In my opinion, the single biggest determining factor in whether a change initiative is successful or not is communication.  Communication across the leadership team, communication from leadership to managers and employees – and communication from people on the front lines back to management.

The challenge is that good communication is never a one-way street:  It requires that everyone in the chain has good communication skills, from the most junior intern right up to the C-suite heavy-hitters.

You may not be able to change everyone in your organization, but you might be surprised to find that improving your own communication skills can have a positive effect on those around you.  Here are some tips:

Communication tips for everyone, no matter what their role in the organization:

• Be respectful
• Be a great listener (and acknowledge that you’re listening)
• Remember that communication is two-way (listen and respond)
• Speak so others can hear you (put it in terms your audience will understand and appreciate)

Tips for Recipients (individual contributors):

• Ask questions to get the information you need
• Communicate as positively with peers as with those above you
• Speak so others can hear you (and pay attention to the channel they respond to best)
• Listen so others will want to talk to you

Tips for Translators (supervisors/managers):

• Listen – so your employees will talk to you
• Take information from above and convey it clearly to those below you
• Use positive communication to build teams (both the one you manage and the management team you’re part of)
• Don’t overload your team – be concise, not overwhelming
• Learn to ‘hear between the lines’
• Understand company direction and help your staff understand it

Tips for Synthesizers (directors/vice-presidents):

• Listen for clarity from above
• Listen with compassion from below
• Synthesize information into a ‘narrative’ or ‘story’ that helps you move your teams toward their goals
• Use the right filter for what you’re hearing (understand the subtext)
• Communicate so your boss will hear you (be strategic)
• Communicate so employees will want to listen to you (be engaging)
• Communicate to strengthen alliances with your peers (be a valued source of insight)

Sounds simple when it’s here in bullet points, doesn’t it?  But great communication really requires reflection and a conscious effort to understand the person (or people) to whom you’re communicating – it’s really about getting in the habit of making that effort on a day-to-day basis.

Change isn't something that happens just once in a while

I recently worked with a mid-sized professional services client on a change strategy for the implementation of a new customer relationship management system.  As part of the process, I was given a couple of years' worth of sales figures, which showed a real change in the revenue they were earning from different solutions they offered.

"I'm seeing a big increase in sales of Product X, but a decline in sales of Product Y," I remarked.  "I thought you told me you wanted to increase Product Y sales because it was higher margin and created a more steady revenue stream in the long-term.  What's happening?"

The Director of Sales sighed. "We changed the way we wanted to approach the market with Product Y, and now no one really knows what's going on."

Turned out that the senior leadership team couldn't agree on the revised positioning of Product Y (did they target one or two verticals, or try to go after a larger market segment?), which meant that marketing couldn't create any messaging around it - and that meant that not only were they not doing any external communications, they weren't doing any internal communications, either.  So the sales team, left in limbo but still wanting to make their numbers, were selling as much of Product X as they could while basically ignoring Product Y.

This is what I call 'everyday change': The kind of shifts in day-to-day business that seem like small things - until 6 months pass and you realize that little change, left unaddressed, has actually resulted in some big (and not positive) changes for the business.  No one bothers to create a 'Change Management Strategy' or call in a change management expert for this sort of thing, because it doesn't seem like a big deal.  But it is.

The solution?

As an outside consultant who already had access to the senior leadership and was accepted as a change expert, I was able to help my client:  At the next meeting I added 'product offerings' the agenda and we were able to map out a plan:

• We set aside time to finally get agreement on the revised positioning for Product Y
• We agreed on some basic features and benefits messaging
• Marketing was tasked with creating some internal communications, which were then approved by the leadership team
• Because leadership was now all on the same page, they could take that back to their teams
• We arranged training for everyone in the organization - not just the sales team
• Marketing prepared an external communications plan which was presented to the organization with some fanfare

None of this took very long - it was really just a matter of forcing the organization to make it a priority, and then taking the time to communicate it to the organization.

The result?

