(highlight:: Leveraging the Power of "Organizational Influencers" to Manage Change Effectively
Summary:
Identifying influential individuals in the organization and engaging them as change champions can help manage change effectively.
These influencers are team players who are respected and followed by their peers. By establishing a group of change champions from different parts of the company and keeping them informed about the change, they can effectively communicate and gather feedback from their peers.
These champions also serve as pilot participants and super users, representing the voice of change within the organization.
Their involvement provides meaningful insights for change managers and ensures that concerns and feedback from various departments are effectively addressed.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Who are the influencers? Who are people going to follow? Listen team. Listen to, right, who's who are the people who are going to help you manage the change effectively? Because let's face it, they're a team player. They're good at what they do. And like I said, people follow them. People listen to them. When you can bring those people together throughout a change project, even if it's, so this, this is just an example, it might help people understand large sale project. Maybe it's a year long project. You establish a group of change champions or agents within your organization, maybe from different parts of the company. You bring them together, introduce them to the change, ask them if they would be willing to help you. They're going to say, what does that entail? Because I don't have a lot of bandwidth, right? They're always going to say this because these are the important people in the organization. Again, they're the influencers. And basically all you need from them is to know what the change is. Ask them to start communicating and talking to people in their organization about it. Get back together with them maybe once a month, every other week, every two months, whatever the right cadence is and give feedback from them. Yeah. Tell me what your people are saying. When you talk to your team about this, what did they say? What are they concerned about? What are they excited about? What do they think we need to do different? What do they think? You know, and you give them some information each month as the project goes along to help them continue to communicate. It's kind of like the talking points we talked about with managers. Same thing. Give them enough information to take back to their peers and their networks and the people they work with to share what's happening, get some feedback, bring that back to us. Be transparent with us. Tell us what that's all about. That's to me how you use those agents or those champions. And then they also are usually become, they could become pilot participants, and they become your super users, power users. They're just the voice of the change. And again, they are meaningful senders within their organization. If I know my go-to subject matter expert within my department is John, and John is now part of this change network, when he comes back and he tells us things, we're going to listen and we Know we can tell him our feedback, and he's going to go make sure that that feedback gets incorporated. I sleep better at night, I know that my voice has been heard, and I can move on and do my job. And I don't have to waste time and energy complaining or worrying or wondering about the change, because I know John's got it. He's going to go back and take care of it for us. To me, that's a power user, that's a change champion, that's a change agent. And those are some of your most powerful advocates within the organization. It also gives the change manager some of that real data that they can take back to their leadership sponsors, if there's an issue. And they can say, this is what we're hearing from the procurement department, or this is what we're hearing from HR, this is real, this is coming from our people, and here's what we want To do to go address that. And here's what I need you to do as a leader to help us address it, right? Right.)
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- power_users, buy-in, feedback_solicitation, change_management, change_champions, influence, organizational_influencers,

(highlight:: Involve Your Resistant Influencers Early in the Change Process
Summary:
Involving resistant influencers early in the change process can be beneficial.
Change champions may invite resistant individuals to be part of the change team to gain their buy-in and to avoid showing open resistance. This approach can utilize the honesty and passion of the resistant influencers, who often become the greatest advocates once they are involved in the change process.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
And I'm seeing in some organizations to where the change champion, maybe they know someone's really going to resist the change. Yeah. So they'll be like, hey, why don't you be a part of our change team? Absolutely. To help get their buy-in, to not show other people that they're resisting the change.
Speaker 1
That's a great point.
Speaker 2
It's like a mind trick. It is.
Speaker 1
And it's a great point, because I said before, when I talked about change champions, I said, get those influencers. I don't always mean good influencers. That's a great thing to bring up. Sometimes the people who are going to be your greatest challengers, you want in that group, because you know they're going to be honest, they're going to push back. Correct. But those greatest challengers usually become your greatest advocates, because they're so passionate about what they do, which is why they dig deep and they ask questions and they Do all that, and you need them.)
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- [note::These people can often become your most valuable advocates/assets!]

(highlight:: Change Management Requires Being Agile: Don't Get Hung Up On Your CM Model
Summary:
Being agile and adaptable is crucial in change management.
It's important not to be overly fixated on a specific change management model, but rather to focus on what works best in the specific context and to create a common language for discussing change. Change can't be strictly followed based on a model as it varies each time, so it's essential to be able to make adjustments and make the chosen model your own.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
The one thing that I always like to tell people is do not get hung up on the model, right? Do not get hung up on the model. And don't be so model driven that it's like it. Yeah, it puts you thank you puts you in a box change management is like anything really, there's great methodologies for it and there's great models for it, but it can never be followed From HZ exactly the same. Any two times in a row, it's never the same. You have to be able to be agile, you have to be able to adjust. Now you want a common language about how you talk about change. So if you're going to pick a model, that's great. Pick a model. Don't get hung up on it though. Pick what works best for you, create whatever that is, or use whatever you think it is, and kind of stick to it and make it your own thing.)
