Box of delight

These days, change is almost a constant in the workplace — almost every day, it seems that there‘s another merger, new leadership, an outsourcing, a new benefits program, layoffs and more. Because of this, communicating change has become more challenging. Leaders are overwhelmed, managers aren’t engaged and employees are change-fatigued.

How can you overcome these obstacles? Try something new! Take the opportunity to step away from “the way we always do things” and implement an approach you haven’t tried before. A small innovation can make a big difference to help improve your employee communication strategy.

How many times have you made the decision to start something new: write an abstract, start a new project, join a group or committee, start a blog, apply for a job, and then, nothing happens? It’s easy to convince yourself that the timing wasn’t right, or that it was too hard or you aren’t ready (hot tip: you’ll never be ready), we’ve all done that. When I’m stuck in that “I want to start but am caught in the headlights” position, I remind myself of these three points to force myself into action.

Managing change in complex systems such as teams, businesses, and societies can be difficult. That’s why I appreciate when I find solid models that try to provide support in people are working to do these kinds of transformations.

Change management is having its moment. There’s no shortage of articles, books, and talks on the subject. But many of these indicate that change management is some occult subspecialty of management, something that’s distinct from “managing” itself. This is curious given that, when you think about it, all management is the management of change.