Sales of Product Y rebounded almost immediately - the salespeople preferred to sell it anyway, due to the higher margins.

The lesson?

Change management doesn't always mean allocating a huge budget for what is clearly an organizationally-transformative initiative.  Sometimes it just means managing day-to-day changes in business focus as efficiently as possible, to ensure that business goals are being met and everyone in the organization is moving in the same direction.

On my more or less constant quest for interesting change management items, I came across this infographic today:

Now, Knoll is a company which specializes in office furniture (or perhaps they'd prefer to call it 'workplace environment design'), so their core competency isn't change management.  However, if you're a supplier involved in a refit of an office of hundreds or thousands of people, you're going to need to know something about change management - because no matter how beautiful your 'office environments' are, getting a whole lot of people packed up, moved and settled, without losing a lot of productivity, requires quite a lot of change to be managed.

This content of this particular infographic isn't particularly earth-shattering - communication, input, messaging, supporting and evaluating are all pretty standard components of any change initiative - but what I liked about it was how aethetically pleasing it is, and how it makes clear that even an office move requires a 12-18 month lead time in terms of communicating the Big Idea to the organization.  In my experience, if organizations did a better job of creating compelling communications, and put them in place earlier in the change process, almost every change initiative would go a heck of a lot more smoothly and with more enthusiastic buy-in throughout the process.  After all, it's hard for people to keep resisting something that looks so appealing, especially if it's been announced months - or years - in advance.

Just something to think about.

If you're like me, you probably have a stack of business books somewhere in the corner of your office, just waiting for the mythical day (or month) when you have nothing else to do but read.  Except that when you finally make some time, you discover that most of those books have one or two good points, buried in a whole lot of stuff you already knew or which isn't all that relevant to your day-to-day working life.

That's why, when Bruno Gebarski asked me the other day for my recommendations on great change management books, I didn't have to think too hard about my choices.  There are lots of business change management books out there, but only a handful that I read cover to cover, and refer to and reference often in my work. If you don't have time to read any other change management books this year, these will give you lots to work with.

Aftershock: Helping People Through Corporate Change
by Harry Woodward & Steve Buchholz

This is my all-time favorite book about change, and in many ways it's the first book which really addressed the issues around what happens to the people in an organization when they're faced with huge changes.  Even though it was written in 1987, the points the authors make about how to manage people through change are still relevant today, and I find myself referring to Woodward & Buchholz's principles time and again.  If you want to understand - and I mean really understand - the people side of change, this is the book for you.

Leading Change
by John P. Kotter

Of course, you can't talk about change management writers without talking about John Kotter.  He's been one of the leading voices in the field for years now.  I have to admit that I'm not the most passionate devotee of Kotter, but I really like this book because it speaks the language of business.  I can reference it with my clients - some of whom are familiar with Kotter already, from conferences or workshops - and they understand immediately.  I also use his concept of a 'guiding coalition' (making sure you have a team comprised of people with the right amount of power, expertise, credibility and leadership) on all my projects - it's one of those practical tips that make a huge difference no matter what kind of change initiative you're undertaking.

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
by William Bridges

First published in 1995, this book is now in its 3rd edition, which gives you some idea of just how useful it must be.  It's designed for employees and managers, to help them get through change by understanding, accepting and even embracing the new status quo.  Not every change fits into the 'transition' category, but I find the model particularly useful in cases where the change initiative has potentially negative implications for individuals.  I also use it when I work with my executive coaching clients - we don't go step-by-step through Bridges' model, but I use the principles to help clients who are in that space between 'endings' and 'beginnings'.

ChangeSmart: Implementing Change Without Lowering Your Bottom Line
by Beth Banks Cohn

What would this list be without a shameless plug for one of my own books?  Written for middle- and higher-level managers, this book is all about leveraging the power of your employees to help a change go more smoothly and productively, and with the best possible effect on the bottom line of the organization.  It's got a field-tested framework that can be applied to almost any business project plan, has real-life examples, and, best of all, it can be read in under 2 hours!

