I have spoke alot at conferences around change management and I guess I am experiencing that for myself through consultancy. Going forwards below is a quote which I have used in leadership training which will be good for me to remember.

‘Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.‘ Henry Ford

In managing the process of change effectively there are some key challenges and steps to remember.

TEAM COMMITMENT

At the heart of high performance is the ability and willingness of the team to commit itself to take a stand for that which is beyond business as usual.

CONSTRUCTIVE CHALLENGE

Only through open and honest expression can teams achieve the highest levels of teamwork and performance.

ALIGNMENT

In order to achieve extraordinary results, it is critical that all team members work together toward common goals, not individual agendas.

INNOVATION AND ORIGINALITY

Achieving unprecedented results requires inventing new possibilities. Team members must find innovative ways to work around or through traditional barriers to performance.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY

Team members are accountable for their individual results and responsible for the success of the whole. They refuse to ignore issues and concerns which may not lie in their individual area of accountability.

DECISIVE AND CO- ORDINATED ACTION

Team members are skilled at coordinating clear actions, and they use tools to maintain their coordination.

ACCOMPLISHMENT

Team members and facilitators create a sense of accomplishment throughout the process, rather than waiting until the end of the project to see what, if anything, they have accomplished.

EFFECTIVENESS IN BREAKDOWNS

Rather than hoping to avoid them, they know that problems are inevitable and use breakdowns to create breakthroughs, rallying points for teamwork and innovation.

MUTUAL SUPPORT AND COACHING

Team members recognize they all have areas of improvement, and work to improve their own and each others.

When looking at models for change I am drawn towards Kotter’s change model and try to use it in the development of self and others. In his work, John Kotter identifies eight steps to organisation transformation.

These are summarised in the diagram below.

The first three of these are concerned with creating the climate for change to occur, and include increasing the urgency for change, building the right team, and establishing the vision itself.

Steps four to six focus on increasing buy-in to the change process and creating the momentum for change. This includes achieving broad commitment to the vision, the belief that people are empowered to act, and securing short-term wins.

The final phase raises the importance of ensuring that change becomes institutionalised while retaining the prospect of further transformational action.

The Eight Step Process of Successful Change

Set the Stage

1. Create a sense of Urgency.

2. Help others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately. Pull together the Guiding Team. Make sure there is a powerful guiding the change-one with leadership skills, credibility, communications ability, authority, analytical skills and a sense of urgency.

Decide what to do

3. Develop the Change Vision Strategy. Clarify how the future will be different from the past, and how you make the future reality. Make it Happen

4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy In. Make sure as many others as possible understand and accept the vision and strategy.

5. Empower Others to Act. Remove as many barriers as possible so that those who want to make the vision reality can do so.

6. Produce Short-term Wins. Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as possible.

7. Don’t Let Up Press harder and faster after first successes. Be relentless with initiating change after change until vision is reality.

Make It Stick

8. Create a New Culture Hold on to the new ways of behaving and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions.

All food for thought as I move forwards. I started this post with a quote by Henry Ford and will end with another from Peter Senge

‘The fundamental characteristic of the relatively unaligned team is wasted energy … by contrast, when a team becomes aligned, a commonality of direction emerges, and individuals energies harmonise.‘