For whatever reason, they are not doing what is needed to implement change? Perhaps they say they believe that change should happen, but their actions indicate otherwise.  Maybe they seem to dismiss it altogether.  Or they just do all the wrong things with the best intentions.  Either way, they feel like a giant roadblock in the path to change.  If only they would (fill in the blank), you would be able to make some real progress.

As an internal change agent with less authority, you probably feel powerless to do anything about it. Until now, your main tactics have been dropping hints and wishful thinking.  Maybe you have waited a while for them to get with the program — weeks, months, even years.

You are not alone.  In fact, not having adequate support from key leaders is the top challenge for most change agents I talk to.

It doesn’t have to be that way.  There are ways you can help leaders help you influence change, even from where you sit on the totem pole.  Join me for a 2-part online course that will help you get the leadership support you need for successful change:

The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders

So They Help You Implement Change

Dates: Thursday, May 20 & 27, 2010

Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern

Cost: $149 (Only 3 more $99 early bird tickets remain!)

Maximum attendees: 20

Course Description

During this 2-part online training session, you will learn:

• Whose support you really need, and who you ignore at your own risk
• What leaders need from you most as a change agent
• How to tell which of five levels of support you have, and which you need
• Six reasons why leaders don’t do what you need them to do, even if they want change to happen
• What you can personally do to gain the support you need to successfully implement change

All attendees will receive:

• Two 90-minute interactive webinar sessions
• Access to the webinar video recordings
• Influence Factors: A checklist of 99 strategies to help people change
• Two article reprints: “Tips for Getting Your Project Approved” and “How to Deal With a Clueless Boss”

• BONUS: You will receive the Beyond Buy-in Workbook, a $34.95 value, when you register to attend.

Who Should Attend

Mid- to senior-level managers and individual contributors who are responsible for implementing change in their organizations won’t want to miss this series. Specifically, this webinar series will help people who need to influence change without having direct authority over people going through the change. Examples of roles that typically require the support of leadership to get things done include (but are not limited to): IT, engineering, human resources, strategic planning, internal communications, process improvement, and project management.

Without real leadership support, your change initiative will have diminished impact. Register today to learn practical ways to help leaders help you implement change.

Tickets are regularly priced at $149. Only 3 more early bird $99 tickets are left.  Register while they last!

The trouble is, leaders often don’t do what is needed to implement change, even if they agree it should happen.  This lack of proper leadership support is the top challenge for most change agents.

Introducing a 2-part online course that will help you get the leadership support you need for successful change:

The Proper Care and Feeding of Leaders

So They Help You Implement Change

Dates:  Thursday, May 20 & 27, 2010

Time:  11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern

Cost:  $149  ($99 for the first 5 people who register!)

Maximum attendees:  20

Course Description

During this 2-part online training session, you will learn:

• Whose support you really need, and who you ignore at your own risk
• What leaders need from you most as a change agent
• How to tell which of five levels of support you have, and which you need
• Six reasons why leaders don’t do what you need them to do, even if they want change to happen
• What you can personally do to gain the support you need to successfully implement change

All attendees will receive:

• Two 90-minute interactive webinar sessions
• Access to the webinar video recordings
• Influence Factors: A checklist of 99 strategies to help people change
• Two article reprints:  “Tips for Getting Your Project Approved” and “How to Deal With a Clueless Boss”

• BONUS:  You will receive the Beyond Buy-in Workbook, a $34.95 value, when you register to attend.

Who Should Attend

Mid- to senior-level managers and individual contributors who are responsible for implementing change in their organizations won’t want to miss this series.  Specifically, this webinar series will help people who need to influence change without having direct authority over people going through the change.  Examples of roles that typically require the support of leadership to get things done include (but are not limited to): IT, engineering, human resources, strategic planning, internal communications, process improvement, and project management.

Without real leadership support, your change initiative will have diminished impact.  Register today to learn practical ways to help leaders help you implement change.

