Fundamentally, change is inevitable, so how do leaders become proactive and overcome change resistance to achieve sustainable change in organisations?

Here's 4 key focus areas that Collagis is focussed on to drive sustainable change:

1. Foundation - Building the vision and case for change

• Enable leadership buy-in for vision 
• Resolve tension at the management level 
• Enhance staff ability to adapt to change
• Prepare leaders for change (mindset and behaviours)

 
       2.  Culture - Enabling change readiness

• Pulse check: measure current levels of change readiness to establish baseline 
• Recruit change champions to create a transformation ready culture.
• Stakeholder identification and impact assessments

       3.  Communicating the Change

• ​Craft a compelling change narrative
• Develop communications plan (including interactive channels, storytelling, feedback mechanisms)
• Activate and deliver against comms plan and schedule​  

       4.  Understanding Success - embedding the change and measuring impact

• Build and sustain momentum through Change network
• Maintain high visibility of the change
• Reinforce drivers of changes and remove/reduce resisting forces
• Monitor and report on progress through Readiness Status Report

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Collagis is committed to helping businesses like yours to optimise workforce and organisational effectiveness. We'd love to help your business implement these four levels that will put you on the right pathway to driving sustainable change. 

Read Next:
The 12 must-haves to include in your Change Management Strategy
How to Deal with Change Fatigue in Your Team
Making Change a Positive Experience

There is one thing that you can bank upon in business: change is inevitable!

Not only will change happen, but change is also happening at a faster pace than ever before. Change will happen in one way or another, so businesses need to be proactive by preparing for it.  Advances in technology, changing demographics and customer trends, updated regulations and global crises, all require a change management strategy to optimise performance.

A change management strategy can be defined as the way a business will approach and apply knowledge, resources and tools to address change in and around it.

The primary purpose of change management is to effectively implement new processes, products and business strategies to adjust to change, while minimising any negative outcomes. It is essential for businesses wanting to be competitive, grow and evolve, that they implement an effective change management strategy.
 
So what’s included in an effective change management strategy?
 
Following are some basic questions every change management strategy should cover:

1. What is the business problem the change is trying to solve?
2. What is the change vision?
3. What are the benefits of the change? Who benefits from the change?
4. What external & internal factors are impacting the change?
5. Which stakeholders are impacted by the change?
6. Which employees are impacted by the change?
7. How will the change be communicated?
8. What new capabilities and training are required due to the change?
9. How ready is the business for the change?
10. What risks are inherent in the change?
11. Who is the Change Sponsor?
12. Who can act as Change Champions?

 
This list is a good place to start but is by no means exhaustive. There are many factors to consider as you implement change to ensure successful and sustainable adoption.

The development of a change management strategy is a good first step to combat change resistance. Understanding who, what, when and most importantly why, can help those impacted by change better understand the context for change, the change itself and what’s in it for them.

This leads to a higher probability your changes will be adopted in the short term, and the change will stick over time.

​Collagis is committed to helping businesses like yours to optimise workforce and organisational effectiveness. We'd love to hear from you to share how we can help you drive effective and sustainable transformational change

Change is the only constant thing and it is necessary in an organization or business. However, it can often take a toll on the employees so that they start to suffer from ‘change fatigue’ - increased stress, exhaustion and decreased commitment among employees. Over time, change fatigue can lead to burn out among your employees. Change fatigue is actually a form of ‘passive resignation’ and can have serious implications on your business.
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Here is how to reduce and combat change fatigue in your team.

1. Facilitate the change from the perspective of the entire team

Many organisations launch and manage change as individual projects within departmental boundaries yet this is not the reality of change. Change, even the smallest changes, sends ripples into other areas of the business. It may be a change specific to one area of the organisation but it will eventually affect the whole team. Stop managing change as a collection of projects but as an interconnected journey that the organisation is taking. If your plan is going to cause ripples, reduce the number of changes and increase your employees’ ability to handle change.

