Change Guides Newsletter
In This Issue
The PLAN Phase - A Critical Roadmap to Success
The DO Phase - Executing Your Plan
The SUSTAIN Phase - Critical Yet Easily Forgotten
In Your Shoes
 
Principles of Communicating
 During Change
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Summer 2016    
Greetings 
Plan, Do, Sustain.  The Change Management Pocket Guide was written based on this simple model to help business managers frame where they are with respect to implementing organizational change.  

Are you curious how to best utilize the model?  This month's newsletter has three articles  that describe each section of the model.

Enjoy and let us know what you think! 
 
The Change Guides Team
The PLAN Phase - A Critical Roadmap to Success
By Shannon Stautberg
 
Every successful project starts with a common factor - a plan.  Whether it's the construction of a new house, the implementation of an enterprise-wide system or the creation of a piece of art, a plan is critical to a project's success.  The same is true for projects that involve change management.  Getting people ready, willing and able to work in new ways requires a plan.   

Planning change management activities requires you to do two things: (1) assess your needs and (2) develop a plan.

The DO Phase - Executing Your Plan
By Annie Ayvazian
Once you have assessed needs and developed a change management plan, you are prepared to execute that plan.  This involves developing your communication materials and preparing your organization to transition to the future state.

The "do" phase consists of 2 key activities: (1) launch communications and (2) transition work.
 
The SUSTAIN Phase - Critical Yet Easily Forgotten
By Beth Jones

The old phrase "old habits die hard" is certainly true when it comes to trying to change human behavior.  Many projects start out with a detailed plan and then proceed with comprehensive communications, however the project falls short when the team does not reinforce the new ways of working.

Sustaining a change over time is challenging since people naturally want to revert back to old ways of working.  Aligning systems and structures is key to reinforce the new and desired behavior that comes with any type of change.

Sustaining successful change requires you to do two things: (1) align structures and (2) optimize results.
 

In Your Shoes
Cathy Marcheschi
Communications Manager &
Tom Cowser
Senior Human Resources Manager
Lawson Products, Inc

Have you approached projects differently after the certification?  If so, how?
Yes.  With a more structured approach (using some of the exercises and tools from the course), and with a better understanding of specifically what helps to make change effective, along with the risks associated with skipping or short-cutting certain steps/things.
What advice do you have for others trying to drive change?
It's instinctive that leadership alignment is important, but we have a much clearer understanding of how it helps drive change, how important it is and how not having alignment can hamper and even derail the best change management plans.
What one thing has helped you the most in driving change in your organization?
Too early to say, but in the one week since returning from the course, we are confident that together we can apply what we learned and really make an impact on our organization by helping drive more effective change. In last week, we've used the stop/start/continue exercise to help inform a stakeholder analysis and a communication plan. There are at least two other projects that will benefit from the tools--on one,  the Elevator Speech will be essential and on another, the Feedback Form will be extremely useful.