Tickets are regularly priced at $149.  The first 5 people who register will pay only $99!

The scenarios were different but the challenge was the same.  Whether the organization was suffering from the recession, or undergoing a merger, or experiencing a change in leadership, the common question was: “How do we maintain continuity of strategy and long term focus when our people are focused on short term survival?”

Leadership and change theory would suggest to double-down on the vision at that point.  Keep your eye on the future so you can make sure you’re still headed in the right direction.  Beat the strategy drum so everyone knows it’s still important.

The advice that bubbled up from the group, however, was different.  As change agents and strategy practitioners, they were not in executive leadership positions.  From their perspective, the best thing to do was to help the organization focus on the right short-term efforts.  If everyone was going to be stuck in the present, then they should stay there too and not fight it.

By maintaining focus on the projects and initiatives that were developed to implement the strategy, the group felt they would better be able to weather the storm.  Behind the scenes, they would continue to make sure projects were linked to the long-term strategy.

What is your experience making sure your change initiative survived turmoil?  What advice would you give?

Do you feel like your change communication is:

Clinic Pricing:
The investment for the 2-session clinic is $149 per person, which also includes the Pinpoint Communication Workbook and companion PowerPoint templates.

Early Bird Special:

Attendees who register by Friday, September 4, 2009 pay $119 per person.

Previous webinar attendees on the Pinpoint Communication process said:

As an internal change advocate for your organization, communication is one of the main tools you use to reach your goal and desired outcome.  Yet, we frequently see people who are responsible for implementing change who use communication in a haphazard fashion, without a solid plan.  The resulting hodgepodge of newsletters, posters and meetings tells a less-than-compelling story of change.

Use the following five-step process from the Pinpoint Communication Workbook to develop a comprehensive communication plan for your change initiative:

1.  Target Your Audience
Your change initiative is not one-size-fits-all.  Expectations vary for different groups when it comes to the new behaviors and attitudes that are required for success.  How you communicate to each group should vary accordingly.

Examples of the various ways you might slice and dice the organization are:

•    Organization level (executives vs middle management vs front line employees)
•    Region or geography
•    Department or function
•    Union vs. Non-Union
•    Internal vs. external stakeholders

The whole organization is also often considered to be an audience – it’s just not the only one.

2.  Craft Your Message
The content of your communication is the message you will deliver to the organization.  Organizational communication is made up of broad-based themes that help ensure consistency while maintaining flexibility to customize for each audience.

There are three phases of communicating a change initiative:  Entice, Educate, and Engage.

Entice
At first, you want to gain attention by making your message stand out from the myriad other inputs that employees deal with every day.  Pique your audience’s curiosity, and surprise them with the unexpected.

Educate
Once you have the attention of your audience, the next step is to inform and educate them about your initiative.  Let them know what it is and why the organization is doing it.

Engage
The next step to communication is to motivate the audience to take action with the information they’ve been given.  Tell them what you want them to do, how to do it, and what’s in it for them to participate.

3.  Select Your Media
Once you know what you want to communicate to your audience, the next step is to determine the means.  There are a variety of communication vehicles at your disposal, including in-person meetings, audio/visual methods, written messages and the internet.  Also, the messenger, the person who is delivering the message over the channel, is also important to consider.  For example, is it an email from the CEO, or a one-on-one conversation with a supervisor?

4.  Map Out Your Schedule
Arrange the details of your communication plan – the audiences, the messages and the media – into a manageable timetable that fits the project plan for your change initiative.  The plan should be a visual representation of communication over time that is easy to track.

5.  Monitor Your Effectiveness
The ultimate measure of change communication is the change itself.  The lagging indicators, then, are the metrics that show how well the message is received and whether change occurred.  Instead of waiting until the end of the project to see if communication worked, consider other leading indicators that show progress, like whether people are receiving the media and understanding the message.  Some examples include Traffic, Comprehension, and Retention.

