Top 10 ways to crush your transformation and change initiatives
- Sign the check, then check out: Get the funds or the green light to get an initiative rolling and then your work is done. Leave people with less power and influence in the organization with the task of pushing the boulder uphill on their own.
- Keep them guessing: Let the org watch the problems pile up and see the leaders heading off on retreats, but don’t tell them anything about what the company is up against or the plan to adapt. Share the least amount of info with as few people as possible. Let the rumor mill handle the Q&A.
- Change in a vacuum: Provide no vision or context for your initiative or why it matters. Set vague and unclear expectations of what people need to do. Do not let on that this could lead to improved results, and God forbid, do not provide a clear map on how to achieve them.
- Assume one size fits all: When planning for change, do not include people that will be impacted in the discussion. Assume that everyone will have the same desire for change, experience the same level of disruption, and absorb the same changes to how they do their job. Treat all people equally during the change.
- Strive for parity for technology-related changes: Spending millions on tech? Make sure it acts just like the old version. Do not waste time evaluating whether you should do things differently as part of this transition. Make everyone learn to do things the old way in a new tool. Everyone loves that.
- Use the molotov-cocktail deployment strategy: Just launch and run. Once you’ve flipped the switch, it’s flipped. Nothing else needed.
- Provide feast or famine training: If you must offer training, provide one 2-day long training session, in one location only. People can drop everything and attend or figure things out on their own. What could go wrong?
- Offer efficient, one-way communications: Tell people that they need to change, and what they need to change. Then say “make it so,” and you’re good to go.
- Ignore detractors: There will always be people who will think they know better. Some may voice loud complaints, and others may quietly keep doing things the old way as they wait-out this initiative du jour. Ignore them. They have no sphere of influence.
- Do not monitor results: If metrics don’t demonstrate an impact, your funding or initiative could get pulled. Avoid any talk about achievements and stick to matter-of-fact report outs listing all the tasks you have completed.
