Change can be a daunting experience, but that does not mean it cannot be rewarding. This principle also applies to organisational change. However, to fully harness the benefits of pioneering change, an organisation’s successful implementation requires careful planning, leadership, and managing the human side of the change transition – being prepared to confront exposed barriers that will impede transformation objectives.
Many Change Leaders struggle with the pace of Change Management. Business change is constant, the lightning speed of transitional engagement, the continuous disruption due to innovations, technological advancement, and changes in market economies. Keeping relevant in today’s marketplace requires the need for change adoption and the regulated approach with undertaking normal business.
But change is never easy. No matter how well you plan for or communicate your Change Management strategy, there will always be some form of adversity. It simply happens when emotions become involved. By remaining AGILE with employee emotions plays a crucial role in successful change initiatives and help to navigate emotional resilience in your organisation.
What is Organisational Change?
Organisation change is the process through which a company will transform its structure, operations, culture, or strategies. This transformation, or adaptation, could be the result of the following:
Internal Factors
- Leadership shifts, employee feedback, or performance assessments.
External Factors
- Economic and market fluctuations, product / services alignment, technological advancements, and regulatory changes.
While the rationale behind organisational change is broad and its implementation often complex, the long-term benefits far surpass the short-term challenges. However, there is the need to first consider the key challenges that organisations may face during this change process.
What is the background with resistance to Change?
Barriers that make it difficult to implement change are usually the same reasons that exist behind the “resistance to change”.
If past change initiatives were poorly managed or failed to deliver appropriate outcomes, there could be a “lack of trust” that this current change initiative can be effectively implemented. Whilst there could also be historical reasons for resistance to change, employees may be experiencing “change fatigue” and therefore will resist any additional change.
As Change Leaders, we often blame the ‘Resisters’ to change as the problem for the change initiative failing. However, I would argue that resistance to change could actually be a good thing because it illustrates that the message delivery is wrong and not aligned to the strategic vision behind the change. Strategic insights indicate that more collaborative work and driven by the Executive Management team is required to effectively penetrate the DNA of the organisation.
There are six (6) core reasons why your people decide to resist change.
1. Lack of understanding of the goal
The absence of a clear goal is a common barrier that many organisations overlook. A lack of understanding in Change Management stems from poor communication about the “WHY” and “HOW”; this leads to employee resistance. Factors driven by fear and confusion are often due to vague goals, inconsistent messaging, and a failure to engage people (and mindsets) at varying levels.
This lack of knowledge about the change’s purpose, impact, and benefits (both from leadership and employees) hinders employee buy-in, reduces productivity, and can cause change initiatives to fail. When organisations set clear goals and objectives, they set the course and direction and by developing their strategic Communication Plan, which are all essential for success.
2. Lack of assessment for the unknown ’Current State’
Change is always difficult for organisations that are unable to determine their ‘Current State’. A common liability of many organisations with their approach is trying to introduce and implement change, without conducting a Change Assessment.
You need to clearly understand the current blueprint of the organisation. This is a critical element with aligning your approach and reducing the barrier to the change that you are hoping to introduce and implement. Now it becomes easier to plan, communicate, execute, and transition to a ‘Future State’.
3. Lack of clear and consistent communication
Any change initiative or plan will fail without proper communication. The responsibility of Change Leaders is to find ways to maintain clear and consistent communication. Individual team members need to know how to express their ideas, concerns, and feel that they have a voice. Organisational culture determines the willingness of employees to be encouraged to speak up but be involved in the decision-making process.
Poor communication during change can cause misunderstandings about new processes, IT systems, or direction, which leads to errors and inefficiencies across the organisation. Employees may not receive the necessary information, support, or training to adapt to the change. This causes delays and reduces the overall effectiveness of the change process.
4. Lack of accountability
Everyone must play a role in setting and achieving organisation goals and objectives. Change will not happen when your Executive Management Team remains passive. There should be consistent follow-ups within the teams, feedback provided, and input acknowledged (from suggestions) so employees know the status of all cross-functional projects.
Without accountability, there is no mechanism for learning from mistakes or improving performance. Failure helps with growth, by being better tomorrow but requires you to “fail better”. By avoiding accountability, this results in a culture of blame-shifting and finger-pointing, where problems are discussed and agreed actions (but ignored rather than addressed).
5. Lack of underestimating the complexity of Change
Changing an organisation’s culture, level of innovation, or capabilities – involves multiple organisational systems, alignment of processes, revamping performance across cross-function business units / departments), and development of organisational strategies. Change initiatives fail when an overly simplistic ”one-size-fits-all” approach is implemented.
A successful change strategy must be tailored to the specific needs of both the change project and the organisation. Understanding the ‘multifaceted nature of change’ is inherently complex because it involves multiple layers – structural, behavioural, technological, and cultural. Each of these layers must be addressed to ensure an integrated approach to Change Management.
