unaware

At the beginning of any transformation, employees are unaware of the vision for the change.  Making employees aware of the high-level objectives for the change and the strategy for achieving them is crucial.  Communications should answer the high-level questions of what is changing, why are we changing and the timing for the change while linking the responses to the overall vision.  “Awareness” communications are structured into phases to set the foundation for “Understanding”.  Phases help define the path and the timing while setting baseline expectations.  The phases can include and are not limited to these areas: business assessment outcomes, learning lab test components, parallel path work requirements and transformation stages.  Through these communications, the organization begins to build their overall awareness.

aware

Once awareness is achieved, many questions begin to be asked.  In this step, the employees are working to build their understanding of the transformation.  They begin to wonder about the details of the change with questions such as: What is changing within their immediate organization?  What is the impact to their role?  How do the changes impact the day-to-day activities?  Are there new processes?  Will new tools be available?  Why are new standards being implemented?  How will they know if the changes are making an impact?  The building of understanding takes time and patience.  The organization must make time to answer all these types of questions as thoroughly as possible so that understanding can be built. 

understand

The building of understanding also requires using different communication vehicles.  Some examples are:  building a transformation team (members represent all cross-functions) and arming them with the details, using banners that define and link the vision and the strategy, incorporating messaging into organizational communications, changing email signatures to incorporate branding and tag lines associated with the change, incorporating aspects of the transformation in organizational meetings, etc.  Understanding requires the message to be communicated in as many as 10 different ways before the organization begins to fully embrace the changes.

believe

The good news is once understanding is built, the organization begins to believe in the transformation.  This belief breeds energy across the organization that the vision can be accomplished.  The energy creates higher levels of employee interaction and collaboration.  Collaboration brings higher levels of creativity, problem solving and ultimately success.  The teams leverage the processes, standards, tools and metrics to define opportunities for growth and continuous improvement.   This is when real, sustainable transformation occurs.

achieve

With understanding, the team is ready to achieve the vision with a passion and enthusiasm that drives the attainment of the vision.  Getting the team to achieve requires an investment in every step of the ladder in sequential order.  This ensures that the successes in the “achieve” phase will be sustained over time.

Today’s rapid pace of change is forcing businesses and their teams to continuously transform.  Successfully navigating and sustaining transformations requires that people understand, believe in, and enthusiastically act on the vision.  The Ladder of Inference is a great way to ensure that change management occurs in a way that not only optimizes employee understanding and belief, but also provides a sustainable way to achieve the vision.