Show me the change
Recently I wrote about measuring culture change. Of course, that assumes that it happens at all.
People disengage from change they don’t understand, isn’t being led from the top or that they can't see moving.
You can be doing all the right things behind the scenes - value cases, communication planning, change scheduling - but if nobody is making this work public, or answering the questions those affected by the change want to know, then the whole thing will come grinding to a halt.
Leadership will blame change blockers, fixed mindsets or a ‘reluctant workforce’.
However, momentum doesn't arrive on its own. It has to be shown.
That means leaders naming what is changing, why and for what material benefit and marking it in public, often enough that people can see that it’s is real. Change that is only felt by employees, never marked by leaders, fades or dies very quickly.
Most organisations under-communicate why change is happening or its progress by an order of magnitude. They make a big noise at launch, everyone gets a branded water bottle, then it goes silent and they wonder why the energy leaked away.
Visible, communicated change led from the top beats a perfect plan every single day. A small change people can see will do more for belief than a large one they never hear about.
Download my new white paper ‘Making Culture Change Stick’ to find out more about how you can build, change or retain a great place to work at www.colindellis.com/culture-papers
