The 7-Step Change Management Process

I spend my days helping leaders make changes so they’ll be more financially successful and happier; i.e. change management. Here’s the 7-step process I use.

1.    Assess the opportunity. What is the pain or opportunity inspiring a need for change? Is the reward worth the risk that comes with making the change?

2.    Build trust and rapport through competence and caring. If you can’t convince the people involved that you know what you’re doing and that you care about their welfare, then they won’t tell you the truth. You’ll be operating with faulty data.

3.    Set achievable and prioritized goals. If you take your “stretch” goals too far people will lose faith in the whole project because it is overwhelming. Set achievable mid-term goals, celebrate your wins, and then set more achievable goals. This keeps people motivated and excited about the long-term vision.

4.    Assign clear accountability and authority.  You can’t hold a team accountable, only individuals. Who is responsible for what by when, and do they have enough authority and resources to be successful?

5.    Develop skills and teamwork. People will need to be taught new skills, one of which is how to fully leverage the advantages of strong communication and teamwork.

6.    Overcome the unrealistic fears preventing greater success. We all have unrealistic fears that tempt us to resist change—even positive change. At the very least, there is a reasonably healthy fear of the unknown. Help people figure out which of their fears are unrealistic as they evaluate the risk/reward equation of the change involved.  

7.    Schedule regular updates for continuous improvement and reinforcement of new habits. We humans are “cognitive misers” in that we create habits to lessen the cognitive load of making thousands of decisions every day. Left to their own devices, people will always return to their old habits because they are well-practiced. Regular updates provide the opportunity to make mid-course improvements and to reinforce the new habits required by change.

Don’t be a stranger. (770) 993-1129. tdockery@TheResolveFirm.com