manager

A Manager’s Guide to Managing Change: Checklist For Success (Step I)

***Is your project on the path to success or to become one of the many that fail to achieve the expected benefits?***

The lessons I’ve learned, from the past twenty-five years of working with senior leadership of Fortune 500 corporations to prepare for enterprise-wide change, can help you avoid mistakes that can prevent your change initiative from succeeding.

There are six critical requirements for success:

Shared Vision
Understanding of the Full Impact to the Organization
Effective Stakeholder Engagement
Clear, Consistent and Continual Communication
Adequate Preparation
A Plan to Sustain

We will focus on one requirement in each of the next six blogs as a step you can take to minimize resistance, increase readiness, and realize the benefits of a successful change initiative. Together, they can serve as a checklist to evaluate the current status of your project.

A Manager’s Guide to Managing Change: Assessing Impact (Step II)

***Is your project on the path to success or to becoming one of the many that fail to achieve the expected benefits?***

Step One, Shared Vision, was the focus of my previous article. We will now shift our focus to Step Two: Understanding the Full Change Impact to the Organization

Have you identified the degree and type of changes required to realize your project’s benefits?

If not, how can people be prepared when you haven’t determined what type of change to prepare them for?

There is no such thing as a “small” change. Change has a ripple effect that is often underestimated. A change in technology will require a change in process that will affect how and where work is done.

A Manager’s Guide to Managing Change: Checklist for Success (Step III)

Effectively Engaging Stakeholders

The third step on the path to success is to effectively engage stakeholders. A stakeholder is anyone who will experience change because of your project or who has the ability to influence the outcome of your project. The keywords here are impact and influence.

The Impact Assessment, described in Step 2, is a tool to identify the type and degree of change and the areas and individuals affected. You can identify the high influence stakeholders by asking who has the power – whether formal or informal – to prevent your project from achieving success. Your Stakeholder Engagement Plan established the timeline, defines key objectives and describes the approach to involving the high impact/high influence stakeholders throughout the project.

Communication alone is not sufficient to achieve the level of support and preparation high impact/high influence stakeholders require for your project to be successful. Engaging the right stakeholders at the right time in the right way creates an opportunity for them to take ownership of the outcome. They become part of what is happening instead of an observer or a victim of what will be different. We are less likely to resist what we have a voice in creating.

Changing The Way, You Think About You: How to Rethink Your Way To A Happier Life

by Rita Burgett-Martell

Here’s a quiz to help you identify behaviors that may be undermining your self-confidence and preventing you from living the life you desire. Respond with a simple “yes” or “no” answer to each statement and then tally up the number of yeses.

1. I often compare myself to others.

2. I make decisions based on what others tell me I should do.

3. I would have to honestly say I sometimes take my family for granted.

4. I find myself thinking more about the past or worrying more about the future instead of focusing on what’s happening in the present moment.

5. I often give up on my goals when things aren’t going my way.

6. I believe that if I do something less than perfectly, I’ve failed.

7. I play it safe. Taking risks is not for me.

8. I sometimes believe I will never fall in love, and if I do it won’t last.

9. I used to dream about the life I wanted, but not anymore. Dreams are a waste of time.

10. I’m always rushing to get things done and seldom have time to “smell the roses.”

Did you respond with “yes – that describes me” – to more than 2 or 3? It’s ok if you did because there’s no pass or fail. The purpose of the quiz is to increase your awareness of thoughts and behaviors you can change that will make a positive difference in how you see yourself and react to those around you.

The quiz is based on one of my favorite poems by Nancye Sims called “A Creed to Live By.” I’m including it below, followed by a modified version that exams each statement and thoughts triggered for me that changed my thinking and put me on the path to experience a more fulfilling life. I hope they will help you as well.

Second Chances

by Rita Burgett-Martell

“It’s never too late to become what you might have been.”
George Eliot

When Joe’s manager began the conversation by saying: “I want you to know how grateful we are for your twenty years of valuable service to our company,” Joe expected to hear that he was being promoted, or at least receiving a pay increase. After all, his performance reviews had never been less than stellar.it came as a shock when what he heard next was: “our company is moving in a new direction and unfortunately your skills aren’t the skills we need. We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.”

It was a defining moment when Joe realized that doing a good job no longer guarantees that you’ll keep your job.

How To Be A Leader People Want To Follow

by Rita Burgett-Martell

“The days of Command and Control are over. Today’s leaders must Trust and Inspire their employees to be trusted as leaders.”
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I was a shy sixteen years old, afraid of my own shadow, the summer I worked as a Nurse’s Aide at our local hospital. The Director of Nursing was a strong loud woman that I found very intimidating. Whenever I saw her coming I would turn and go the other direction, or look for someplace to hide.

One day she stopped beside me, put her arm around my shoulder, and said: “I want you to look at my shoes.”

I immediately thought there must be something wrong with my shoes. They were the wrong kind. They weren’t as white as hers. They weren’t laced up correctly. I was literally “shaking in my shoes,” expecting to be criticized or reprimanded. Instead, her words taught me a valuable lesson in leadership that has served me well in my career.

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Effectively Engaging Stakeholders

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