No, it’s not a communication plan! It’s not even communication. The most important element of managing change is people. More specifically, it’s focusing on the success of the people going through the change rather than on the success of the change itself.

Now, this probably sounds obvious. Of course it’s about the people. However, I constantly see people fail in carrying that forward into action. It’s not that they don’t think about the people. The issue is how they think about the people.

In talking about adopting a major change, I once heard a very senior person say, “They won’t be able to do their jobs without this, they’ll have to change.” How does this person view the people of the organization? Is he looking out for their success and well being? Is he likely to put as much effort into enabling the change as is needed?

That’s obviously an extreme case. However, I’ve sat in plenty of meetings where key sponsors of change initiatives will point out the importance of their change and how they really need people to “step up” to the challenge. Then, in the next breath, they’ll point out how they don’t have the money, time, or resources to provide all of the needed support to help those people “step up”.

Key obstacles to change

I’ve observed six practices that undermine any change initiative. How many sound familiar? The key theme running across all of them is putting the change ahead of the people being changed.

• Focusing on the success of the change project (or the people running it) rather than the success of the people being changed
• Making it easier to maintain the status quo than it is to change
• Avoiding discussion and dissension in order to “keep things moving”
• Requiring a greater commitment/investment from the person being asked to change than is being made by the organization
• Treating change as a linear process defined by tasks, deliverables and dates
• Focusing on what you want people to know and do rather than what they care about