As a senior business executive once told a client team we were working with, ‘Well done – great plan! Having a plan is 5% of the solution’.
Now you have to get understanding, buy-in and action. Your operational stakeholders (the unconscious silos) can be somewhere between appreciative and actively resisting. They may be finding it hard to take action in a uniform way that will deliver the desired business results.
Plus, your executive team may or may not have clarified your role and authority for the plan – this might be new territory for them too. So, now as the champion or evangelist of the new strategy you are going to get the key stakeholders on board.
Finally, your external stakeholders – customers, partners, and suppliers – are an un-tapped opportunity. Once they understand where they fit in your plan the growth and or productivity improvements can begin.
1. Drive change using a clear organizational / business goal and develop your socializing plan
“People are trying to collaborate all the time, just not each other’s way.” – Jim Duval
2. Engage with your stakeholders as if on a journey leading to and across the canyon
“Change happens all the time. Our job is to notice useful change and amplify it.” – Gregory Bateson
3. Deploy change management tools to enhance the socialization of the change.
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. – John Nicol
Solution Focus and Agile management are typical tools you can deploy
Finally, don’t forget that customers are stakeholders too!