Ultimately, the real goal of any communications plan is to make itself obsolete.  The best-case scenario is that managers and others start talking about the change without having to be a part of a plan, and that the desired changes become incorporated into the day-to-day operation of the company.  In order to get there, remember you must take deliberate steps to share the intended message with the appropriate audience using accessible, credible media in a manageable timetable.

If you like this approach, you might also like:

• Eight Fundamental Ingredients of a Successful Change Initiative
• The Pinpoint Communication Workbook

You are responsible for influencing the organization, usually without the direct authority to do so.

Leaders are quick to delegate ownership to you, even though they are the ones who really need to own the project. Although it’s much easier to maintain control if you handle things yourself, if the organization sees you as the project champion instead of the leaders, they will not take it as seriously.

On the other hand, try to guide (manipulate?) leaders too much into doing what you want and they will resist being a puppet.

So the ultimate change agent’s dilemma might be this:  How do you balance control and influence?

The instinct is to mow.  Just cut the weeds so we don’t see them any more.  But if we do that, not only will the weeds not be gone, but they will multiply.  It’s the easy fix.

Instead, we have to spray the weeds, and wait patiently for them to shrivel up and turn brown.  Then, we can mow and hope that the grass grows up in its place.  The lawn looks worse in the interim, but it’s the best way to nurture the lawn in the long run.  The only other alternative is to dig everything up and start over again.

In organizations, it’s tempting to find the easy fix.  It gives the illusion that the problem has been solved quickly and you can move on to the next challenge.  However, lasting change requires time and patience.  The real lasting solution may take some waiting and even getting worse before you see results.

Inquiry:  Where in your organization have you mowed the weeds?

Does this sound familiar?

The head of another department is not responsive to my requests.

An executive is not communicating the change properly, and it’s diminishing the message.

The CEO insists on maintaining an environment that is not conducive to the changes we should make.

Join me for a free webinar that shows you 5 steps to gain leadership support for your change initiative – through their words and actions.

Beyond Buy-in:  Raise Leadership Support for Your Change Initiative

Date:  Thursday, April 16, 2009

Time:  3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern

Space is limited. Please register to reserve your spot and receive log-in details.

Change itself is less complicated than the tasks required to align people to it. Time itself (or at least as we measure it) changed once.  But in my house, that required adjusting four analog clocks, four digital clocks, three watches and two car radios.

Change results in a temporary efficiency loss. The parking lot at church was a little thin today, and I bet morning traffic will be lighter than usual at times when it was previously light.  People are sluggish as they acclimate to waking earlier.  No matter how well planned, anticipated or small, change requires an adjustment period.

People change on their own schedule. Although the time change is instantaneous, people will make the change when it is most convenient for them.  I don’t know anyone who would set an alarm for 2:00 a.m. so they can wake up and move their clocks forward.  Some people set their clocks before they go to bed, and others complete the task in the morning.  My husband changed his watch on Saturday morning because he had to wake up early on Sunday morning, and wanted to have more time to adjust.

Not everyone receives the message, remembers it or understands it. Some people will show up late to work on Monday morning, having spent all day Sunday thinking it was the wrong time.  Either they didn’t hear about it, heard it but forgot about it, or rearranged the slogan “Spring forward, fall back.”

Even after hearing the benefits and seeing that everyone else is on board, some people will still choose not to participate. Most of the State of Indiana stays on Eastern Standard Time year-round, preferring to change their time zone instead of their clocks.  During Daylight Savings Time, they are on Central time.

Inquiry:  How is your organizational change more complicated than it seems?

Feel free to chime in by adding a comment below.

After 28 years at United Illuminating, an electric utility in Connecticut, Phil Turner retired in January this year as Director of Strategic Planning and Risk Management.  As he reflects on his role as a change agent, Phil shares the story of the 100 Million Dollar Challenge, a large scale re-engineering initiative that took place in preparation for deregulation.  Listen for insights about restructuring the organization for change, and about the pros and cons of implementing “big change fast.”