Change management is a delicate topic with many concerns: how can you support employees during a transition? How can you involve them and make them want to be involved in the transformation project? Discover Sagarmatha’s tips for successful change management!
Company transformation: our tips to support change
Is change in a company really something to be afraid of?
During a significant change, whether in our personal or professional life, it’s not the fact of change that is frightening but the idea we have about the change. When your employees hear people talking about transition, it’s the potential consequences of the change and the uncertainties it produces that are a cause of concern: “I know what I’m losing, but I don’t know what I’m gaining.”
A whole process of accepting the change takes place, over several stages. Initially, fear of the unknown takes the employee out of their comfort zone, creating a period of uncertainty when negative emotions prevail.
Then the change is implemented, offering the employee a period of “compromise”: I’m going to participate in the change project, I’d like to do it, but how? This is a time for discussion, when everyone sets the conditions that suit them best, which could result in
a positive, productive change. Following this key stage of compromise, the employee enters a new phase, with a positive vision and emotions:
- Adaptation: the will is there, but you need to find the path to follow
- Acceptance: the employee finds their bearings in the project, tries new things
- Integration: the change is accepted and the new things are now part of their everyday experience
To lead change management successfully, after the difficult process of implementation, you must anticipate the negative period that follows the shock. Reassuring employees, keeping them informed and involving them to make them stakeholders in the change. To deal with resistance to change, the psychologist Cécile Kapfer says we should “be aware that everything changes, including ourselves, even when we don’t think we are changing: every experience, every encounter changes us.”
“People are not afraid of change, they are afraid of the idea of change.”
Seneca
Did you know?
During a company change project:
53% of employees react with lukewarm support
24% resist out of principle
12% reject the change
Only 11% give strong support
Some of Sagarmatha’s tips for successful change management
Is your company at the core of a transformation project and struggling to get a handle on it? Here are Sagarmatha’s tips for ensuring your change management is positive!
1. Anticipate
As we’ve already said, a company change project needs to be planned! As soon as the change project is on the horizon, prepare and put in place an employee engagement programme for the transformation plan, to ensure your employees take it on board. Try to put yourself in your employees’ shoes so that you can identify the obstacles and levers to motivation. You will then be able to anticipate your employees’ fears and be one step ahead, by highlighting the improvements and benefits of the project.
2. Communicate
Good communication is the key to engagement and cooperation from your employees. Create an internal communication network and activate it regularly, in an educational way. Take a positive angle and deal with topics in a welcoming manner. Listen to people and try to respond to as many questions as possible.
3. Give meaning
When you communicate, give meaning to the change, explain why this transition has to take place, point out the benefits. Give them a clear objective, which it is in their interests to achieve, giving them the desire to embrace the change for the good of the company and for everyone.
4. Give visibility
To involve your employees and get them engaged in the change project, it’s essential to help them look ahead. Give them visibility about the actions to be taken, the schedule you want to follow, the different stages and everyone’s role in the new project.
5. Use a co-building approach
At Sagarmatha, we are convinced that “Alone we go faster, but together we go further”. Identify willing employees (in different roles at different hierarchical levels) to set up a steering committee, in which you can test ideas and re-adapt according to the feedback you receive. In this way, you can revise the proposed initiatives to enrich the project and the internal engagement programme. Co-building is ideal for starting change from the inside, as the change is led by staff, for staff.
6. Value involvement
Throughout the transformation, make sure you recognise and congratulate the adaptability of your employees, who have engaged with you to help the company prosper. Recognition is essential to ensure that everyone feels valued, so everyone can see that their efforts are recognised and properly appreciated.
At Sagarmatha, we support companies during the change process, making very sure we adopt a strategy suited to the needs and identity of your company. For successful change management, the key is to take an educational, agile, positive angle.
Through a personalised support system, we help your teams understand the benefits of change, on a personal level and for the company as a whole. We suggest agile methods to help you find the most appropriate process. We can help you set up the project, the internal communications plan and organise joint discussion sessions. To bring your teams together and activate your human potential around a large-scale project, we organise fun, sociable special events.