2. Begin at the end with every change

When initiating change of any size, start with an intended outcome that is understood and meaningful to the people affected. You cannot initiate change without having a clear outcome and communicating this outcome visibly to those who are involved. Outcomes expected from changes should be documented and communicated in a clear, concise and concrete way. It not only reduces the risk of change fatigue but also sets you up for success.

3. Build the change leadership strengths

Don’t separate leading and managing change from general operations because then leaders will easily overlook the impact of day to day leadership and management of the organisation on how the employees’ response to change. How you lead and manage when you are not implementing change will either improve or hinder your employees’ ability with change. To solve this problem, it is necessary for you to know the leadership and management activities that strengthen your organisation’s ability to handle change and those that do not. With this knowledge, you can do more of those activities that strengthen your capabilities and do away with those that weaken them.

4. Expand the involvement of the recipients of change

When implementing change, it is only a specific group of change management team that is involved in the planning and implementation. The others affected by the change become the recipients of the plan. This approach is not effective because there is no active involvement of the change-recipients. Therefore, they begin to feel like the change is being done to them and not with them. To solve this problem and avoid change fatigue, expand the level of active involvement in the areas and levels affected by the change.
Change fatigue is something you want to avoid in your team because it will slow down your progress and ability to accomplish your goals. 

Collagis is committed to helping businesses like yours to optimise workforce and organisational effectiveness. We'd love to hear from you to share how we can help you drive effective and sustainable transformational change. 

​Change can be frightening and intimidating to your team. For many, it might be something they want to avoid. But not all change is bad. As a matter of fact, it creates an excellent opportunity for growth, new directions and renewed energy. If you want to make change a positive experience, then use these tips:

1. Be strategic about change

While change is a necessity in an organisation, it should also be strategic. Don’t decide on changes without having a solid rationale for change. Look out for signs of change within your industry or organisation and how these changes affect the role of your team or your organisation. Besides making contingency plans in the expectancy of change, build scenarios for those possible changes. Spend time writing your case for change and helping to make this consumable for all different roles and personality types (simple, visual, data-driven, rational, emotive). Make sure the need for change can be understood from several angles and can also be justified to yourself!

2. Communicate the change

There is nothing as discouraging for employees or team members as having changes made in the organisation without their awareness or involvement. When employees have no communication about any changes taking place, they will be passive about the whole process and make it out to be a negative experience even when it was for their benefit. It is important for you to make an effort to communicate what you could see happening now and what might happen in the future.

You should encourage your team to express their perceptions and ideas. You may just be surprised at the insights they have. Furthermore, they will feel that their contributions are important enough to be considered in the change strategy. Having them as active participants is less likely to result in any negative energy or experiences in the course of implementing the changes.
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3. Coach for change

When implementing changes in your organization or team, it is not only important to have a change management team but also a training and coaching program for your employees. There is need for continuous improvement in all areas if change is to be successful and seen as a positive thing. Meet your team or employees on a regular basis and make them individual champions of change in the areas of their responsibility. It is good to encourage them to think and plan strategically for their roles and future roles. In addition, coach them so that you can help them develop the skills they need to implement the anticipated changes.

4. Try mini changes

Try small changes in your organization before the implementing the actual change. For example, you can encourage your team or employees to experience tasks outside their normal duties with other employees. Mini changes create a dynamic in an organization that promotes organizational cohesiveness.

5. Celebrate changes

​Take note of the little changes that happen on a daily basis. Make comments on them and when necessary, appreciate and celebrate them. Giving positive feedback on change to one employee leads to positive performance and creative thinking in the others. With all these said and done, still expect some resistance from some people in your team. Regardless of how well you prepare them, some people will still resist change. Nevertheless, these strategies should help you have more people having a positive experience with the changes than those who are not. 

Collagis is committed to helping businesses like yours to optimise workforce and organisational effectiveness. We'd love to hear from you to share how we can help you drive effective and sustainable transformational change. Contact us today at [email protected]