This is your Change Roadmap that defines “HOW” you will lead change, distinct from the tactical Change Plan that details your immediate steps.
6. Lack of defining the organisation complexity
When organisations begin to grow due to market conditions or opportunities, they need to reinvent the “ways of working” and develop more complex processes. This makes the process of planning and implementing change more difficult dues to the complexities – including process compliance, products, IT systems, and culture. All of which contribute to change barriers because they are often quite hard for the employees and stakeholders of the organisation to understand.
So, it is necessary to break this barrier by introducing a skilful approach to tackle fast organisational growth and complexity. An organisation can break this barrier by implementing a highly effective project and Change Management approach. This approach needs to be measured and planned, especially if your organisation still lacks the maturity level to oversee large organisational changes.
How to overcome barriers to Change Management?
Adopt a “”Growth Mindset” and give up (some) of your old beliefs.
There are several varied reasons why employees have learned to resist change, but the primary reason lies with your leadership’s inability to both communicate and execute Change Management effectively across the enterprise organisation.
Overcoming barriers to change is all about winning your employees’ hearts and breaking long-standing patterns takes continual but conscious effort. Change is a continuous process that requires time to achieve desired results. So, it’s critical to understand and manage these barriers to change to make your transition as smooth as possible.
Adopt a “Growth Mindset”
When undertaking change innovation, you need to adopt a growth mindset. This is the belief that you can acquire new abilities through learning, dedication, and an innovative approach. It is a mindset you need to cultivate deliberately, believe in the scope, and then drive across the organisation.
Having a growth mindset can have real benefits and builds organic relevance. It helps people reframe their approach to challenges and stay motivated to work with improving their skills. Instead of thinking “I can’t do this,” they start to think “I can’t do it yet.”
Commit to actionable learning
Change will not be instantaneous, but practice allows you to acknowledge that you need to change your approach. Accessing new mindsets and skills helps remove the barriers to change, and which is hindering your advancement. So, in turn, this helps you attain new levels of mastery.
Learning objectives provide structure, direction, and purpose. By crafting SMART objectives – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound – that are learner-focused to improve and enhance the learning experience. This requires committing to actionable learning, deliberately applying what you have learned through real-life experimentation, and consciously picking up new (and including better) habits.
Communicate the vision and purpose of Change innovation
Employees need to visualise the long-term benefits of the change and how it fits into their organisation’s broader strategies. If they can’t understand the vision and direction, there won’t be any real motivation for them to implement the change. While employees may not understand all aspects of changes, providing structural information about “WHAT” is changing and “WHY”, can increase their visualisation and understanding.
Make the change compelling and exciting
By prioritising purposeful, clear, and consistent communication, this helps provide context to enable employees to understand “WHAT” the change means to them and “HOW” it will impact their work. With a deep understanding of the change and the direction forward, they will turn around and ask – ‘How can I help?’– when this mindset shift occurs, you can be sure that any change resistance has been deterred and focus starts to shift forward.
Get your leadership fully involved
For any organisational change to be successful, everyone must be involved, from Executive Management, Senior Management, middle management and to lower-level employees. Your leadership provides support and guidance throughout the change process.
When employees see that top-level management is fully onboard (and invested) by communicating and establishing directions for the change, they will feel more confident to contribute. Their resolve and commitment increase, and they commence to drop their reservations regarding the change. This visual perception with behavioural and ethical standards enforces resilience within your people’s mindset.
Aligning Change Management Strategy
Any change project requires adequate preparation! So, ensure that you align your Change Management strategy right from the beginning. There are many Change Management models in today’s market to assist with your transition – The Prosci ADKAR Model, Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, Lewin’s Change Model, Lippitt-Knoster Model, The McKinsey 7Ss – to name a few examples.
Plan, then prioritise well
Plan, then prioritise activities helps in reducing change fatigue. Instead of a large, multiple-Change Project implementation, commit to a slower but phased change approach. Simply start small and gradually scale up, so your employees do not get overwhelmed with information or process transformation overload.
Don’t ignore resistance from employees
Handling employee resistance is a critical step with identifying early on before it becomes ingrained and difficult to overcome. Review the behavioural patterns to determine any signs of resistance, such as inaction, withholding information, procrastination and widespread of rumours, etc.
Your success and leverage in overcoming resistance lies in communication. You must address the change by communicating the ”WHAT”, the “WHY”, the “HOW”, the “WHO” and the “WHEN”. Create feedback loops like surveys, feedback channels, and input sessions with your employees to identify signs of resistance. Take fast action quickly and set your direction for change.
