From the course: Change Leadership

Key actions when leading change

From the course: Change Leadership

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Key actions when leading change

- If over 70% of planned change initiatives fail, adapting successfully to sudden change is even harder. Even after intentional planning by leaders, focus and the organization can quickly stray when executing everything that must be done. So to help you focus those efforts, let's discuss the six most important actions leaders must take to move their organization forward when navigating emergent change. The help even comes in the form of a handy acronym, ACTION. Refer to the ACTION tool in this video's exercise file now if you'd like, by the way. A, activate a change coalition. Don't go it alone. Enroll and enable a group to help own and execute all the things that must be done. The client of mine actually formed a change champions team to navigate unexpected new regulation in their industry. The team worked as a cohesive unit across company boundaries to break down silos, to persuade as needed, and to mobilize required efforts. C, crush barriers. Adapting to change is hard enough without all the barriers that come up. Invest the time and energy to identify and remove barriers to progress. I know of a company that had to quickly merge with another company with a very different culture, so they created barrier-busting awards for anyone that removed an obstacle to the successful blending of the two companies. T, trigger urgency. Change efforts fail when employees don't act with urgency. Continually communicate the vision of the adaptation, what's in it for the company and the employees, and what the consequences are of failing to adapt. I remember one important change effort regarding safety procedures at a manufacturing plant. Unfortunately, employees didn't act fast enough or take it seriously enough clinging to old ways. As a result that led to two serious injuries within a month. Next up, I, inbetweenity resolution. Inbetweenity is when employees are stressed about letting go of old ways, or what's been lost because of change, but they aren't yet skilled at the new ways. Get them out of limbo by making the old ways unavailable early on and by providing training and coaching to help them become skilled at the new ways faster. O, overtly resource priorities. Adapting to change often means you have to put extra time, money, people, or all of these into a few key elements that will help you effectively adapt. Visibly supporting such priorities sends the message you're serious about the change succeeding. To show they were committed to making remote work successful during COVID-19, one client made a huge investment in the latest greatest remote collaboration tools and the staff to support them. It sent the clear message that working remotely successfully was absolutely critical. Finally, N, navigate between involvement and empowerment. Change leaders can't be passive. Employees will interpret that to mean adapting to the change isn't important. Leaders can't micromanage either, though. It adds to the employee's existing feelings of a lack of control. I reiterate one sentence to myself with leading change in an organization. Roll up your sleeves, but keep your hands off. It reminds me to keep proper balance between involvement and empowerment. So remember the acronym ACTION to take the steps that will help you accomplish the difficult task of successfully adapting to sudden change.

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