What about you?  Which change-related books have been most influential in your day-to-day work?  (Share your recommendations on Twitter @BethBanksCohn.)

Sure, it's a little late - well, later than everyone else's - but maybe now you'll have time to read this wrap-up of my top 10 most popular blog posts of 2013.

Before we get started, just a quick word of thanks:  The past year has brought a whole lot of new visitors to the ADRA blog, and I wanted to thank both my new readers and my 'old faithfuls' for making 2013 such a great one. I have always loved thinking - and writing - about change management, but it's particularly gratifying (not to mention flattering) to know that thousands of people are interested in what you have to say about change every month.  Thank you - and I hope you enjoy my 2014 posts even more.

And now for the top 10 of 2013.

1.  Changeruption: When 'disruption' meets 'what the hell just happened?', it's time for change management

Like so many buzzwords, disruption started out with good intentions.  But when the skinny-jeans consultants forget to tell Marge's team in shipping/receiving about the 'disruption' they're about to orchestrate in the organization, the resulting changeruption starts looking more like Mount Pinatubo than the TED talk you were hoping for.

2.  Top 10 Myths of Change Leadership

We all have some preconceived ideas about what leading change will, or should, look like.  But many preconceived ideas aren't, in fact, correct.

3.  Adapting to your new iPhone is not the same as change management

These days, technology has made us all more adaptable - at least we think it does.  But learning how to use your fancy new gadget isn't the same as adapting to organizational change.  Here's why.

4.  Think the workplace isn't about making friends?  Think again.

Sure, you probably shouldn't be best friends with the employees you manage in the workplace.  On the other hand, you'll find that the most successful businesspeople are the ones who know how to build and maintain long-term relationships with the people they work with.  

5.  The Changing Role of Pharma Reps

New regulations mean that pharmaceutical reps are going to have to do less 'selling' and more 'relationship-building' with healthcare providers.  What does this mean for healthcare?

6.  Change Challenge:  Sales Force Reorganization

Changing the process, tools or structure of  sales teams can be particularly challenging, especially when some members are more successful than others.  Here's how we managed a change initiative in a real-world organization.

7.  Positive Psychology, Change and the Bottom Line III:  Motivation to Change

Part of our 5-part series on how theories from positive psychology can be applied to change management with dramatic bottom-line results, this piece discusses neural pathways and how they affect the motivation to change.

8.  If culture eats strategy for lunch, change is part of a healthy breakfast, Part II

The right change management strategy balances the rational (typically the business goals) with the emotional (typically the organizational culture).  If you can get them both working together, the organization will do a better job of changing.

9.  10 tips for choosing the right change management consultant

I first wrote a version of this back in 2011.  It was one of my most popular blog posts back then, and I've updated it every year since.  Remember, the right change management consultant can make or break your change initiative.

10.  Positive Psychology, Change and the Bottom Line V:  The ABCs of Positive Psychology - Affect

Another in this year's Positive Psychology series, this piece examines 'affect', the first in the ABCs of positive psychology which also includes 'behavior' and 'cognition'.  

I hope you have a chance to visit - or revisit - these posts.  In the meantime, thanks again for visiting the ADRA blog, and as always I look forward to hearing from you (and you can always find me on Twitter).

There is so much talk lately about acquisitions and mergers.  Seems like everywhere you turn, someone is buying someone or merging with another.  Big seems to be in.  I'm good with that, but with all the focus on the money end, I bet few are thinking about how bringing two cultures together will affect their bottom line.

Let's start with some statistics:

• 70% of mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve their anticipated synergies
• 50-90% fail to meet financial expectations
• 50% suffer an overall drop-off in productivity for the first 4-8 months
• 'People problems' are cited as the top failure factor in mergers and acquisitions

^{[Some information above is from "Culture Management in Mergers & Acquisitions" by SquarePeg.  You can download the PDF here.]}

There are a variety of reasons why mergers and acquisitions fail (TechCrunch has an interesting list - which includes more than a couple of the 7 Deadly Sins), of course.  But the one that often goes under-recognized is the role of organizational culture.

