Creating Buy-In For Change

Change can be a fear generating activity and developing buy-in may seem impossible. The more established a business, the greater the resistance to change. New ideas will bounce off a wall of “this is the way that it has always been done.”

Often there is a vested interest in maintaining the status quo by management and employees, alike.

Perhaps there were past attempts at change, which failed, so that future change is deemed hopeless. A cynical attitude can develop among employees that change is only being given lip-service (think of numerous companies that claim customer service is number one, yet they fail to empower employees to act like managers when customers need assistance). Or a business may be at the peak of their growth and management may suffer from over confidence that the current dominance of their competitors will continue forever.

Not Changing is the Riskiest Position to Take, as Change is a Constant…

The marketplace is always evolving and businesses that do not adapt will eventually become obsolete. There are plenty of case studies of businesses that once were industry leaders that today are a historical footnote, since they were unable to embrace change—BlackBerry, Borders, Kodak, Motorola, Tower Records—to name a few.

Making certain that business transformation does not fail involves a certain amount of planning and strategy as well of knowledge of the pitfalls. According to John P. Kotter, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, Leading Change is a long term commitment that requires constant communication, first of the vision and goals that implementing change is meant to accomplish and, then, to promote all the successes that have been achieved (aiming for small wins, in the beginning) in order to cement change as a permanent part of an organization’s culture.

Change to be Successful Demands Constant Reinforcement

One announcement at a company gathering, or one article in the employee newsletter is not enough. There must be continuous reminders in numerous communication formats—meetings, email blasts, newsletters, website mission statements, slogans on the office white board, job descriptions, training videos, etc.

Think of the multiple impressions that advertising campaigns must provide in order to land new customers—per that old adage, it takes seven impressions to inspire action (for a customer to buy).

Gaining buy-in for change is exactly the same process.

Change is Not An Instant Fix

Per Kotter, declaring victory, too soon, after the first major project is completed, for example, can be catastrophic. For change to be successful, it has to happen repeatedly. Each win should be used as proof of concept to move on to a larger win, growing in scope.

Another point of view on change would be Jim Collins. He researched what led companies to move from Good to Great and he also discovered that it was a gradual, long-term process. After studying 1,435 good companies over 40 years, he indentified 11 companies that became great and then examined how this change was managed.

Collins acknowledges how the business media has created the false perception that change is instant or sudden, when in fact, it happens slowly and, often, under the radar of the public. He uses the analogy of an egg hatching. “From the outside, the story always reads like an overnight sensation—as if the egg had suddenly and radically altered itself into a chicken.”

He counsels us not to fall for the myth that there is instant change. Often times, it is impossible for executives from companies that have managed to go from ‘good to great’ to identify when these transformations happened. Change, in order to be sustainable, is an on-going process which happens, over and over, again. Like Kotter, he agrees with the tactic of communicating accomplishments, so that people can gain confidence in the change being undertaken and know that the plans are not just empty words. This is how employees, company-wide, become supporters of your change efforts—they see and hear about it happening.

“When people begin to feel the magic of momentum—when they begin to see tangible results and can feel the flywheel start to build speed—that’s when they line up, throw their shoulders to the wheel, and push.”

Buy-In Starts with the Right People

One of real pieces of insight that Collins shares is that the root cause for change succeeding is to have the right people at the helm and on your management team. These people are self-motivated and driven, since they genuinely want to be part of a winning team.

Whatever the title—general manager, marketing director, salesperson, office manager, or an outside business consultant, change requires people committed to focusing “on what is vital—and to eliminate all of the extraneous distractions.”

Know that it is key to bring the right people into your company in order to start the process of positive change. These are people who genuinely care about your business and who are willing to put the hard work and effort into all the small wins required to generate big wins, facilitating buy-in for change, so that your business can become great.