For the past few months, I’ve been planning and leading a full reorg for one of my clients. And it reaffirmed for me that change management — everything we preach and practice — really does work!
I was very intentional about the change management strategy. I planned everything, even down to the order & timing of the roll-out conversations with employees.
Every employee heard from both the CEO and their team leader about how their new division will work.
The morning conversations were easy ones where we were just informing people that their roles and divisions were staying essentially the same. Then, we moved onto the more difficult conversations where we informed people that their role, team, and/or leader was changing. Terminations were at the end of the day. That schedule helped to deter the rumor mill.
Everyone was given an opportunity to reaffirm that they want to be here by signing a new offer letter and also presented with the chance to part ways amicably.
Despite big changes in the organization, everyone is taking it all in stride. And I think it’s because the change management strategy was so detailed and painstakingly planned.
When you do it right, change management allows folks to move through the change much more easily and calmly. It’s worth every minute spent in planning.
And now, my client is moving forward with a tighter, more effective structure and engaged staff. Success!
Try this – Analyze your team(s) using the innovation curve
1. List out the individuals in your team or even the entire organization ― including individual contributors, managers, senior leaders, board or advisory councils, and HR/people ops/talent team members.
2. Take your best guess about where they fall on the innovation curve (see image below):
- Innovator: The first, curious and willing to experiment
- Early adopter: Intrigued by how new ideas and products may be helpful
- Early majority: Likes new ideas but wants to know for sure that something is going to be useful
- Late majority: Afraid of risk and doubtful of their own ability to use new ideas, wants finished & proven ideas
- Laggards: Resistant to any change, only makes changes when they have to
3. Analyze the data to determine your change management strategy.
For example, let’s say you notice that your senior leaders and board members are all early majority on the innovation curve ― in that case, you’ll want to pilot the initiative so these stakeholders can see outcomes before you roll the change out more broadly.
Or let’s say that your senior leaders and board members are all innovators or early adopters. In that case, you can probably roll the change out across the organization without a pilot.
Or let’s say that you notice that individual contributors are laggards and managers are late majority on the innovation curve. If senior leaders and board members are all innovators, you as the talent leader will have to manage their expectations by explaining that change will take longer given the lower appetite for change in the rest of the organization.
You’ll come out of this exercise with clarity on how to roll out change in your organization in a way that will stick!
Join us — April Talent Roundtable
No one should dread performance management.
In this session, we’ll discuss how to design performance systems that are fair, clear, and development-oriented — without being overly complex or burdensome.
We’ll explore:
- What drives consistency across managers
- How to use rubrics and feedback effectively
- How to align performance conversations with growth and accountability
Join us April 8 from 12 to 1pm Eastern.
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Work with us — Develop or enhance your career pathways!
Successful nonprofit talent leaders push forward on career pathways work even when it’s not the most pressing priority.
Why? They know this work is important for the long-term stability of their organization.
The good news is that you still have time to get a beta system in place by the start of the next fiscal year.
Career pathways define the skills and the mastery level of each skill that team members will need to succeed in different roles. This enables them to develop or learn new skills and plan upward or lateral moves.
TalentED Advisors can help you identify core competencies, build out career pathways for each role, prepare leaders to implement the new pathways, and assess how the pathways are performing post-implementation.
You’re creating transparency for folks about how they can evolve with the organization.
Book a free, no-obligation call so we can explore whether TalentED Advisors is a good fit to help your organization.