I suppose in some ways it's not surprising that 'culture' isn't addressed more often or more thoroughly:  Typically, the people driving an M&A are the $5000 pinstriped-suit, Bluetooth-obsessed finance guys (and they do seem to be predominantly male) who are more comfortable with variables they can quantify, like shareholder value, than they are with more qualitative concepts like 'organizational culture'.

Except that it's not actually all that difficult to quantify the cost of a culture fit misfire - it's just a matter of breaking it down into its component parts.  Let's look at some ways to do this.

Loss of top performers:

In my experience, it's the loss of senior A-list employees that can cause the most lasting damage to a merged or acquired organization.  It's not just at the VP-level, either.  Losing senior managers - the ones who've been quietly ensuring that their departments run smoothly and productively, but who are often ignored during a flashy M&A and who are left reeling from a sudden, dramatic change in organizational culture - can leave gaping holes in an organization that take months, and sometimes years, to fill.

But let's quantify the loss.  Assuming we lose 5 senior managers with an average annual salary of $110,000 each, and using a turnover calculator from Drake International, this represents a cost of $5.7 million.  (Sure, Drake's a staffing company and they're a little biased, but even the most conservative estimate here is more than $2 million - and that's just 5 senior managers, not the employees who follow those managers to their new employers.)

Loss of market confidence:

If there's one thing M&A people love, it's Driving Shareholder Value.  But culture clash can mean a drop in shareholder value, as Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia last year has demonstrated.  There are probably other more recent one's, but I particularly like this one.

Loss of productivity:

Mergers and acquisitions can cause productivity losses even in the best-case scenarios.  An unaddressed culture fit problem can make the problem much, much worse - and exponentially more costly.

Let's think about it this way:

• 5000 employees
• Each of them spends 30 minutes a week for 3 months overcoming culture fit challenges (either in increased meetings or decreased work product)
• That's 32,500 hours in lost time
• At a blended cost of $150/hour, that's $4.8 million

It's not difficult to quantify the cost of ignoring the ROI of culture in a merger or acquisition.  The bigger question is:  Why are the M&A drivers leaving so much money on the table?  It isn't hard to manage, you just have to pay attention to it and put people on it that understand both culture and business.

We often talk about change leadership within an organization:  Whether the organization is changing their software, the sales function, or the entire business focus, having the right leadership is crucial to success.  And in many cases, leadership starts with the president or CEO - it's important for the person at the top to be a positive, engaged role model for the change.

But what happens when the change is happening in an M&A (mergers and acquisitions) context?  In those cases, there is often more than one person 'at the top' - each organization has a president or CEO or chairman, and it may not immediately be clear which of them will, ultimately, be in charge, or who will ultimately wield more power.  This can create serious problems for change management, particularly in change leadership.

A few years ago, the British Journal of Change Management published a study in which several organizations were studied over the course of 7 years.  One of their findings was that during the M&A process, change was derailed when individual workers felt that change had been imposed on management, rather than being led by management.

It's not surprising:  In most mergers and acquisitions, one company is seen to be dominant, while the other feels like it's getting 'swallowed up'.  It's not unusual for the senior leadership of the 'swallowed' company to feel like they're just marking time until their position is made redundant and they're given a nice severance package.  It's hard to lead anything - including change - if you're just waiting for your pink slip, even if that pink slip is going to come with a lucrative cushion.  And that's the best-case scenario.  If the merger/acquisition has been acrimonious, there may be active negativity emanating from the executive suites.

