The decision to change is usually the easy part. A leadership team agrees on a new structure, a new system, or a new way of working. The announcement is made. And then, six months later, the organisation is largely doing what it was doing before, with a new name on the org chart.
The announcement is not the change ¶
One of the most persistent mistakes in change management is treating the announcement as the beginning of the change process. It is not. By the time the announcement is made, the leadership team has usually been living with the new idea for months. They have processed the implications, worked through their objections, and arrived at a place of genuine commitment. The people receiving the announcement have not. They are at the beginning of a process the leadership team has already completed.
The people who were not in the room ¶
Change programmes stall most often at the level of the people who were not involved in making the decision and who have to live with it. This is not a communication problem, though it is often treated as one. It is a participation problem. People do not resist change because they do not understand it. They resist it because they had no hand in shaping it and do not trust that their concerns were considered.
The implementation plan that does not account for the actual work ¶
Most change implementation plans are written by people who are not doing the work that will be affected. They tend to underestimate the time required, overestimate the capacity of the people involved, and miss the specific points where the change will create friction. A realistic implementation plan is written with the people who will be doing the implementing, not for them.
What good change management looks like ¶
Good change management involves the affected people early, before the decision is final if possible, and certainly before the announcement. It creates genuine channels for concerns to be heard and, where possible, acted on. It builds in time for the implementation to be tested and adjusted before it is rolled out fully. And it has a named person who is accountable for the process, not just the outcome.
If your organisation is in the middle of a change that is not moving as planned, it is worth having a direct conversation about what is getting in the way. We offer a free 45-minute discovery call. Book one at hello@guildbranch.com.