Elevate Your Employees for Successful Change
According to experts Skerritt and Parsons, harnessing collective energy to drive change can be created by a three-step process, known as the “Three Es”. Let’s focus on the first E – Elevate.
Want your change efforts to be a success? It's all about getting your employees on board. Research shows that the results of change initiatives are much better when companies involve 20% to 30% of their employees throughout the whole change process.
How do you get more people involved? Elevate a broad diversity of employees from simply doing what they are told to investigating, testing, providing feedback, and communicating the change.
1. Engage employees who love change. Ask them to beta test new processes and share their excitement for the benefits of the planned change.
2. Leverage the capacity of employees who already have the skills needed to excel with the new technology, process, product, or service.
3. Get input from a few employees who tend to discover problems and voice their concerns. Task them with finding solutions for the pitfalls.
4. Request and listen to feedback from the ‘elevated’ employees with a ‘we really want to know the truth’ mindset.
5. Involve several people who will be heavily impacted by the change in solving challenges that come to light.
6. Once the beta testers and internal experts believe that the change will be beneficial, communicate the nature and timeline of the change in diverse ways. Be sure to include group meetings where beta testers share their experience, support, and excitement.
By elevating many employees throughout the initial stages of the change effort, you can create a strong core of employees who are committed to your transformation. And that can make all the difference in your success.
