Sustaining Change

Because people drive change, sustaining a change initiative requires a commitment from leadership to invest significant time and energy in engaging everyone connected with the effort. By remaining personally involved, modelling behaviors that support the change, and focusing more on why the change is essential than what is changing, leaders can preserve the vision of desired outcome or common goal.

They lead by exhibiting 3 qualities:

1. They remove barriers to success. These can be personal barriers such as fear of change, sense of loss, or wounded egos, and they can be organizational constraints like the time and resources necessary to carry out the change plan, or keeping key stakeholders connected to the vision of successful change through progress updates. Without this support, their peoples’ commitment to the change will waiver.

2. They adapt as they learn. Remaining deeply engaged means asking questions and gathering feedback to acquire accurate information that allows these leaders to make continual adjustments during the change initiative. Adjustments can involve keeping key people involved, breaking a larger initiative into smaller components to build momentum, or refining metrics to better monitor progress.

3. They cultivate collaboration. By encouraging their people to break out of their silos and work cross-functionally to resolve problems and overcome barriers, and refusing to tolerate unhealthy internal competition, they enable employees’ involvement in decision-making, strengthening the commitment to change and nurturing a culture of shared accountability.