In business and life, it is a given that change is relentless - that adapting to change is not only the key to success but essential for survival.
Centerbrook, CT (PRWEB) August 28, 2013
Strategies, a leading national business management training and coaching company, has just posted a new article on their web site titled, “The Three Rules of Implementing Change.”
“In business and life, it is a given that change is relentless - that adapting to change is not only the key to success but essential for survival," says Strategies Founder & CEO, Neil Ducoff. “Yet, implementing change, even minor change, is seldom met with open arms. The constant companion of change is resistance.”
In business, change is about two factors: achieving next level growth or changing in order to survive. Survival change is scary because emotions are high, confidence is low, and the sense of urgency is often excruciating. Change to get to the next level is more organized and calculated, driven by a sense of urgency that is more motivating and inspiring than it is scary. The key to both types of change is to create a culture that embraces change with as little resistance and push-back as possible.
Here are the Strategies three rules of re-engineering and change:
Rule Number One: Leadership must be prepared to go all the way or not at all. Re-engineering or change cannot be done half way. No one person, group, or system can be excluded. Leaders must be prepared to go all the way - or don't re-engineer or change at all. Too many leaders fail rule number one because they refuse to put every person, group, system, or solution option on the table. They try to drive change while protecting and excluding key people or business practices from the process. Foolishly, some leaders want everyone else to change while they continue the same compromising thinking and behavior that created the mess in the first place. Change must be all-inclusive. Everything must be on the table to be reinvented or cut. No compromise.
Rule Number Two: Leadership can’t expect new behaviors and team performance if their pay program still rewards the old behaviors and performance they're trying to change. Well-designed compensation systems reward overall performance in areas such as critical numbers, skill development, culture, teamwork, and individual strengths. Too many leaders become obsessed with just performance and critical numbers - things they can measure. By doing so, they are missing the most powerful two categories that actually drive performance and critical numbers. It's "culture and teamwork" and "individual strengths" that deserve the attention ... and form the basis for meaningful financial reward and compensation. Simply put, if the compensation system rewards sales, the company may get the sales along with a lot of stuff it doesn't want. Every change initiative requires reengineering the pay system to ensure that it rewards the right thinking, behavior, and performance.
Rule Number Three: Relentlessly communicate the new vision of the business and its new culture, values, systems, and pay program. Rule number three is the single most overlooked and undervalued of the three rules. Change and reengineering is about taking the company to a better place. Maybe it's that elusive next level or maybe it's out of the fiery pit of financial hell. Either way, absolute and collective clarity on the new vision needs to exist, along with clear-cut images of what the new culture must look like, what the new shared values are, and how new systems will improve how work is done. Most important of all, of course, will be helping everyone to comprehend and embrace the upgraded pay program. Change begins with a vision. Relentless and persistent communication after launching a change initiative maintains a sense of urgency and nurtures the culture shift. Too many leaders hit the launch button, forget about relentless communication ... and wonder why their big change initiative crashed and burned in record time. A leader's primary responsibility is to relentlessly communicate the vision of the company. No compromise.
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About Strategies:
Neil Ducoff is the Founder and CEO of Strategies, a business management coaching, consulting and training firm. He is also is the author of the award-winning "No-Compromise Leadership" leadership book, as well as "Wake Up!" and the recently published second edition of "Fast Forward". To learn more at http://www.strategies.com/business.