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(highlight:: Flexibility in Change Implementation and Importance of Leadership
Summary:
Make adjustments to existing methodologies, assess circumstances, and apply relevant aspects to your organization.
Don't get hung up on models, define your own way, and move forward. Great leadership, sponsorship, and buy-in are crucial for successful change.
Challenge leaders with difficult information, have candid conversations with respect, and focus on the leadership aspect.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Even if you're going to use an existing methodology in industry, that's fine. You're still going to make some adjustments as you go through. You don't follow it eight to Z every time you have to be able to assess the circumstances and apply what's relevant to your organization, to your culture, and to the specific change. So the flexibility and don't get hung up on the models and stuff, just pick your way, define it, and move forward and go do good things. That's one thing. Yeah, I would say the second thing you said two things, right? The second thing I would say is leadership, leadership, leadership. It's the one component that sometimes is very difficult, but it's also one of the keys to change is great leadership, sponsorship, and buy-in. And as a change practitioner, it's one of the more challenging things to do, and that's to challenge a leader, to take them difficult information, to disagree potentially with them. Candid, I had a leader that, and if he happens to hear this podcast, he will laugh at this stuff with me after all these years, candid conversation with respect. That was his mantra. Candid conversation with respect, we must have honest conversations, no matter what level of the organization we are, but we do it with respect because we want the same things in the End, right? So change managers have to have a lot of courage, and they have to really focus on the leadership aspect.)
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(highlight:: The Crucial Importance of Having a Leadership Sponsor for Your Change Initiative
Summary:
Change managers need to focus on the leadership aspect and require a great leadership sponsor to successfully manage change.
Research shows the power of a leadership sponsor in facilitating effective change. The voice of the leader is essential, and a true sponsor is someone change managers work closely with, providing and receiving coaching.
Having a high-level sponsor who understands and supports the change can be the determining factor between success and failure in change initiatives.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
So change managers have to have a lot of courage, and they have to really focus on the leadership aspect. We get so hung up on need a calm plan, we need a training plan, we have to manage resistance. All of those things matter and change, but if you do not have a great leadership sponsor that you can sit side by side with and manage the change, I can almost guarantee you that you will Not be successful. And I think you will actually find a lot of that information in our research at APQC as well that speaks to the power of the leadership sponsor in change, but you'll also find it in some Of our human capital management research around learning and development and the leadership development aspects that changes are not going to be as powerful if you do not have that Voice of the leader and they don't understand it. Unfortunately in my career, I've met change managers before and I'd say, who's your sponsor? And they'd say, well, it's the CEO and I'm like, do you actually have conversations with this person? And they're like, well, no, I don't get to talk to them. They're not really your sponsor then. A true sponsor of change is a person that you get to be side by side with, provide coaching to them and they provide coaching to you and they become the voice of the change. So sometimes you might have two high level sponsor and all that's just focus on the leadership and really, really think about the leadership component of the change. As a practitioner, that person can become one of your most powerful sources for the change. To me, it's sometimes it's the difference between success and failure is was it led appropriately? I might have done all my tactics right from a change management perspective, but if my leader was not along and saying all the right things and supporting the organization, it still Might not be effective.)
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(highlight:: Coach Your Leadership Sponsor On What To Do To Advocate for Your Change Initiative
Summary:
Change practitioners should educate executive leaders on their role as sponsors and provide them with specific guidance and a roadmap for advocating the change initiative to the leadership team.
This approach is highly appreciated by leaders, as it clarifies their responsibilities and ensures they are well-informed about the communication channels and forums. While some leaders are naturally adept at this, others benefit from gentle reminders and specific tasks to focus on, especially when they have numerous responsibilities to manage.
Transcript:
Speaker 1
Not all executive leaders, if they were sponsoring something, would they know that their responsibility is to go back and talk to the leadership team about it. So as a change practitioner, it's your responsibility to ensure they understand their role as a sponsor. And it's that's something that's really hard to do as a change person. The first time is to look at a senior leader and say, here's what I need you to do as a sponsor. Give them a roadmap, give them specific things that they can work on. And I'm going to say 99.9% of the time, they are extremely appreciative of it because they have a roadmap. They know then what they need to do. And they know all the communication forums. Some of them are naturals at it. They're just going to do it anyway. But some of them, they've got a million things going on at a time. And just you giving them those little reminders is amazing.)
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