ARTICLE

Steps to Developing a Solid Framework for Organizational Change

By Phara McLachlan
October 17, 2018

Taking an organization through a change and to a new level takes a lot of work. Use these simple eight steps to transform your organization.

Get ready to change. Start by helping the whole organization understand that the time to change is now. Determine what fundamental changes need to happen (processes, hierarchy, etc.) and then bring everyone on board to decide how best to make those changes.

Top-to-bottom support. Put together your ‘executive change team.’ You can’t achieve an organizational transformation without getting each level of the ranks involved. Senior management has to be visible and show their support as do individual project leaders. The rest of the staff will be more willing to participate in the changes if they see the importance reflected from the top down.

See the future. Create a specific vision of where you see the new organization going.

Spread the word. Educate the entire organization so they understand the vision and what their respective roles will be to make it happen. Don’t just make it a one-time thing…repeat the message: in emails, newsletters, at quarterly team meetings, etc.

Out with the bad; In with the good. Discard anything (or anyone) that would prevent the changes from happening. Instill confidence in remaining employees that their input is crucial to achieving the new vision.

Give them little victories. Change takes a long time so celebrate along the way with incremental improvements. This helps keep morale up and is a good practice that will keep employees with getting frustrated in the timing.

Don’t jump the gun. Everyone will be anxious for the changes to happen. This is why the little victories along the way are so important. You don’t want to announce that the intended changes have all been reached when there is likely more work to be done.

Set it in stone. Don’t just assume that the changes along the way will become common practice. Establish policies and procedures that employees can recognize and follow without confusion.

Change is complicated, but these easy steps will give you a huge jump on success!