Culture change & the need to communicate

Culture change takes a lot of collaboration, transparency, listening and planning. It is often when plans get set into motion, when things get a little difficult and resistance often shows its ugly head.This resistance can be disruptive. The implementation of new processes and increased interaction can cause problems where there were previously none. 

This is usually the time in the organisational change initiative when performance drops, people are let go or they leave because they no longer feel happy at work. New processes often cause frustration and extra work. For employees the new processes just usually seem to adds more admin to their already busy and long days with very little benefit. Very often employees are told what to do and not really given a clear explanation as to why they need to follow these new processes. Ensuring everyone is in the loop of what is happening, getting them to buy into the why (I get that this is not always possible) and for how long may well alleviate some of the pains.

The key is to continue the dialogue with all parties involved. Hire coaches for the team, it's important to get people the support they need, to keep the momentum of the change going and help encourage commitment. Keep the lines of communication open. Hire a coach for yourself too,don't leave you out. This is your business and you either initiated or fully backed this culture change. That does not mean that you are fully equipped to deal with all the "stuff that might come up" either with your staff, your processes or yourself, during the change. It important to have someone to help you through the change.