How to introduce change without compromising on performance - Part 2

In the last post we talked about introducing change without compromising on performance, highlighting the change in the rhythm of the business when change is introduced. In the first post we talked about this in the context of a hurdler.

In that analogy we covered why it is important to engage those impacted by the change an involve them in creating the plan, so they can adjust more easily. That is one of the foundation principles of change - engagement of those who are impacted by the change.

Another key way in which to maintain performance in change is to always set the 'future state vision' and changing measures within the organisation so all people are clear on what the future state measures are.

There are two questions that are critical when discussing what the organisation or team may look like after the change has been implemented:

What does success look like?

How will we be able to tangibly measure that success?

This is one of my favourite sayings

This is so true. If you have no clear outcome that you want to achieve - just a target if it's not a hard line KPI then you won't have any focus. It is of course easier if measures involve customers as many employees through change will not want service to suffer to customers.

Everything is measurable, you simply need to seek a way to baseline and then assess again the effectiveness of the change. If you are looking to bridge that gap and minimise the impact on performance in relation to the change you are introducing then measures become even important.

The analogy with the hurdler is still relevant. The main measure of success would be to stabilise the time in which the hurdler ran their race, even amongst the changes taking place. The time may have been longer, however if the time wasn't still focused on, then the hurdler would think they could stop and be self-indulgent with responding to the change. Having something to focus on can decrease the time it would take to respond to the change.