“If leadership is not actively involved to communicate the change and build alignment and support, that’s the biggest hurdle,” Chan says, which then makes “employees duck down and wait until the leader moves on to the next thing.”
Communication is Key
“Communication is the key to everything,” Kenfield believes. “Part of leadership is the communication of the environmental factors involved and their impact on the business, and then to gain consensus on how to adapt and succeed.”
A study published in early 2016 by Robert Half Management Resources, which polled 300 senior managers at U.S. companies with 20 or more employees, asked, “What is most im-portant when leading your company or team through a major change?” Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of respondents deemed “communicating clearly and frequently” as paramount, while 16 per-cent said “managing expectations” and 9 percent each for “outlining goals” and “delegating effectively.”
“Have a clear communication plan, and communicate constantly and consistently throughout the change process, not just at the beginning,” emphasizes Wilder. “Be very clear on the data informing the need for change and share it with everyone. Make the case for change not only from a business perspective, but also from a personal, emotional perspective, so your people can rally behind it.”
“No matter how much you prepare them, people are hesitant to change,” agrees Ron Carkoski, president and CEO of Four Seasons Produce. “They have to have a reason why.” This means conveying the big picture, why the change will make the company better on a strategic level, and how it will benefit the employees per-sonally. “If you can tell them the why and get them to believe the why, they can bear the how,” he says.
Four Seasons has undergone a number of organizational changes, ranging from making a move from five buildings to one back in 2004 (see sidebar), to imple-menting new ERP and transportation management software packages. Carkoski stresses that com-munication must be a dedicated and consistent effort that trickles throughout the organization. “The first manager that cracks will be what everyone will focus on.”
Four Seasons uses a number of ways to communicate imminent change, starting with a kickoff meeting led by Carkoski, continuous posting of updates and timelines on a blackboard in a heavily trafficked area near the cafeteria, conversations with managers and super-visors at team meetings and on a daily basis, lunch-and-learn sessions, articles in the weekly company newsletter, and more. “You name it, that’s how you do it,” Carkoski explains, adding, “You can’t do enough.”