Support and involve your employees
Employees are the people who fuel change and sustain its continual momentum. Your change initiatives will fail if they don’t believe in or engage in the change process. Don’t just expect them to accept the new processes but align your expectations by instead:
- Actively check the pulse of the employees by gauging how they feel about the initiative and then act on the feedback.
- Involving your employees helps them feel more invested in the change and therefore, will be less likely to resist it.
Deploy a Change Management model
When enacting change in your organisation, there are a number of hurdles you’re up against such as human psychology, company culture, and momentum with change initiatives. Without the right tools to guide you through the change process, it’s likely you’ll fail to institutionalise change.
A Change Management Model is a framework used to help people adopt and use project changes in their work. Models such as – The Prosci ADKAR Model, Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, and Lewin’s Change Model – all offer ways to oversee change.
With implementing your preferred Change Management model, you begin to connect your strategy to action and therefore increasing the likelihood of success. Different Change Management models exist, but they all have the similar core function of planning for and implementing change.
Prepare the Communication Plan
Internal communication happens both formally and informally. Your organisation’s Change Leaders must control and deliver the change narrative – the strategic vision towards your ‘Future State’. When it comes to communication, this sets in place a major cultural transformation and therefore, why it’s critically important to spend the time to prepare your Communication Plan.
A clear strategy for communication flow is a vital part of resolving change barriers. With communicating the reason for the change and how it will affect the employees, this helps them overcome resistance and effectively builds support for the change.
Determine the outline of your Communication Plan
Your Communication Plan should include the following:
- Providing regular updates throughout the implementation stage of your change initiative.
- Linking the Communication Plan to reinforce the change process by nominating Change Agents who are in charge of communication (from each department) and to present the change.
- Execute brainstorming sessions that will encourage everyone to speak up and play an active role in the change process. This will result in more innovative ideas, solutions, generate interest (with new activities) and improve cohesion among the employees.
Undertake resources analysis and allocate enough resources (including types and skillsets)
It takes more than just commitment to implement change programs successfully. An assessment of resources (types and skillsets) is necessary to make change happen because Change Leaders must ensure their teams have what the skillsets pool both before and during change implementation. This ensures changes are carried out in accordance with the Change Programme and prevents employee frustration with the change.
Training helps to develop new skills
The focus on training must be a cornerstone of your approach. Change Leaders will explicitly use Change Management methodology and exercises to help employees to understand what lies ahead. A revised training program will ensure that every staff member can maximize their talents, especially if new skills are involved.
Training helps build resilience, and fostering a positive culture, preparing people to lead or adapt effectively. Implementing change training and applying models like Prosci ADKAR requires a structured approach that prepares, equips, and supports employees throughout the transition. Some of these key strategies include identifying specific needs, segmenting types of audiences, creating engaging content, and reinforcing new behaviours / ethics.
Embrace the ‘human side’ of Change
The failure of many change projects boils down to the fact that too often, leaders pay such strict adherence to financial, structural, and strategic issues. When change efforts fail to yield their targeted benefits, they have additional risks such as losing great people who haven’t been supported through the change. And too often, even those who don’t leave the organisation may “quit and stay”; they are still showing up at work – but you have lost their commitment, trust and often their productivity.
There will be unpredictable human responses to change but you can train your leaders to deal with the most familiar responses to change projects. It’s about guiding individuals through uncertainty by managing psychological dynamics, not just processes, and by recognising people are wired for stability. People need empowerment (and support) to move from resistance to advocacy.
- The Prosci Change Management Model is especially effective at dealing with the “human side” of organisational change.
- The Kubler-Ross Change Curve (first devised by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross) provides insights for reactions to the change process.
Summary
The road to organisational change excellence is a long and sometimes arduous transition. Learning to welcome the disruption of organisational change means recognising that it is an ongoing journey filled with opportunities for growth, adaptation, and resilience. Therein lies the importance of onboarding “agents of change” – Change Leaders – with the skillset, experience, and conviction necessary to effectively guide teams through this risk transformative process.
Stagnation with your change journey has no place in today’s hyper-connected and relentless pace of the modern business landscape. By failing to acknowledge and adapt to latest trends, technologies, innovations, and customer demands, then organisation risk becomes more relevant. By refusing to change direction, organisations are at risk of incurring greater financial burdens, losing critical market share, and suffering reputational damage.
However, successful change will always come from an in-depth understanding of employee needs but more importantly how leadership delivers the strategic vision, communication, and leads the preparations to answer these needs. With alignment of an open mindset, collaborative approach, and creative solutions you can successfully implement changes initiatives in your organisation. By leveraging these capabilities, organisations can not only navigate the complexities of change smoothly but also ensure that their workforce is adequately supported throughout the transition.
Need some guidance on your next steps? Let’s start a conversation…