I think nearly every manager in the world must by now have managed a significant change initiative. During the past 20 years we’ve been on a constantly accelerating change curve. We’ve been placed in an almost constant state of flux as a result of globalization of markets, new technologies, and extreme economic fluctuations.

Having been through managed change at least once, managers should be fairly adept at it. However, many of the managers you’d think would be old hands at the change game still don’t seem to get it. They either haven’t learned from experience, or don’t apply what they know.

Over the past few years, I’ve watched many organizations attempt to manage change. Most apply much of what experience has taught them about transition management. However they often ignore other basic factors that are crucial to successful change. They eventually succeed, but with far more pain and frustration than necessary.

Some basic change guidelines seem to be overlooked more often than others, so as a “one more time” review of change management, I’ve listed the four that appear to be ignored most often:

The Most Neglected:

1. Realistic Expectations and Perseverance: Major change doesn’t occur in a neat step by step fashion. If you’ve experienced it before, you know there are setbacks, missteps, errors and changes in plans. It nearly always takes longer than you think it will. However, all too often organizations expect their change to occur in the way it seems to occur in books; neat and tidy in double quick time. In real life that’s seldom the way. This one is simple. Organizations that expect change to be difficult; accept and deal with challenges and setbacks, but persevere, will eventually succeed. Those that don’t fail.
2. The Three HR Tools: Most major change requires a change in employee attitude; a change in “the way we do things around here”. Often called “cultural change” this is often the most difficult part of the process. There are three critical HR tools that, if used effectively, and in concert, will help enormously. These are the three:
   
   • Performance Management should be used to recognize and reward new, desired behaviour at every opportunity. Every element of performance management should be geared toward encouraging employees to adopt new attitudes and behaviour.
   • Training and Development should focus on ensuring that all employees have the skill, knowledge and ability required to make the necessary changes.
   • Selection should be used to ensure that employees coming into the organization already exhibit the attitudes, behaviour and skill required in the new culture.

   Those that utilize these three to their fullest extent find that change comes more easily than those organizations that do so half-heartedly.

3. Sheep-Dip Versus Pockets of Success: There appears to be a prevailing belief that effective change should be introduced at the top and cascade down the organization, transforming levels as they are immersed in the change experience. If there is training involved for example, train the executives, then the next level, then the next etc. This we call the “Sheep-Dip Approach”, a metaphor based on the most effective way of getting ticks off sheep. The problem with this approach is that it will work for some employees but not others. Every change initiative has resistors, and for resistors this approach is a waste of time and resources.
   
   The “Pockets of Success Approach” on the other hand, starts with departments or business units that are known to be supportive of the change. Change progresses quickly and effectively in these departments, and their success is rewarded and advertised across the organization. This leads to other converts who generate more pockets of success, and eventually the resistors are wondering why they’re being left out. Which approach makes more sense to you?
   
4. Sense of Urgency: I’ve left the most obvious till last. It’s often called “developing a sense of urgency”. It simply means giving employees a compelling reason to change. Most change experts caution that until you have generated this sense of urgency, initiating other steps in the change process is a waste of time. If employees don’t see how they’ll benefit from accepting the change (or what they’ll lose by not accepting it) they are likely to resist. So before you progress with the change initiative, put yourself in the employees’ shoes. Ask if they have enthusiastically bought in because they see the benefits of the change, or of the consequences of not changing. If in any doubt, don’t move forward until a critical mass of key employees has a sense of urgency. Otherwise you’re wasting time and resources.