Straight out of John Kotter’s playbook (Leading Change), it is important for the success of a long-term initiative to generate short-term wins.  These are milestones that are set in the near future, which are deliberately chosen to demonstrate early success.

Short-term wins help build momentum by proving that the initiative will actually work.  Demonstrating early success can help get the nay-sayers and hold-outs on board.

When selecting the short-term milestone or project, choose wisely.  If possible, you want to pick a project that has all three of the following qualities:

• It is important.
• It has a high likelihood of success.
• It can achieve success within the attention span of those who want an excuse to write the initiative off (usually a few months).

A project that has all three qualities may be elusive.  Usually, if something is too easy or short-term, it’s probably not that important (or else it would have been done already).  If you come up with a milestone that is sufficiently important and short-term, then increase the likelihood of success due to your personal intervention.  Make sure it happens!

Once you complete the first wins, you will want to continually produce short-term wins to keep the momentum going, and keep the attention of those who need proof that the initiative is making progress.

What might be your short-term wins?

Read more of the 99 Ways to Influence Change.

When you are busy fighting fires, or shoring up dams, or generally focused on what’s next,  it is easy to forget to stop and see what has already gone right.  However, by continually looking at what is not working yet, you can make it seem like you are spinning your wheels.  To keep up your own energy and to keep from demoralizing the rest of the organization, it is important to stop and acknowledge how far you have come.  To influence change, recognize success.

Recognizing success requires first that you know what success looks like.  Success means achieving goals, performing desired behaviors, and reaching milestones.  Sometimes, it can be more subtle, like movement in the right direction, or changing minds one at a time.  Look ahead and decide what success means at each step.

Next, you must be able to see that you and others have attained some success.  On a regular basis, step back from the constant push forward to take stock of the distance covered.  Search for and acknowledge the positive effects that have occurred as a result of the change initiative.

Then, let people know about it.  Remind people what they have accomplished so far.  Thank them for their efforts.  Reinforce the progress to date by recognizing and communicating success when it happens.

How might you recognize success?

Read more of the 99 Ways to Influence Change.

If you don’t have direct authority as a manager or leader in your organization, you can gain authority in other ways.  Your personal influence as a change agent relies on your ability to build up and utilize your expert power.  To influence change, establish authority.

Having authority allows you to do many things to help implement change, such as:

• Take action without permission
• Make decisions that affect other people
• Model behavior
• Change minds
• Provide feedback

In the short term, you can establish authority by speaking up and demonstrating the skills and knowledge you already have.  Share your observations, and be assertive when you see something that will throw the change off track.  In the long run, support your role as change agent by continually increasing your knowledge – in your choice of professions as well as in organizational change.

How might you establish authority?

Read more of the 99 Ways to Influence Change.

Large change initiatives can seem huge and daunting.  A grand vision may be good for inspiration, but it can also freeze people with that deer-in-headlights feeling.  It helps to narrow down a large change from something that seems impossible into practical steps.  To influence change, shrink it.

Whether your organization is implementing a new strategy, installing a large-scale program, or completing a merger, individuals can feel disconnected from the change.  Beyond asking, “What’s in it for me,” people will not know how to act until they know how they fit into the puzzle.

Break down the initiative into doable chunks.  Set short-term targets.  Identify the critical behaviors that people should perform.  Show how each department or process has a unique part in the change.  Link individual activities to the larger project.  Split the initiative into smaller projects.  Shrink the change into something people believe they can accomplish.

How might you shrink the change?

Read more of the 99 Ways to Influence Change.

Fact:  we can’t change the attitudes and habits of others.  We can only do our best to influence, and let them take care of changing themselves.  And that happens in other people’s timing, not necessarily in yours.  Sometimes, the best thing you can do is just stand back and wait.  To influence change, be patient.

Introduce an idea, and give people time to warm up to it.  Implement a new system or process, and let people figure out for themselves that it will work.  Forge a new path, and allow people a chance to catch up.

Organizational change is not an immediate phenomenon.  Thankfully so – if things changed as quickly as we wished they would, we would all have whiplash!  So be patient, and know that you can use all the influence strategies you want, but you can’t bypass the change itself.

What areas just need a little more patience on your part?

Read more of the 99 Ways to Influence Change.