaction with the status quo, must be identified and harnessed, or created if it’s not there. A good Engagement process can usually pinpoint the best way of identifying or creating the Push. A good Engagement process can also precisely map out the desired state future so that it becomes real, inspiring, and — importantly — shared.

Probably the most common barrier of them all — leading to no Pull — is not mapping out the desired state future in enough specific detail to either make it real among those you want to take on the journey (and more ‘real’ means less ‘fear’) or to be able to measure it.

Too often, measurements of progress are looking back (often to unhelpful baselines) or sideways (to unhelpful benchmarks) rather than forward (to where you are trying to get to).

However, if you engage with the stakeholders; identify what needs to change, why you need to change, the key benefits of change; and then map out precisely what ‘success’ looks like in measurable, auditable ‘desired state characteristics’ that can be measured in current reality snapshots, then you’ve made a complicated process very simple, and removed a barrier to change!

You don’t want to get bogged down in too much data. As we coaches say “information not related to your goals is an obstacle to achieving your goals”. Also, you don’t want to get data that is ambiguous or open to interpretation. When you get the data, you should instantly know how close or far away you are from where you want to be. That then focuses and motivates everyone to take the obvious action needed next.

I have applied this framework and approach to many complex and complicated issues and situations over the years — from transforming customer service to creating a mentally healthy workplace — and it has never let me down yet.

If you want to create a customer-focused culture or a mentally healthy workplace or achieve any other desired state future, I would be delighted to assist.

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This (edited & updated) article was originally published by Paul Vittles FMRS FAMI FRSA on LinkedIn 3 December 2015. You can contact Paul via LinkedIn or Twitter.