Musings at Altitude

What a hot topic of conversation, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that two things keep coming up as the biggest irritants regarding change:

(1) poor communications

(2) lack of a specific timetable

For communications, most organizations go into stealth mode in advance of any formal change announcement.  Most of the team members of an organization know that change is coming, have mentally prepared for change to occur, and then get left out of most change discussions.  Without any communications, the rumor mill runs rampant and the fears of both organizational and individual consequence take flight. 

For timetable, a formal change process is often defined with only minor tweaking yet to do, and then the organization goes into a holding pattern where the people, the processes, and the strategy get stalled until a “go” date is decided.  During this holding pattern, many things continue to progress that must then be reversed once change begins and many people are hired that may not be the right people to do the job once change has occurred. 

If change is needed, it’s best to get change started.  Even with only a partial change plan, the tone and the intent is set once change begins.  In most cases, the certainty of change and then an open dialogue about change will actually accelerate change in an organization and make change more meaningful and more accepting to the organization.

As I talk to friends all over the country right now, almost every company is in a change process.  In fact, the only certainty right now is change – market conditions and our struggling economy guaranty it.  I’m impressed by how prepared most folks are for change and how disturbed they are about both internal communications and timetable.  Many business leaders are making the change process very scientific, and thus nothing can happen until all the various hypothesis are worked through.  In reality, change is a real art and the picture being painted becomes clear well down that change road.

I take great comfort in knowing that everyone I talk to is facing change today.  I also get great counsel from those who have moved forward and thus share their lessons learned with me in advance of any change that I may soon be part of.  I clearly see that communications and timing of change are critical issues for everyone.  I also sense that a lack of communications and uncertain timing reflect more on discomfort for something specific in the change process rather than a discomfort for the need for change overall.  If my senses are right, starting the change process without a sophisticated change plan will allow much of the specific discomfort to go away because you delay those most uncomfortable decisions till later in the change process when you have more information and a better understanding of the affect of that particular component of change. 

For those of you in that holding pattern, just start changing!