Eight Steps to Leading Teams Effectively in Times of Change

Mark Twain once said, "The only person who likes a change is a baby in a wet diaper" (Hersey et al, 2001, p. 376). From my experience, even babies sometimes don't want to change their diaper! Individuals are naturally prone to resist change. During times of organizational change this tendency to resist may be magnified even further if employees feel the organization has broken or will break their commitment to them as individuals.

In today's environment of constant upheaval caused by cost saving efforts, realignments, outsourcing, etc., a change effort will bring many questions into the minds of employees, including; whether their position will be eliminated; if they will have a cut in pay, bonus, benefits, pensions; if they will need to produce more or do with less resources; if they will be relocated; or if they will face a multitude of other negative consequences because of what the company is proposing. With apprehension about the change, rumors swell and the minds of employees are diverted because of trepidations concerning the upcoming change. As a result, energy and efforts are dampened or diverted elsewhere, and performance suffers.

At a corporate level it may be easy to chart on paper the projected improvements a change will have on performance, raising results from point A to point B, through a number of steps, to help the company arrive at the desired outcome. The increased performance outcomes of a change effort can be measured in financial and production outcomes, improved products or service, improved customer or employee satisfaction or other measures. However, growth toward the desired outcome is not likely to come in a smooth straight line upward due to the fact that employee performance is likely to drop as new changes are begun due to resistance, fear, confusion, distractions, lack of motivation, etc.

The consequences of a drop in performance during change can have negative consequences for individuals (less bonus, loss of pride, future impact on review ratings, spiral negativity which could worsen results further, etc), on the team leaders (not making targets, less bonus, lack of ability to maintain team motivation, etc), and for the larger organization (slower time in implementing change, not reaching target outcomes, etc). Perhaps for this reason there are statistics which show that success rates for change efforts in Fortune 1000 companies are less than 50% and even could be as low as 20% (Harvard Business Review, 1998, p. 140). Team leaders can apply a process to help lessen the dip in performance and shorten the time to implement the change and regain
performance, benefiting the organization, the manager and the individual employees. This process includes the following 8 steps:

1. Build an environment of trust with the employees in order to create an environment where employees are more open to ideas and more willing to discuss possibilities and problems associated with change.

2. Link the change effort to a common team value in order to help employees feel they can relate to the change effort at a personal level. This increases the desire and motivation to change.

3. Articulate and communicate a clear message about why the change effort is needed and will help the team. This links the facts and figures supporting the change to the team value. Communication should frequent throughout the effort.

4. Establish a vision with the employees regarding the possible advantages of making the change in order to help the team define for themselves where the change will take them.

5. Collaborate for solutions with team members so that employees have the opportunity to identify the driving and restraining forces in the change effort and identify action steps for implementing steps to implement the change and overcome the restraining forces.

6. Establish and celebrate wins along the way. The leader should actively orchestrate wins and celebrations so employees can see that the change effort is important and see that changes in behavior will lead to positive outcomes.

7. The leader must manage performance around the change. This includes coaching those who need support with the change, disciplining or removing those who continually resist the change or have decided to fight against it, rewarding positive changes, hiring employees who have the new capabilities needed in the change effort, etc...

8. Constantly monitor the process and the results to ensure that the change effort is on track.