The back half of the 7 principles of evolution/transformation is more focused on the supporting attitudes or behaviors to accomplish change than they are on tangible actions. With our purpose defined, a general path laid out, progress being benchmarked and monitored, and defined foundational plans to create and reinforce processes, we move to one of the two critical attitudes/behaviors for success: Persistence. Just as a refresher, I defined this phase early on as:
Persistence: Repetition and sustained focus on effort, explanation of future state and path/process, bright spots on adoption curve, course correction where path/process were askew, and required cultural change.
The overall theme here is persistence, perseverance, stick-to-it-iveness, or whichever adjective you prefer is a fundamental requirement to make a large change. It’s going to take a while. It’s going to be hard. Just like for that poor turtle above …it may feel like you aren’t moving forward, but you have to keep moving, perpetually. Things are going to go wrong…and right. Other challenges are going to arise with your organization. You are going to have turnover. The macro environment will likely make you change plans more than once. All of this requires an immense amount of persistence to work through and overcome. For this post, Ill focus on 4 areas that specifically will require you to persist to succeed.
1 Repetition in communication
You have developed a north star and a path to get there…now you will be repeating it over and over for the coming weeks and months (and maybe years). You need to create and reinforce alignment through your organization by consistently sharing the message- both within your team and the broader organization. You must pick up all the new people who join and help them be immersed in where you are going. You want to remind everyone on regular intervals where you are going to keep everyone in lockstep on journey.
Beyond repeating the where, why, and how you are going you have to persist in one additional area of the change journey: the timeline. Explicitly reminding folks of the defined timeline for the change to happen and take hold is absolutely critical. If you don’t do this the outcomes can be catastrophic. Within your team, people forget that they are on a change journey that actually has an end point and start to feel like they are on a never-ending, never stabilizing team that is always in tumult – expectations have changed of those working through change. Not great. Outside of your team, folks will lose track of your plan and wonder why things are taking so long, why they aren’t done yet, what you are doing to turn the tide, etc. – expectations have changed by those outside your team who are expecting the change. Those perceptions can be toxic as everyone will push for faster resolution (if no demonstrable timetable is front and center) and you’ll start getting “help” from third parties that will likely drive you off course. Again, not great.
Managing the timeline for change both internally and externally can be one of the most beneficial facets of managing the project with the least amount of effort required. The inverse is absolutely true: if you don’t take that small amount of time, it will cost you a ton of effort later to change perceptions (and it may end up being a fool’s errand) even if you change journey is still on schedule but expectations have changed from lack of timeline clarity.
Persist in telling your full story (the plan, the why, the progress, the timeline) and everyone benefits, even though you will get tired of repeating the same story.
2 Sustained focus on prioritized plans and ongoing execution
As we discussed above: “Things are going to go wrong…and right. Other challenges are going to arise with your organization. You are going to have turnover. The macro environment will likely make you change plans more than once.” Through all this, you need to keep consistent focus on making sure the core, fundamental prioritized plans that you’ve laid out are accomplished. Especially when those plans have a level of sequentiality to them – a delay in A will delay B, C, and so on. You will need to track and drive those fundamental priorities to completion on time and in full as often as possible to keep your uber project on track. It will require your time and energy even when all the above distractions come – and they will.
You’ll have the numerous challenges mentioned along with work on your prioritized, fundamental change plans all happening at once. During all of that, you also must create time and structure to make sure the proverbial train stays on the tracks – you have to track and drive ongoing execution. Your plan is in progress during the change journey…but you can’t lose sight of the day to day that’s happening while you build the future. You’ll need to be diligent in making sure your org is performing as best it can while you reposition it for the future, or you may well not be there to see that future come to fruition. Execution matters.
Persist in tracking and driving your foundational plans while you closely monitor and improve your day to day operations, and you’ll find yourself in a healthier position to drive your change on time and in full.
3 Reinforce bright spots in the adoption curve
This point will be the easiest for some of you and the hardest for others. For me, remembering to take time and intentionally celebrate the wins – or in this case just adherence to the expectations – does not come naturally. I have high expectations for myself and others, so that leads me to assume that success will come and as a result I often don’t take time to celebrate it. In a change journey like this, it is paramount that time is taken to consistently reinforce when the right things happen. This needs to be for big and small things and pervasive through organizational leadership. It can’t be the once a month “update” with everyone getting credit. It needs to be in the moment and specific when you see the right behaviors/actions happening aligned to your new foundational plans.
While it is necessary and great to do at the individual level, it can be even more powerful at the team level. When you can share examples of widespread adoption of a change within a team, it reinforces for everyone on that team (and through your org and the broader org) that change is taking hold and become the new normal. These bright spots are springboards to set new baseline expectations for the organization in a good, healthy way as a result of accomplishment.
Persist in highlighting successes, little and large, throughout your organization and you’ll slowly begin to move the base expectations towards your future goal one recognition at a time.
4 Continued indoctrination into the culture you are building
As the change leader, the hardest part of the change will be changing the existing culture to a new foundational culture of your design. One of the pillars of helping grow the culture is through the last step: reinforce the bright spots where you are doing well – little or large, individual or team. That puts a spotlight for the organization on what you want to see and what you value. You can’t stop there, however.
As importantly, you have to explicitly and publicly stop accepting and allowing “negatives”, where people are not adopting the required change and/or are actively working against it. Largely, I believe in handling things privately as often as possible, but in a change journey like this it is imperative that everyone understand what the expectations are and they see that when they aren’t met, it isn’t acceptable. That means sometimes that the transgression needs to be handled publicly. If someone violates one of your key values in how they treat one another, not only must it be addressed privately, it should be addressed publicly in as delicate a way as possible. If people are not following the new foundational processes you’ve laid out, that information should be available for everyone to see even if the conversations are held privately. If people are openly trying to undermine progress and are unwilling to evolve, they should no longer be part of the journey with your team.
By highlighting the positives and being explicit about unacceptability of the negatives, you are setting a tone. You can amplify that tone by allowing and empowering the team take the lead in driving positive change and observing, discussion negatives. When peers start guiding peers on how to act to “fit in” your culture, the design you have laid out is starting to grow.
Persist in cultivating your culture through reinforcement of positives, directly handling negatives, and driving peer cultural empowerment and you’ll see the seeds you planted begin to grow into a thriving culture.
Like anything, there is no magic bullet here. It’s going to require time and consistent perseverance to accomplish your change journey. These areas can keep you moving forward, and missing on them can derail you. I know…because this post has been my least favorite to write since I can self identify significant failures in all 4 points for me as a change leader on different project the last few years. Id like to believe I didn’t fail at all 4 on any one of my change journeys, but I can absolutely report that I’ve never succeed in all 4 on a change either. And in each of those journeys, I can look back at the 1, 2, or 3 of the above that I wasn’t as consistently persistent about and see how it adversely impacted the change journey, the team, the broader organization, and me personally. Learn from me and be intentional and consistent about being persistent.
View from the Middle 