Leading Teams Through Change – 6 Actions to Make Change Easier for Any Team
Make change easier for any team by using 6 actions to reduce fears, provide purpose and help individuals learn and adapt to what is changing.
Humans don’t like rapid change as a general rule. Our brains create patterns and once it recognises a pattern, we follow the actions that worked well last time almost without thinking. Change means our brains need to create new patterns which takes effort. The more effort needed, the more resistance to change for the person. On top of this we humans are emotional and often irrational beings.
Leading Teams through change – 6 actions to make change easier for any team
- Start with the most important – the why
- Explain clearly what is in it for them
- Break down change into manageable tasks and activities
- Spend more time listening than talking
- Teach people how to change
- Hold team members accountable for change
If, when taking teams, departments and companies through change, we don’t pay enough attention to the human side of change, the changes planned are going to be painful for everyone. Much better is to work carefully guiding staff through change and providing support and help to change. Change will be a lot quicker and a lot more successful as a result which helps everyone.
I have implemented a lot of business wide projects from functional turnarounds, to ERP systems with over 50 users, corporate restructures and redesigning operational systems to increase scalability. Guiding people through the change has always a much bigger challenge than planning out the steps and activities of the project. Always focus more of your time on the people than technically what needs to happen.
Your staff are your business. The people in the business make the decisions, decide what to work on and how to do that work. When you win over the people, and they are happy with the change needed, you will get change – as you expect it – a lot quicker. Try to change sceptical staff members and you will get a long list of reasons why people resist change in the workplace.
Employ the best change management with teams that you can, so you get the best results as quickly as possible.
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The first action to make change easier for any team is start with explaining the why
If we are being asked to put in a ton of effort to change, we want to know why. Think about what questions will be going through everyone’s mind when you start communicating the change planned. For example
- Will the effort of changing be worth it?
- How will the change benefit me and my colleagues?
- How will this change help the company and improve my job security?
- Is this change important and will it last?
Before explaining the detail of the change, explain the why. Give purpose and context to the change by explaining the why. Make it clear in everyone’s mind the change has a purpose and it will make people better off as a whole.
When change helps the group overall and has a clear purpose, most people are much more willing to accept change, even if they will personally be worse off.
Always explain the why before doing anything else. Then you go into more detail about what is being changed and how the change will happen. Explain the why first.
clearly explain what is in it for them – The second action for leading teams through change
Explaining the why provides purpose. Explaining exactly what is in it for them provides the incentive to change. The more powerful you make the incentives, the more likely people will change quickly.
The more you know about the ambitions and fears of the people in the team, or the function etc the easier it is to positively position how the change will make them better off. Talk to what they want and what they want to avoid.
Be clear, be realistic and be honest in your communications. Maintaining trust is very important to leading teams through change. Don’t overly exaggerate, or gloss over the challenges or ignore the problems. Chances are the team members will be very aware of them. Acknowledge the challenges while presenting the best upsides for individual or group.
The more realistic you are, the more confidence team members will have that you can implement the change successfully and they will get the benefits promised.
Always take individuals and teams through what the change will do for them.
The third action for good change management with teams is to break the change into manageable tasks and activities
Explain to the team and each individual what they need to do to transition through the change. Make it as easy as possible for the other person to know they need to do differently and what they need to learn and change.
The better they understand how they need to change, the more likely they will be able to change quickly. Go through step by step what they need to do.
Spend time answering their questions. Ask them to explain what needs to happen back to you. Check they understand each point before moving on to the next. Provide notes and diagrams to remind team members what they should do differently. Explain the impact on their jobs, their tasks and activities and their responsibilities.
Break down change into manageable tasks and activities that the team understands and can easily relate to.
The fourth action to make change easier is to spend more time listening than talking
Change can be very scary for some people. We all have fears, insecurities and questions when faced with change. Having the opportunity to voice our concerns and talk through what is sparking our fears and insecurities usually reduces those fears and makes us more accepting of change.
When leading teams through change, spend more time listening than talking.
Listen to concerns, issues, challenges, ideas and solutions from team members. Chances are you will learn something new, spot something you have not considered or be given a better solution to a specific problem. Being able to lead teams through change and reduce the resistance to change will make you a lot more effective at successfully implementing change. A very valuable skill to build to any company.
Listening a lot gives you access to a much wider range of ideas and challenges that you might have thought about on your own. Use the talents and experience of your whole team by listening to them.
Spend more time listening than talking during change.
teach people how to change – The fifth action for leading teams through change
Even bright and very able individuals need help building the skills or experience that will enable them to make the change you are asking for.
Don’t assume that explaining what change you need is enough to enable all of your team to make that change. You are the best person to judge the capabilities of the people you lead.
I personally have always found it a lot quicker and easier to teach people exactly what they need to do change. Go through the steps with them in detail. Answer all their questions. Ask them to explain it to you. Sit with them while they go through the steps for the first time. Go back the next day and observe them so you can answer any more questions and correct what they are doing wrong. Repeat this observe and teach process until they have got it.
When you are leading a much bigger group, make sure all your managers know exactly what is needed, and observe them teaching their teams to make sure it is consistent and correct across the business. Make sure your manager has it right so they will get it right for their staff members. This is a brilliant way to leverage your time and reduce future challenges.
Teaching people how to change is a lot quicker than hoping they work it out for themselves.
The sixth action to make change easier is to hold team members accountable to change
Holding team members accountable is one of the bigger challenges of change management. 43% of leaders find giving corrective feedback “stressful and difficult”. Even more managers find holding team members accountable an even bigger challenge.
When going through change and especially after you have put in all the effort to explain the why, the what and the how plus provided support and training, you need individuals and teams to make the change you have asked for.
Once you have set really clear expectations with a team, and you have earned the trust of that team, holding team members to account is a lot more straight forward. To hold team members accountable for making the changes asked, do each of these actions
- Communicate clear goals and expectations about the change being asked for
- Build capability in your team to make the change
- Create visibility of progress toward the goals of the change
- Follow-up and give plenty of honest feedback
- Implement clear consequences for resisting change and benefits of making the change
Holding team members accountable is a process or a framework of using each of these interdependent steps.
Make sure your team implements the change you are asking for by doing all these steps day in day out through the period of change.
In Summary
Make leading teams through change easier and more successful by implementing each of the 6 actions we have covered today. Always focus more of your time on the people than technically what needs to happen to change.
As a quick reminder, the 6 actions to make change easier for any team and these are:
- Start with the most important – the why
- Explain clearly what is in it for them
- Break down change into manageable tasks and activities
- Spend more time listening than talking
- Teach people how to change
- Hold team members accountable for change
If you have any questions on the “6 Actions to Make Change Easier for Any Team”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.
Every business changes. Some slowly and increasingly a larger number quite fast. Helping a team through a period of change is becoming common for managers. Learning how to make the period of change happen quickly, for the team to take responsibility for the changes and to ensure the changes successful happen are very valuable skills to any manager and business.
I use these six steps through any period of change I am leading a team through. I have managed multiple team turnarounds and teams in fast growing businesses. Making change as easy as possible for teams certainly increases team performance, team motivation and give a lot of satisfaction as a manager. Learn these incredibly useful skills!
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