You’re looking at your business and realizing that something needs to change – something big.  Maybe your target market has swung in another direction; maybe your product or services need an upgrade; maybe your vision has expanded.  Whatever the reason – you know, deep down, that you need to transform your company.  Go on a big ‘level up’ journey to get the business where you know it should be.

And you need to mobilize the team to help you get there.  But how?

Well, there’s actually a term for all this – it’s called Change Management; and I’m sure you’ve heard it before.  Oh, you may not have known exactly what it was – but I’m sure you’ve heard the term.

Strictly speaking, change management is all about people.  It’s the process of helping people adapt to change -usually in an organization.  Sure, there are other parts to change management too – strategies, transforming goals processes or technologies – all sorts of things come under the change management umbrella.  But I think the most significant – and the hardest – is managing people through change.

That’s because change brings out fear.  Listen, I’m not known for being a happy ‘change’ camper.  I can definitely be resistant.  But that’s because it’s the unknown.  I don’t know what comes next.  I don’t know what I will be called on to do next.  I don’t know if I have the right skills or abilities.  And what if I fail.

That’s just a few of the feelings your team members will experience when change is afoot in your company.

Oh, there will be plenty of ‘why do we have to do it this way, the old way worked perfectly well’ and ‘well, when we used to do it we just…’, or ‘this is so much more difficult, why did we change’ to go around  Again, that’s because humans resist change.  And we will fight hard – and I mean hard – to stop it, or at least slow it down.

But change is inevitable, and it’s necessary for growth.  So how do you get the team on board?  Well, I have a 6 step framework that may help you.

First, it all starts with the plan.  There’s no getting around it, you have to have a plan. What are you doing, and how are you going to do it.  Believe me, this is no time to shoot from the hip.  You need to be ready for what may come next during the implementation phase, and understand how to measure your progress, and pivot if required.  Yep, you’ll need a plan – and a darn good one.

And by the way, it can go a long (helpful) way if you can manage to include the team in the planning phase.  Now, I know that’s not always possible – but give it some serious thought.  And in any event, bring them in as early as you can.  The more they feel they were able to have some impact on the proceedings, the quicker they will take to the change.