Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
~Gail Sheehy
Change is not only inevitable; it’s necessary! Without change, your organization can’t grow. It can’t take advantage of new opportunities. It can’t remain competitive. However, it’s natural for your employees to fear change. The unknown is scary! To make your organizational change as effectively and efficiently as possible, an important part of managing change is selling change in the workplace. Following are four tips to help make this process easier.
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Make Sure Employees are Aware of the Change Necessity. Although the reason for change may be obvious to you, it might not be so obvious to your employees! If you want to sell the change as part of effective change management, make sure you not only tell your employees what the change is going to be, but also tell them the why behind it. Share with them how the change will benefit the organization, as a whole, and even them directly.
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Choose the Best Time. Timing is everything – that includes selling change in the workplace. If it can be timed correctly, you’ll minimize the amount of resistance to the impending change. Think about the other things going on in your organization and what key organizational members have on their plates whose buy-in you really need.
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Support. Support. Support. There will always be naysayers to any proposed change. The best way to sell change to these folks is to have support to back up the necessity and the value of your proposed change. You can never have too much documentation to support your change. When developing this documentation, try to anticipate what challenges others will bring to light against your organizational change. There are usually always downsides to every change; however, develop support to show that the rewards to the change outweigh any potential downsides.
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Be passionate. The best salespeople believe in what they’re selling. This is just as true for selling organizational change as it is for selling tangible products! Be passionate about the change you want to implement and the value it offers the organization. You should be the champion of this change! Your passion, enthusiasm and commitment will be inspirational to others and help make the buy-in to this change that much easier.
About Colleen Seward Ryan, Leadership Expert
CREDENTIALS: Colleen Seward Ryan is an international workplace and employee management expert, award-winning corporate trainer, and conference keynote speaker. A media veteran, she has appeared on numerous radio shows around the country and has written more than 40 popular articles on diverse workplace issues. Colleen has delivered more than 1,100 entertaining programs in 48 states and five countries. She is the author of 10 published audio programs and two books including SECRETS YOUR BOSS ISN’T TELLING YOU.
Colleen Seward Ryan is available for keynotes, breakout sessions, and seminars by calling (623)340-7690.