When leadership figures appear to be ambivalent (or actively disparaging) about the changes happening to the organization, two things happen:

1. Leaders stop being leaders:  When leaders appear disengaged from the process, they stop leading and start looking like they're just victims of change.  That's when employees start feeling like the change has been 'imposed' on the leaders - and start seeing their former leaders as fellow 'victims' of change.  It's hard for anyone to lead much of anything when everyone's feeling sorry for them because they're a victim.
2. Change resistance becomes more entrenched:  It goes something like this:  "If the president, who we've always liked, isn't engaged with this merger and seems to have been unwillingly stuck with it, then it must be bad.  So we're just going to keep doing business as usual, and let those new corporate overlords put that in their pipes and smoke it!"  This isn't good for anyone:  It makes the existing employees of the 'swallowed' company look petty and unproductive; it makes the work environment for everyone toxic; and ultimately it costs a whole lot of money, either in lost productivity or in massive turnover.

What's the solution?  More attention paid to the importance of transitional leadership during a merger or acquisition.  Letting the leaders of the acquired organization disengage or take on a victimized attitude is short-sighted - and costs money in terms of productivity, increased turnover, and a longer ROI horizon.  Leveraging those leaders to help facilitate change during the M&A process means the new, merged/acquired organization can start delivering efficiencies more quickly.

I suppose that every profession has its (negative) stereotypes, but some days it seems like change management has more than others.  Maybe it's because change management often sits next to OD (organizational development), which tends to sit next to HR...and everyone loves to make fun of HR, even when they're simultaneously saying that people are their mosst important asset.

Whatever the reason, I found myself thinking about these stereotypes and cliches today, and how I address them.  Maybe you'll find my responses helpful the next time you're trapped in a boardroom watching a PowerPoint presentation littered with statements that sound good but actually aren't helpful at all.

1.  "If you're not riding the wave of change, you'll find yourself underneath it."

I guess this is supposed to conjure images of a surfer, skimming expertly atop the swell, while unsuspecting swimmers are pulled to their deaths by the undertow.  But it's good to remember that waves are transitory, and in fact can be generated in enclosed bodies of water that go nowhere.  So - to continue the metaphor - you may be expending an awful lot of energy to 'ride' something that isn't going to be there tomorrow anyway.  A better strategy might be to become a stronger swimmer.

2.  "We need to see some quick wins in order to get buy-in."

All I have to say about this one is:  If you didn't get buy-in before you started, a few quick wins aren't going to help you.  This says to me that you haven't helped anyone, senior management or employees, understand the goals and rewards.  Quick wins won't change this - they'll only leave you on a path you can't sustain.  If you have to constantly demonstrate 'quick wins' to keep people on your side, you aren't set up for success.

3.  "Let's not get trapped in the past."

Yes, change is about moving forward.  The problem is that "Let's not get trapped in the past" can often become "Let's throw the baby out with the bathwater", which is not productive.  Examining your organizational history with an eye to keeping the good stuff and changing the bad is a more effective foundation for meaningful change.

4.  "We need to get all our ducks in a row."

There's a big difference between 'taking the time to get it right' and 'putting the launch date off for another 6 weeks because Bob from Accounting can't be bothered to come to meetings and his team still hasn't completed their deliverables.'  Great change management sometimes requires decisive action - like telling Bob that whether his ducks are coming or not, everyone else is off to the pond.

5.  "This organization is already changing - every single day!"

This cliche is particularly dangerous, because it's both completely true and completely false at the same time.  No organization is completely static:  Market conditions fluctuate, employees join and leave, clients buy more or less - so yes, the organization is changing on a day-to-day basis.  But in many fundamental ways it's not changing at all.  Overall, it's still selling the same products, using the same computers, operating from a stable location, etc.  Not all change is created equal.  You may be able to change the brand of coffee in the staff room without too much upheaval, for example, but replacing the coffee with tea is likely to be significantly more problematic.  And that's just coffee, not a major process shift.

6.  "Everyone around here is used to change because we change a lot."

If you think your employees are used to change because you are constantly changing their world, you're wrong.  They're tired.  They are bone tired.  And they aren't any better at change but they've figured out it doesn't matter, because you change so often they know nothing you mandate will be around for very long.  This doesn't bode well for the overall health of the business, so you might want to get your money up-front.  

No doubt there will be a Part II to this list of cliches, because I know there are many.

