Make Change Work: Staying Nimble, Relevant, and Engaged in a World of Constant Change

CHAPTER 11

INVOLVE EARLY AND OFTEN

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

—Francis Bacon

YOU CAN COUNT ON THIS

When it comes to successful change of any size or type:

• People support what they help create.
• People never argue with their own information and ideas.

The person who brings you the idea about a new work process will enthusiastically ensure its success. There is a good chance that the same change—recommended by you—will be met with reasons why it won’t work.

This isn’t new, and it isn’t complicated. Most important, we know that it increases the opportunities for successful change.

Research conducted by the IBM Global Business Services Strategy & Change Practice found that the challenge of employee involvement ranked second (behind senior management sponsorship) out of the top 10 factors that contributed to successful change.1

WHY INVOLVEMENT DOESN’T OCCUR

Attitudes about employee involvement have evolved over the past 20-plus years. There was a time when leaders routinely adopted the my-way-or-the-highway approach to implementing a new process, procedure, or organizational structure. These days, the reluctance to involve others is focused more on how rather than if the involvement occurs.

You have five options:

1. Awareness: Provide the information others need about the change and how it will be implemented.

2.