How rigorous are the change management practices in your organization? - SmartBrief

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How rigorous are the change management practices in your organization?

Last week's SmartBrief on Leadership poll: How rigorous are the change management practices in your organization?

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Leadership

How rigorous are the change management practices in your organization?

SmartBrief

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from over 250,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our newsletter.

How rigorous are the change management practices in your organization?

  • Somewhat. We manage change for big changes but less for everyday stuff. 37.1%
  • Not very. We don’t actively think about how to manage change. 23.3%
  • Not at all. Change just happens and we react. 21.8%
  • Very. We actively and effectively manage change. 17.8%

Change just happens. 45% of you say you don’t manage change actively or are purely in reactive mode. People dislike change and times of change are times of risk for your business. People get distracted. Morale drops. Productivity flags. These events need to be managed actively. While huge change projects usually get the resources for change management, it’s the cumulative effect of all the small changes that saps the will of your organization. Your change management efforts don’t need to be huge. It’s mostly about communicating clearly and directly. Invest some extra time in your change efforts for the next few months and see what the impact is. Hopefully it’ll be a more focused organization that moves through change more quickly so they can get back to business sooner.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS. Before launching his own company, he worked at McKinsey & Co., Capital One and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He’s the author of three leadership books: “One Piece of Paper,” “Lead Inside the Box” and “The Elegant Pitch.”