Change Management - Creating Change

An idea I presented on initiating change recently received an enthusiastic response. Perhaps it will work for you. It is taken from an article I wrote some years ago, reproduced in an edited form below. The full version is available here. Creating Change :

Write out the things that would make you less grumpy on a Monday, more willing to turn up, more joyful at your work. Ideally do not do this alone, this is not a competition. A group of similarly-minded individuals is more likely to create a full range of annoyances than any one person is on their own. Grab a couple of colleagues and write down between you at least 20 things that create for you and them feelings of despair, misery, or unnecessary delay at work. All of these and any other obstacles to progress should be recorded. No idea to be deleted or discarded. Ever. Now each of you should choose your top three gripes from the whole list. Next write down what they are – a simple title - and then how to overcome them in three or four steps. Now you will have:

• A long list of annoyances
• A short list, for each of you, of the worst ones.
• For each gripe you have
  • A name for it,
  • A way of overcoming it, in three or four key steps.

Next comes the vital part of converting your idea for creating change into reality:

• How can you convert it into reality?
• What will the barriers be?
• What do these changes need
• Who can deliver them?

When doing this there are some potential problems, especially in having an open and blame-free discussion, so set the scene with care. While honesty is required, this should not become an opportunity for griping about individuals: concentrate on what is wrong and how to remedy it, not on who is to blame. This sort of session can begin the process of identifying achievable  actions for change.

Your final step is to send them to me so that I can share more widely the list of horrors that you experience, and how you deal with them – anonymously.

Please send me your ideas - or, if you are happy to be named, list them in your comments. Please ensure that you make your problem generic; we are interested in the issues rather than the people or the organisations.