The world is always evolving and organisations need to adapt continually to remain relevant. Many companies invest considerable time in organisational design, process, and system changes. However, changes involving people receive far too little attention.

Justin Grice, Head of Business Consulting and Molly Askew, Consultant at Eton Bridge Partners explore why the people part of the puzzle is so important and outline powerful strategies to ensure people are empowered to thrive throughout organisational change.

Justin has more than two decades of experience in consulting and industry and is a recognised expert in organisational design, culture change and building successful companies. Molly and Justin present the key themes here with a link to a longer thought leadership piece – including detailed strategies and case studies – at the end of this blog.

We all know that organisations need to adapt in order to survive and thrive. Businesses are facing an ever-evolving pace and intensity of change – it’s the new constant. The drivers for transforming organisations are specific to each organisation and the ability to pivot rapidly and effectively is today’s competitive advantage.). LinkedIn’s recent Work Change Snapshot found that 70% of global executives believe the rate of change at work is speeding up and 64% of professionals globally are feeling overwhelmed by the pace of change. These findings are also backed up in research by telecomms giant BT Group; over half (58%) of business leaders surveyed were worried about the pace of change.

More than ever, the realisation of strategic goals and competitive advantage rests on the ability to change effectively. Given the importance of successfully achieving change, it is staggering that according to change management guru John P. Kotter’s seminal book, Leading Change, 70% of change programmes fail. Something is clearly going wrong.

Why do so many change programmes fail to achieve their goals, despite transformation being a business-critical issue that leaders invest much time and energy in? The fact is that organisations consistently underestimate the need to support their people through change. Instead, there is a focus on more tangible aspects of change such as processes and systems with little consideration given to the true impact on employees.

People are instinctively resistant to change

We are naturally hardwired to fear change – whether that be ‘good’ change or ‘bad’ change. Organisational restructuring creates uncertainty; there can be fear of outright redundancy, scepticism around promises made by leadership and a sense of mistrust. Even without potential job losses, people may be concerned about the need to change processes and systems, possibly report to somebody new or learn new skills. Leadership messages and internal communications about the restructuring around culture and expectations are not enough to cut through this very human reaction. There’s a disconnect. The executive team may be asking why aren’t people getting it? Why aren’t people doing what we’ve told them to? Only by fully understanding how people react to change and authentically supporting them through the process, can you join up the dots.

How do you help people through change?

It is the people that make the new organisational design, processes and systems work.  So, when embarking on organisational change, you must spend as much time helping people to adapt and be successful as you do on executing the organisational change itself. Spending insufficient time on supporting people through change programmes can have far-reaching consequences as it can lead to low motivation and weak loyalty which impacts company performance.

There are six essential steps for empowering people to be part of successful organisational change. They are:

1. Start at the end – have a clear vision of your business in its future state and consider how people will need to behave in it.
2. Identify the gaps between current and future capabilities – consider how people will collaborate, relate to their managers and teams and make accountable decisions.
3. Understand how people change – they don’t change just because you tell them they should, people change because they believe they should. .
4. Develop a clear plan that is comprehensive, multifaceted and supports people emotionally.
5. Ensure everything is implementable before you implement – put all necessary preparations in place first.
6. Execute with excellence – people will contribute positively when you instil confidence in them.

To learn how to use these highly effective strategies in more detail and read case studies of implementing successful change, click here for the full article.