5 ways to prepare your team for change.

Updated: Oct 22, 2020

There is NO escaping it. Change is everywhere.

There will be some within your team that thrive on it. There will also be some that despair at just the thought of it.

Irrespective of the split within your team, leading change requires the buy-in and support of your whole team.

Here are our top-5 tips on how to prepare your team and ensure your next change initiative is a success.

Share the vision – This is all about the WHY. Take the time to craft and communicate a vision for change that means something and isn’t just wishful thinking and empty words. Use data. Paint a picture. Be clear. But most of all? INSPIRE. You need to take your team on a journey but if they can’t see where they are going, or don’t see why they need to get there, the change is doomed from the get-go.

Overcommunicate -Sharing the vision with your team once isn’t enough. You’ll need to do so in different forms so they have time to process it and develop a greater depth of understanding over time. It’s okay to share that a change is coming collectively with your team, but ALWAYS follow up with 1:1’s, run open Q&A sessions and leave all lines of communication open.

Feedback is a gift – Provide a trusted environment for your team to express their concerns whilst seeing this as an opportunity to add clarity and resolve any confusion. This is SUPER important to helping your teams through the change curve! Your team will need to debrief with their colleagues – reassure that this is okay. Even better? Set up a team off-site, virtual brainstorming session or just schedule some time for your team to go grab a coffee. The more your team participate in dialogue about the changes, the more they become personally invested and likely to embrace the changes.

Ensure people get what they need – In terms of training and additional support. If the change is complex and sizable enough that the team don’t have the right skills or knowledge to deal with it – nothing is more valuable than identifying training to help your team get there successfully.

Appoint a change champion! Preparing for a change is a team effort. It’s not just the role of the Exec team. It will help you to identify your teams “influencers” – aka people who can help to drive and champion change. Look for those who are motivated by the change and who demonstrate the behaviours you want to see across the team – then ask them to be peer leaders who lead by example.

Preparing for the change is as big a job as executing it. We hope these tips will help you ensure your change process is a success!

#expertsinpeople #thehomeoffinancetalent