Dear Reader: How can you flip the script to design change instead of resisting it?

Change is inevitable and how we handle it can be a game-changer at work, especially when we don’t feel like we have any control. The bestselling book, “Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life,” espoused the mantra: “The quickest you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese.”

Just looking at a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report, those born in the latter years of the baby boom changed jobs approximately 12 times. Factor in those who stay in the same job and have changes within management, roles, location or more, and we’re constantly on our toes, especially when leadership needs to communicate its plans.

Phil Gilbert, culture change expert and author of “Irresistible Change: A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success,” said, “Most employees already know change is needed: Either the organization is failing in its mission or a disruptive technology is threatening the industry. What they don’t believe is that leadership will execute change well or have the fortitude to see it through. That’s where the skepticism comes from.”

His advice? No mandates. “If change is authentically adopted, it will simply turn into performance theater. Further, the accountability for adoption has to be on the change leadership team, not the employees. I banned the phrase ‘they just don’t get it’ on my leadership team at IBM,” said Gilbert who revitalized IBM’s legendary design program and co-chaired the company’s Global Women’s Executive Council and founded the Racial Equity in Design team.

“So forget the abstract decks and lofty speeches. No amount of evangelism will deal with those two issues. Two things matter: that actual change occurs inside the business, and that the people undergoing change tell their stories in their own voices.”

So, what happens when a leader isn’t capable of providing transitional guidance during change management? In that case, he pointed out the odds are stacked against you. “It may be because it’s the wrong leader,” said Gilbert.

On the other hand, the right leader might be in the role, but they don’t have access to resources. “Too often I see the Learning and Knowledge training teams be brought in to ‘teach’ the change. And things like course attendance is measured. These are generally useless metrics; they lead to compliance, perhaps, but not adoption. It’s happening right now with return-to-office efforts. Mandates are raining down, but there’s nothing being done to the physical spaces to attract people to them; that is, there has to be value beyond what Zoom delivers, and most leaders today haven’t taken that into account.”

Above all, Gilbert said, “The truth is, nobody resists change they believe in. They resist poorly designed change, evangelistic promises, and mandated behaviors. If leaders treat change like a high-stakes product — and measure success by adoption, not enablement — they’ll see culture move in ways that endure.”

Tribune News Service