We have learned from how the public sector dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic that change can happen positively, and people can truly enjoy the process, with successful outcomes for whole communities. Prior to COVID, there was immense concern around the rhythm of slow bureaucratic change resulting in poor performance, damaged morale, high costs and poor delivery. Sadly, we are still hearing people talk about disasters from change programmes that upset organisations ten years ago. And now, people don’t want to go back to the way things were before, because previously it was all about process and not enough attention was given to people and progress! Understanding the positive impact COVID has had on leadership approaches and collaborative working, we ask our ourselves ‘can we afford to go back to the old ways?’
I think answer is probably a unanimous NO.
Surely, we should shelve the age of adopting rigid change processes through overly bureaucratic hierarchies, where people are told what to do rather than asked ‘what do you think?’
Now that people have experienced the joys of change management and had the space and trust to work innovatively and collaboratively across teams and departments, they have seen what good change looks like. How can they put themselves through old bureaucratic, stressful change management programmes again? We cannot unlearn or ignore the successes in adopting agile, more focused objectives that empower people and partnerships. Nor can we stop asking people for their opinions and how they are feeling altogether. A sense of humanity ricocheted across organisations and communities during COVID, motivating people to help each other keep going; we cannot lose this.
The pandemic showed us that organisations that were traditionally slow at change made it happen literally overnight and for the first-time people are now talking about how successful their change management programmes have been. So, we need to ask ourselves what does good change look like?
- A strong common sense of purpose shared amongst people
- Clarity of purpose flows through appropriate channels to everyone involved
- Leaders provide space for staff to be innovative and trust is recognised
- More focused objectives adopted, empowering people and partnerships, impacting positively on humanity
- A greater level of emotional intelligence enabling passion and purpose to drive change.
- Cultures re-established from within
- Collaboration across departments and partnership
- Action taken and perseverance enabled through continuous communication of purpose
Trueman Change are constantly committed to learning better ways of doing change. We have designed a new methodology, the Trueman Change Way, to respond to the needs of organisations moving forward. It incorporates six ingredients that we believe culminate in positive change: Purpose, Clarity, Humanity, Collaboration, Action, Perseverance.
So, what next?
If your organisation is floundering and you’re struggling to nail that common sense of purpose to inspire your workforce, then we can help. If you’re interested in understanding a little more about how you can make change happen better for your organisation, then first download your free Change Readiness Report and sense check how ready for change your organisation is, and then book a call.
We are running a series of free events around each one of the segments of our change management methodology. In our next series of Change Chats, we will be inviting expert speakers to talk about the six ingredients for effective change. Join our next free online event Change Chat at 10am on March 18th 2022, where we will be taking about the fourth ingredient Collaboration. Register here for our next event.
If you interested in understanding a little more about our research, then take a look at our website and download our free white paper: www.truemanchange.co.uk/downloads
