Got Change Champions?

Jasmine Flowers October 11, 2007

How many times have you received a random email in your Outlook inbox that seemed like a storybook describing a number of changes being made within your organization? Not only was the email too long but created more questions than answered questions. You send an email looking for clarity and receive yet another high-level response. In a last resort to get your questions answered, you start asking other coworkers for more detail but find yourself inundated with hearsay and still without any answers. The problem with this picture is that this scenario happens more often than not in many organizations who think change management is as simple as a communication plan. By relying solely on communications, organizations leave employees to their own devises. This often leads to emotions such as confusion, anger, fear, and rejection among employees. I am not saying that communications are ineffective but what I am saying is that when preparing an organization for change, it is imperative to designate specific employees to serve as change agents who will visibly lead and champion the organization through the change. 

In order to build an effective change agent team or network it is critical to first define the change agent program. This entails defining the roles and responsibilities of those selected as change agents. Typically change agents facilitate overall communications and activities to ensure a smooth transition to the new business environment. This entails: 

• Sustaining the motivation of employees to support and accept changes
• Creating a forum for dialogue among stakeholders
• Obtaining feedback from stakeholders (being the “eyes and ears”), answer questions, provide clarity, and ease apprehension
• Ensuring stakeholder and business readiness
• Integration with the project team

Secondly, it is important to recruit and train employees to be effective change agents. This step is important as it deals with selecting the right people within the organization who are not only visible but are respected and have the ability to influence stakeholders. Strong change agents are informal leaders, passionate about success, well networked across the organization and department/area, and strong communicators/motivators. 

Finally, change agents must be aligned with department/area leaders. This is imperative as buy-in from department/area leaders can make or break successful change. As stated in McKinsey Quarterly, “an “80 percent right” solution embraced and implemented by line managers beats the “100 percent right” solution that fails to win their acceptance.” Managers need to be actively and visibly engaged in the change process, from the analysis phase through the implementation phase. This creates open dialogue and a comfortable environment for those directly impacted to provide input and ensure key decisions are not overlooked. 

So, next time there is major change on the horizon of your organization think about the leaders, drivers, and influencers who will successfully push the change through all faucets of the organization.

Posted in Hodes QTrac, HR Consulting, Human Resources, Retention