Sustaining Change

Sustaining Change: The Devil is in the Details

Implementation day is here! Finally after months of hard work and preparation you are ready to implement your change. It might be a new set of business processes. It might be a new business strategy or a complete reorganization aimed at better customer service. It might be a new computer system that will ensure you manufacture the right components and products at the right time. Whatever your change, you are excited and today’s the day!! And boy are you tired. After months of meetings and deadlines, late nights and early mornings, you are ready for a rest. Unfortunately, there is no time for that. It is precisely at this point that you need to dig deep and get ready for the next wave of work.

Implementation Day is Just the Beginning

Sustaining a change can sometimes prove elusive in a company. Even the best laid plans can be put aside to work through a crisis or take advantage of an unforeseen business opportunity. Oftentimes once a business initiative is implemented the project team ceases to meet, feedback loops dry up and everyone gets back to “business as usual”. Truthfully, “business as usual” needs to be altered to include the new ways of operating.

It is important to remember that even though you have been working within this change for many months, it is relatively new to everyone else affected by it. They may have been through some training and other types of preparation, but it isn’t second nature to them yet. And make no mistake, to sustain a change whatever you are asking people to do must become second nature to them.

Align for Success

No company is static, no matter what kind of business it is in. Change is implemented but the company and the marketplace continue to evolve before, during and afterwards. It will be important for the project team, and by now those departments in the company who are responsible for sustaining the change, to continue showing how the new ways align with the business. One way to do this is to weave the changes into new information that comes out. You can relate the new business initiative to updated marketing materials or show how this new way of doing business continues to impact high levels of customer service. Creating those connections will help people experience the continuity so vital for a business’s success.

Honor the Past to Move to the Future

The last thing people want to hear when a new way of doing business is introduced is that what they’ve been working so hard on up until this point has been a waste of time, or worse, has been detrimental to the business. When announcing a new business initiative or a new way of operating, avoid trashing or discounting the previous way of doing things. People invest a lot of their time and energy into their work and for someone to stand up and tell them it has been for naught only creates bad feelings. It can also create a morale issue from which it will be hard to recover. People come to work every day and strive to do their best, it is always important to remember that.

Use the opportunity to educate employees on the evolution of the business. Show how this new business initiative is a necessary building block for the current direction. People search for continuity and it helps lessen the negative impact of another change.

Measure Your Impact

Showing people progress towards the goal will help them continue operating the way you have asked them to. Although you measure how the change is impacting your business after implementation, the planning for the measurements should be done at the beginning of your project. During the planning the project team should be creating measurements that answer the question: How will we know we have been successful in implementing this change? Of course the impact to the bottom line will be the ultimate measurement. This can be achieved through business growth or through cost savings, whatever the change was meant to target. You might also want to grow a particular market segment or a particular product. Whatever your measures of success, they should be laid out to all employees as part of your implementation plan. Tracking the measures and reporting back to all employees is an important building block for sustaining the change.

Are We There Yet?

One of the most important steps in sustaining a business change is knowing when the change is “over” and has become part of how business is done every day, that “second nature” we spoke of earlier. Your goal in having a plan for implementing that change is to get to that day – but that day must come. Many change projects fail because there was no end – the project (and the change) just faded away. This end date doesn’t have to be announced, but it should be the date that the project team and eventually those who carry on the new way of doing business work towards. You may want to base the end date on your bottom line – when you reach a certain level of sales. Or you may want to base it on something else. The project team should collectively decide what and when this date should be. A good question to start the discussion could be “how will we know that this change has become just the way we do business?” The ensuing discussion will help you decide on your “complete” date.

Sustaining a change doesn’t mean becoming static and not implementing other business initiatives. It means giving this one a chance to have the impact you desired when the original decision was made. With a framework in place to sustain this change, it will be that much easier to implement your next business initiative.

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