Become Successful Changemakers in HR | 2-Minute Video

What does it take to become successful changemakers in HR?

You might think that it’s nearly impossible to actually be successful at it. After all, people are generally resistant to change.

But there’s hope, assuming you avoid the things that make change so difficult.

Be the Lead Changemakers

Proof that change is difficult: Just 30% of change projects are completely successful, according to research from McKinsey. What’s worse, that success rate has been stagnant for several years. Apparently, companies aren’t getting better at change.

But they need to. Why? More than 75% of business leaders expect to make major changes in the next few years, a Gartner study found. And that’s after the average company went through five major changes in the past three years!

Avoid Changemaker Mistakes

The best way to be better changemakers is to avoid the biggest mistakes when it comes to implementing changes.

Here are six of the top reasons changes fail:

• Panic. Some leaders try to change too quickly because they feel it’s the only way forward.
• Business. In other instances, leaders focus solely on the business case for change and ignore the people who must implement it and, most importantly, are affected by it.
• Communication. Along the transparency lines, changes often fail because the reasons, process and expectations aren’t consistently communicated. Or those evolve and are never re-communicated.
• Authority. Transparency again: Leaders don’t involve employees in the change decisions.
• Commitment. The people who want change don’t commit the necessary resources to the project.
• Stubbornness. When changes start to fail, the change agents don’t admit it or take the time to correct the course.

What’s Up in This Episode

In this episode of HRMorning’s 3-Point, Exos‘ Chief People Officer Greg Hill walks us through the process they took to making some major changes — one of those being a move to a four-day workweek.

Click, watch and listen for more details on how to become the most successful changemakers in your organization — the people who charge ahead and get teams to follow and embrace change.

Transcript (edited for clarity):

Wish you could just snap your fingers and make change happen?

Sure you do.

But workplace change is difficult. And we all want to be better changemakers.

That’s where Exos comes in. The company was making a big change that you may have heard me talk about before. They went to a four-day workweek. They didn’t just snap their fingers. They studied it for a year to be certain it was right.

And they found three things that can make any change more successful.

Greg Hill: It starts with the C-suite. They have to see that behavior, but then they have to see people in like jobs doing this. 

What’s important to change is relatability. Yes, leaders need to lead the charge. But when employees see someone like them adopting it, they’ll likely do it too.

Hill: Be in more locations more often to try and understand the questions that are coming up.

That’s not hand-holding. That’s heading off problems.  And finally …

Hill: Do you agree status quo isn’t what we can do anymore? I very rarely hear “no.” So there’s a business case for the changes there. So give them permission to say “How might we …?” versus “Why can’t we …?” I really would encourage companies to do that.

So to be master changemakers …

• Find champions. The C-suite can lead the charge, but you need early adopters to get all employees on board.
• Head off problems. Get employees to ask questions early and often to prevent resistance to change.
• Change the mantra. Give everyone permission to ask, “How might we …?” to open minds and possibilities.

Now you can manage change, accelerate the positive outcomes and build a culture of changemakers.