What change management cliches get your eyes rolling?

(As always, find me on Twitter @BethBanksCohn.)

It's funny:  Every organization is different, but when organizational change fails, it's usually for the same reasons.  In this infographic, Rick Torben lists the top 20 change pitfalls to avoid. One of my favorites - and it's often overlooked - is 'Only focusing on rational elements'.  People often think they're being rational about a change - but it's their emotions which are providing the resistance to it.

One of the drawbacks of being a change management consultant is that you're often working alone.  Yes, you're usually working with a team, but that team is generally multi-disciplinary, and you're the change management lead, so you don't get a lot of opportunities to connect with peers in your field.

That's why I like to read other change management bloggers.  It's a sort of substitute for that fertile water-cooler conversation that is so great for stimulating discussion and sparking ideas.  I don't always agree with the blogger in question - but even the posts I disagree wtih can often get me thinking and on the way to clarifying (and articulating) my own opinions on various change-related issues.

So this week, I offer you my Top 10 list.  These are the change management - and other - practitioners whose blogs I have bookmarked and check out regularly - and whose tweets I'm most likely to pay attention to.

Here's who I'm reading these days, and think you should, too.  (They're in the order they appear in my bookmarks folder, not in order of preference - they're all great.)

1. Conversations of Change, by @jenfrahm
   Jen has recently blogged about 'gendered change champions' and gamification - in other words, she's got some interesting and unusual perspectives on change management and leadership that always get me thinking.
    
2. Enclaria blog, by @HeatherStagl
   Like me, Heather lives at the intersection of 'change management' and 'coaching', and often blogs about how the two connect.  I loved her recent piece on 'Bankable Leadership'.
    
3. Horizontal Change, by @ggitchell
   One of the things I like most about Garrett's blog is that he's so prolific - scarcely a week goes by that he doesn't post at least a couple of articles.  More importantly, he's got a unique perspective, such as his recent 'Wonderfully Disillusioned' piece.
    
4. Leader Communicator blog, by David Grossman
   David isn't strictly a change management consultant, but he often writes about subjects which intersect with change management, like leadership, communication and employee engagement.  He's also a regular poster, so I check in with him frequently.
    
5. ReplyMC blog, by @lucgaloppin (and contributors)
   This site bills itself as the 'Online Magazine for Organizational Change Practitioners', and it has pieces on change, motivation, leadership and other change-related subjects,  Unfortunately, recently the site hasn't been as active as it used to be, but I'm hoping that's just a temporary hiccup.
    
6. Change Guide blog, by Stacy Aaron
   Stacy's another writer who I wish wrote more often, but she's got enough of a back catalogue on her site to keep me going for a while.  Her pieces are especially good when you need to teach non-change people about change.
    
7. Voices on Project Management, by various authors
   I know that change management and project management are often uneasy bedfellows, but the truth is that we're often up against many similar challenges, and I like to hear what project management practitioners have to say about the ways they handle these challenges.
    
8. Conspire blog, by Mindjet
   Mindjet isn't a change management company - they make software that's supposed to help organizations collaborate, innovate and change.  I like to stop by their blog because they often have interesting pieces on innovation, leadership and productivity - all of which have a lot to do with change management.  (I will say that I have absolutely no experience with their software, but it has a nice logo.)
    
9. Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice, by @kbondale
   Some of the more traditional change management types I know will roll their eyes when they see that Kiron is a project manager who writes about change management, but I loved his recent piece, 'Neglect quiet stakeholders at your own peril.'
    
10. Synergetic blog, by Faith Fuqua-Purvis
    If you've been kicking around the change-related blogosphere for a while, you've probably come across Faith - she's been a thought leader for a while now.  I love her pieces - I just wish she posted a little more often!
     

Of course, this list isn't comprehensive, and no doubt you have your own favorites who you'd have liked to see on the list.  But these are the sites I find myself visiting most often lately.  I look forward to hearing about your current favorites.  You can find me on Twitter @BethBanksCohn.