PART IV: CHANGE MANAGEMENT - COMPONENTS OF THE STRENGTHEN YOUR CORE PLAN - WILLIAM EASTMAN

Many years ago I had the good fortune of working with John Kotter who is  considered the foremost expert on organizational change. We took his book "The Heart of Change", which was an academic review of effective change strategies and created something for business owners - "Our Iceberg Is Melting".

One thought before we start, you need to review PART III and those 4 Episodes (57-60). That show covered the big issues and today we are going small. Also, the shows we covered this week in Finance (Episodes 61-64), Operations (Episodes 65-68), Customers (Episodes 69-72), and People (Episodes 73-76) provide the details contained in the change plan.

EPISODE 77: Summary
The following 8 Steps reflect how the companies that were able to make change work for them. I have used it many times over the last 18 years with my clients and companies.

Topics:

1. Establishing A Sense of Urgency
2. Create a Guiding Coalition
3. Develop a Change Vision & Strategy
4. Communicating the Change Vision
5. Empowering for Action
6. Generating Short-Term Wins
7. Consolidating and Accelerating Change
8. The New Culture

EPISODE 78: Initiating the Change
Let's start with consolidating these 8 Steps into 3 Phases. The first is the prework you need to - as we covered last week in PART III: CHANGE MANAGEMENT - STRENGTHENING YOUR CORE PLAN. 

Topics:

• Market Research
  • Current Weaknesses that will make the situation worse
  • Future Threats that must be removed
  • Current Strengths we can build on
  • If we can make the change, great Opportunities open to us
• Strategy Changes
  • Impact on brand
  • Impact on current products and/or services and the mix that comprises your offer
• Impact on Operations
  • Implications of changing products and/or services on processes
• Impact on People
  • Implications on the future
  • Implications on their roles
• Impact on Customers
  • Implications on the value of our offer to customers and price point
• Impact on Suppliers
  • Implications on our relationship with major suppliers

EPISODE 79: The Burning Platform Team
The second phase is to build the team that is going to support the change. Having your people involved will ensure better thinking and commitment to make it happen. If you have few employees, they will be part of the Guiding Coalition and Action Teams. If you are alone - then you have the load. The steps don't change, just the dynamics.

Topics:

• Creating Guiding Team
  • Who should be on the team
  • What is their role
  • How will they operate
• Developing the Change Vision
  • Impact on the company's Vision - what modifications are required - if any
  • Impact on the company's Mission - what modifications are required - if any
  • Impact on the company's Values or Operating Principles - what modifications are required - if any
• Developing the Change Strategy
  • ​What are the company's Aspirations (Initiatives) for the change?
  • If the Aspirations are obtained, what are Results (Goals) for the change?
  • If the Results are achieved, what are the Activities (Objectives) for the change?

EPISODE 80: The Plan
The third phase covers the last 4 steps - Empowering for Action, Generating Short-Term Wins, Consolidating and Accelerating Change, and the New Culture.

Topics:

• What is the Plan to make the change effort successful?
  • Given you need short-term wins to build momentum, where will you start?
    • It must be significant enough to matter and easy as a first win - you must have a success story to tell from the first attempt (SCRUM #1)
    • What process are you going to use to create the first success - (Sprints)
  • What is second - SCRUM #2
  • What is third - SCRUM #3, etc.
• How are you going to use those early successes to create momentum and accelerate the process?
  • Ongoing to communication plan to keep everybody up-to-date
• How is the progress affecting the company?
  • Impact on Vision, Mission, Values - need to change/update?
  • Impact on compensation - are you rewarding the past or the future?
• Add to your company's story

How to apply today's show to your business:

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