FROM OUR CEO

“Road work” ahead!

January 10th, 2022 | From our CEO

The whispering starts. Calendars are checked. Minds bubble. Dangerous futures envisioned. Rumors circulate. Performance drops. People start to leave. Frustrations rise amongst those left behind, as they are puzzling with the question “What is in it for me?”

Signs of an organizational change in the making.

It does not have to be that way!

Let’s use road work as an analogy.

• Evidence is collected on transportation habits. How many are using the roads, when and how. Averages per day are not good enough. Details are required. Benefits are crystalized
• Users of the road are informed about upcoming road work, what the expected benefits will be, and when it is done – and are invited to give feedback
• The road work starts. Clear signs show deviations, and how much extra transportation time will be needed.
• Nobody considers stopping the road work when it is half done
• People on the ground help people navigate the road work, give directions, wave, and smile
• Road work is executed with maximum resources to ensure it is delivered in the shortest time possible – and if possible even at night to impact users the least
• Users are continuously informed if the completion date changes to the better or to the worse
• Eventually, the road is cleaned up and ready-for-use by its users. Benefits start to materialize

Now, think about the way organizational change is delivered.

• Organizational changes are often launched based on gut-feelings, not evidence and without any input collected from the people
• People are not engaged in the change design and informed before the implementation is launched.
• People do not know for how long the change is enduring, and how they are supposed to act. Their expected benefits are not detailed.
• People have no designated places, where they can voice their concerns. The trusted colleagues they normally seek out to make sense of things are “in the dark”
• Resistance builds up. Some leaders start to talk about dropping the change and rolling back to what once was. They often succeed by building alliances against the leader sponsoring the change. Not acting as ONE leadership team.
• Organizational changes drag out, as insufficient resources and mandates have been allocated to the project team
• The sponsors are not staying on top of change progress. Their minds have moved on to other ‘urgent’ tasks, but will check back in again at year-end… if they still remember
• Limited information on the change progress is shared with the people impacted. Information stays in between the project team, the executives and maybe the Yammer site that is used as the primary change communication channel (Note! 0% of people like Yammer as a Change Communication channel – Source: Innovisor)
• When the change is over the people are left with new systems, technologies, processes, and structures. Benefits only materialize slowly, if at all

Maybe organizational change can learn something from well-executed road works? What do you think?

P.S. There is another way for organizational change. Let’s talk, if you are interested.

Originally posted by Jeppe Vilstrup Hansgaard on https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/road-work-ahead-jeppe-vilstrup-hansgaard/