Change. Such a dreaded word. As a person who loves change, I often think about why it is so dreaded. Change after all presents new opportunities. It allows us to begin again, grow from a new spot, and experience an entirely different thing.
The flip side is ‘change’ is the unknown. It generates fear and trepidation. Will it be better than what I have today?
As leaders, our role in times of change is to dissipate fear. It is to empower our team with the needed tools for success. Where there are unknowns, our role is to offer ongoing support and open communication. A commitment to figure it out together.
So often, times of change bring many changes at once. For example, a reorganization at work may bring a change in location, a new job role, a new leader, a new team, and more. A new strategy can bring new role responsibilities, the need for training, or more travel.
As a leader, you want to think about the full scope of the change that your team may experience. As you do, you can make a checklist to make sure you’re addressing as many of their questions as possible. The goal is not to solve all things, but to flip the switch and empower them to own the situation. To get you started here are the 3 key questions we often ask.
Do you have the resources you need?
We want to make sure that we’re working with our teams to make an effective plan. If you take the example of a change that we all recently lived through i.e. working from home. Our home offices were not set up as detail-oriented as our work offices. We’re usually not designing our home with a specific office space or specific layout for work. So in this situation, you would work with your team and ask “are there particular challenges that you think you may encounter?” Together you can brainstorm tools and equipment needed to be successful. This was probably video chat, larger monitors for home, and much much more. Remember this conversation will continue throughout the process of change. So a couple of months in, you will want to check in and ask how it is going. what has changed? Are there new resources that would be helpful?
Do we have to set a new process to be successful?
There are tangible tools like large monitors, but also processes you can help them with. When going through change, your team may want more frequent check-ins. So you may keep your weekly meeting, but you may also add a 15–20 min status update each week. This status update can share any new information on the change. These are helpful in large organizational changes that may happen over time. This helps your team know that they may not know everything today, but they will have the information they need when they need it.
You may also want to check in with other teams that you work with daily. Is there a joint work process that may need to be updated? Is there a way we communicate with our customers that’s going to need to change?
In this process, you may also update your RACI Chart, and who is responsible for which action items. This will help develop ownership through change.
Asking these questions will help you outline solutions. And will also help you outline processes for staying connected during the change.
Do we have an effective feedback loop?
Last but never least, feedback. Change is not a point in time it is a process. To be successful at navigating change you will need to have a review and feedback process in place. You may have had weekly meetings, and as we spoke about in the process you may add a status meeting.
How else as a leader will you get feedback? Would your team like you to reserve 10 minutes at the end of each team meeting to discuss how things are going? Are you setting aside time in each 1–1 meeting to hear from each individual about tools, resources, and process updates that they may need? Are there ways you can get the team involved in owning this process? For example, does each team member act as the point person for gathering feedback on one area or process?
Most importantly, you want to create a feedback loop that not only highlights needs and challenges but encourages the team to be solution-oriented. You can set up a monthly working session where you highlight one area i.e. team communication. The team can then bring their ideas on how to improve that area of focus. Instead of asking each person for ideas, you can encourage a group working session through an exercise like Start, Stop, Continue. This can help change the dynamic to a solution-oriented team brainstorm.
No matter what, the goal is continuous improvement and team empowerment. You may have lots of conversations like “Okay, we tried tool X. Maybe it didn’t work, and now we will try tool Y.” That is great. Change does not need to be perfect, so long as you and your team are navigating it together.
