With 30+ years’ experience in her field, Aly is the go to HSE expert for many local and global Sustainability clients. Today, she shares her insights into how change management could be considered for creating a successful New Year’s Resolution.
As we start off 2024, many people will be considering and selecting their New Year’s resolutions. I am personally not a fan of these – I feel they are rarely fulfilled and too often lead to recrimination. Expecting a new year to simply, with the clock ticking over to the new year, bring a new operating philosophy seems flawed. I see this often replicated within businesses where a decision is made to make changes, but the rigor of change management has not been applied. Perhaps for a new year’s resolution to be successful the change we are wishing for needs to go through a little more consideration.
So, using Kotter’s 8 step change model, perhaps this is the way for a successful new year’s resolution:
- Create urgency – all change is challenging so there needs to be a reason, a motivator. Why is the change needed? What are the positives from the change and more important the negatives of not changing?
- Form a coalition – even for a change at a personal level having a team of people to support the change will help with a positive outcome. Who can support the implementation of the change? Do you have people to provide that support or do you need to bring in subject matter experts?
- Create a vision or strategy – what does the future look like with this change? Can it be measured? What does the successful change look like? It shouldn’t be just a number.
- Communicate the vision – this is not only within the “coalition” but wider to other influencers or stakeholders and for a personal change to yourself. Does the change you are making mean new habits? How will you keep yourself on the pathway to change?
- Remove barriers to action – what are the things that are stopping the change from being implemented? If the change is one that you have tried to execute previously but failed, review what caused the failure. Has the change been successfully implemented elsewhere, what made the change successful?
- Celebrate quick wins – nothing motivates more than success. Build into your change process steps that allow you to measure progress and success and also identify the gaps.
- Continue the momentum of change – review the change vision, if the change is not progressing make sure you can see this early and use the information to modify your program. Don’t call victory too early, quick wins are only the beginning of what needs to be done to achieve long-term change.
- Embed the change – build the change into all the various touchpoints. Is this training/education, resources/supplies, tools/equipment, time management?
Happy New Year, and cheers to a new year’s resolution that delivers the change you are looking for!
Aly Vinciguerra, Principal HSEC Consultant – Sustainability Pty Ltd