Change Management 101

Some of you may be wondering, why the heck am I dedicating a whole newsletter to change management? 

Is that even HR’s job??? – me to myself every day. JK!!! 😬 😬

Historically, change management has been handled by various functions across an organization like the C-Suite, PMOs (project management offices), heads of business units, and even corporate comms teams. 

And at bigger organizations, this still might be the case!

But if you’re at a smaller organization where those functions aren’t focused on it, don’t exist, or worse can’t be trusted, a lot of the change management can fall to HR. 

And honestly… I’m not mad about it. 

Why?

Because change at organizations has a real impact on the EMPLOYEES and their EXPERIENCE.

And therefore HR should be involved, either in partnership with other groups or potentially leading the process. 

Here are some warning signs that your organization may be struggling with change management:

👎🏽 High employee resistance 

👎🏽 Low employee trust 

👎🏽 Increased turnover

👎🏽 Low leadership alignment

👎🏽 Change fatigue 

If you read that list and thought “yup that’s my org” then this is the edition for you. 

There are 3 things you can do to get more effective at change management:

• Get your leaders aligned  
• Improve communication
• Train your employees

Communication:

You’re probably tired of me talking about communication. But listen, EVERYONE has to get better at communication. Including me. 

We’re in the attention economy – there’s always something out there taking your employee’s attention away. A new meeting invite, a fresh Slack, breaking news etc. The list is never ending. 

📣 The most important part of change management is communication. 

Your comms strategy should be: 

• Consistent
• Timely 
• Transparent 

Consistent in that every touchpoint should have words, actions and strategy aligned. This is one of the most crucial parts of all the comms and if your leaders & managers aren’t on board this could be where things get tricky. The worst thing is HR communicating one thing and managers botching it in individual conversations. Cue employee confusion and distrust. More on that later! 

Timely is important, because you want to make sure it’s relevant to employees and also balance enough time to work through the change. There’s nothing worse than something last minute because it makes the employees feel like this change wasn’t thought through and their notice was an afterthought.

My golden rule is minimum 2-week notice for a minimal change, 3-4 weeks for something medium changing, and if it’s something that’s going to dramatically change the organization the earlier the better. 

In terms of cadence, most changes require more than 1 communication. On average folks need to hear things 5-7 times for the change to fully sink in. Consider spreading your comms across email, meeting, town hall, etc. 

Transparent communication ensures every employee knows what, how, and why for every change made. Employees fear the unknown so the goal of transparent comms is to make sure all questions are answered. 

Pro-tip: in your comms, you can include Common Q&A and pre-answer questions you think you might get! This is incredibly powerful, because it shows employees you thought of their questions ahead of time and sought to preemptively answer them. 

📃The first page of any of my change management plans is a communication matrix where I outline the following:

• Type of communication: email, meeting, town hall, newsletter
• Audience: leaders, managers, employees
• Message: actual copy for all involved to read what is being shared
• Cadence: when this is happening / how many times 

This is how I can ensure my strategy is consistent, timely and transparent! 

Not every change you make as an organization will require a plan but **most** could benefit from at least having all the comms outlined. 

It’s not overkill- I promise!

Training:

Some change management will require training. MY FAVE!

Things like rolling out new ways of working, processes, or tech. 

You want employees to understand, adopt, and support the changes and sometimes that requires an extra step of training. 

Training is often overlooked when it comes to change management. Some folks may think employees will just “get it” or will figure it out on their own. 

💡 But without the proper training, employees can easily become: 

• Overwhelmed
• Disengaged
• Resistant to the change because lack of knowledge

🚉 Training can take many forms like:

• 10 minutes at a company wide meeting
• Peer to peer
• Hands on workshops
• A recorded video
• Manager led sessions 

Training is what bridges the gap between announcing a change and the change being adopted by employees. 

Next time consider if there is an opportunity to insert training into your change management plans.

Leadership alignment: 

Leadership alignment can be one of the hardest things to nail when it comes to change management. 

Leaders across every level need to have the info, confidence and empathy to lead their teams through changes. 

And some just don’t… 

So that means HR sometimes needs to be SUPER intentional about how to get leadership alignment about any changes happening. 

Here’s how I do this:

✅ Leverage meetings: is there a meeting where all leaders are present? Make sure you’re on the agenda with an item to discuss upcoming changes. If you do not attend, but there is another representative from the team that does, arm them with the info they need and ALWAYS follow up in written form. 

✅ Create resources: Toolkits, guides, talking points whatever you can create – DO IT! Instruct leaders on how to leverage these resources and how important it is that these changes are effectively communicated. 

✅ Host specific manager / leader training: These groups could benefit from customized trainings that hammer home the change and ensure alignment. 

✅ Host 1:1 on sessions: if this change is impactful enough where leaders may need 1:1 time to discuss or practice, that is always an option. 

Finally, feel free to  scream at them. Just kidding, I wanted to make sure you were still reading and paying attention!!  🙂 

TBH: Leadership alignment is the biggest failure point I see when it comes to change management. 

There’s always that 1 leader that’s like, “IDK what we’re doing, but HR told me I have to say this.” 🙄 🙄

Get ahead of that person and hit them with all the resources to make sure everything goes according to plan. 

And if you have 1 leader who ALWAYS fumbles the change, consider if they truly deserve to be a leader. 

Just sayin’.

When all else fails, remember:

Almost all changes at an organization impact THE PEOPLE.

And what function can connect the business strategy & the people strategy??

YOU GUESSED IT… HR!!!!!

HR can make a huge impact when it comes to how organizations make changes, foster trust and build resilience. 

And to leave you with some inspo, my good friend Socrates is attributed with saying “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

Let’s go build something new!

What’s luck got to do with it?

On the note of something new, next week I’m trying something a bit different! 

It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and I want to talk about the lucky moments in HR. 

Just wait to see what I have up my sleeve!