Managing Change for Implementing Six Sigma

We’ve certainly had our experiences, both good and bad, with driving change both internally and with clients.   From those experiences and our studies, we have adapted a change model we find effective for our area of expertise.  Here are a few of its unique elements.

 

1. Give people time to digest the change.  Often leadership has spent significant time discussing the desired change and its causes.  Leadership is no longer wedded to the status quo and is committed to what is ahead.  It is unreasonable to expect everyone else affected by the change to need any less.  Pushing change just triggers the organization pushing back.

 

2. Segment the audience when communicating.  Treat the communication like a product or service launch where each segment has a tailored communiqué that addresses their unique position in the organization and how they are affected by the change.

 

3. When developing role models, reverse engineer internal successes.  What I mean by that is that any successful project has elements of whatever roadmap you’ve chosen.  The fact the events took place through unconscious competence is meaningless.  What is important is that they took place in your organization and can be used as examples you own.

 

4. Treat crisis change different than steady state change. When making a steady state change, spend as much time on the process as the idea of the change.  Develop separate roadmaps for crises and steady state.  Don’t oversimplify the roadmaps. Ensure there is time for gradual understanding to minimize stress response and push back as well as to avoid lingering mistrust.  Don’t try to create crisis where there isn’t.

 

5. Provide coaching to key change spots.  This may be one-on-one to executives or in mass to groups.  It may use internal or external resources.  You won’t correctly anticipate all the key spots but thinking about them will prepare you to respond quickly to the one’s you miss and the preparation acts as preventive maintenance.  Coaching has a proven impact to help people focus.  Add coaching to training and people learn more. Coaches accelerate the acceptance of change and help avoid potential long lasting problems.