How can a drop in performance be avoided during a change project?

In many organizations, change processes are generally planned and implemented like projects. This is not surprising at first. From project management, we are used to starting from an actual state and striving for a desired, defined target state: We identify the steps and work packages required to achieve the target state and work through them point by point.

However, this approach often fails in major change processes. The reason for this is that they are not carried out well. Important aspects are forgotten or ignored.

We can often observe the following factors:

• The target state is described from a purely technical or organizational perspective - for example, when new structures and processes are introduced. This does not take into account the fact that new working environments and routines require a certain amount of time to become established. New interfaces and responsibilities do not work from one day to the next. People do not internalize changes immediately.
• Some managers think that employees only need to be told in the form of an instruction what behaviour is desired in the future. They fail to realize that change inevitably involves a human component and that obstacles and resistance must be expected, and all the more so the less those affected are involved in the change process.
• The change is secretly decided and planned and only announced to the perplexed employees at a certain point in time. The meaning is then not apparent; the implementation is not understood. The logical consequence is a defensive reaction.

The result is very often a drop in the organization's performance, which can be visualized as a J-shaped curve. The new processes, tasks and roles are unfamiliar and must first be brought to life. New routines cannot simply be regarded as "learned" and accepted once instructions have been issued. The company therefore needs a certain amount of time to "digest" the change before its original performance is restored. An even longer period of time elapses before the desired higher performance can be achieved, so that one can finally speak of success.

For more effective change management, the following applies: changes that are to be implemented by people should also be designed together with the people. Simply prescribing major changes and then rolling them out in the organization as planned is usually a mistake.

Companies are complex structures. Changes that are not purely technical in nature can therefore not be planned and implemented in the form of traditional projects. There are many examples of such large change projects failing:

• They do not lead to the desired result.
• They cause long-lasting drops in performance.
• They cause active or passive resistance and demotivation among employees.

Implement the principles of change management

The first step to more successful change projects is to know the most important principles of change management and to proceed in accordance with them.

1. Raise awareness of the urgency of change. If there is no agreement on the objectives of the change, there will almost inevitably be resistance from employees.
2. Create a vision - preferably together with those affected - and communicate this vision transparently.
3. Build a coalition of people who see the change as a possible solution. Use them as multipliers.
4. Create acceptance among employees. This is one of the most important tasks of leadership in change management. Managers should talk to their employees as equals, ask questions and, above all, listen.
5. Enable those involved to implement the desired changes.
6. Make sure that short-term successes are created that can be celebrated together.
7. Take appropriate measures to ensure that the change is anchored in the corporate culture.

In organizations that initiate a change process, the company management should be fully aware that good and transparent communication is an essential success factor right from the start. If these principles are observed, it is already possible to reduce resistance and mitigate the inevitable drop in performance.

Implement a participative process.

Another step on the way to sustainably successful change is to change the perspective and no longer see change as a top-down process. In a participative process, as many stakeholders as possible are involved and their knowledge and skills are actively contributed to the change process.

1. Awakening a shared understanding of the motivation and purpose of the change

Instead of just awakening a sense of urgency, it is more effective if there is a shared understanding of the cause and purpose of the change among all stakeholders. This presupposes that those affected are involved at an early stage. In this way, we reach an agreement on the direction to be taken.

2. Initiating a genuine dialog with those affected

Instead of understanding communication merely as the company management sending out informative messages at regular intervals, it is more helpful to engage in a genuine dialog with those affected. This gives us a better feel for the changes that are actually necessary. Last but not least, it is the employees who can come up with good ideas for improvements. And if there are negative reactions, we can see these as indications of potential for improvement.

3. Conduct short experiments

Instead of working through changes like work packages from a project plan, it makes sense to conduct defined short experiments. The results and reactions can be used to adapt and improve the next steps. A structured approach is very helpful here:

• We carry out the experiment to check whether a certain result can be achieved.
• We give the experiment a certain time frame. We then decide whether to discard it or pursue it further.
• We measure the success of the experiment using certain metrics.
• We use the findings from the experiment for further steps.

4. Establish the principle of continuous improvement

Instead of freezing a target state that has been reached at some point, it is more promising if a general development towards the basic principle of continuous improvement takes place in the organization.

• Even small changes bring with them minor drops in performance, but these can be quickly made up for. The negative effect is not comparable to a dramatic J-curve, as is the case with large, poorly implemented changes. On the other hand, smaller successes occur much more quickly, which can far exceed the results of large changes.
• We should develop a culture in the organization that fosters continuous improvement. And we should promote leadership at all levels. We should encourage managers and employees to take responsibility wherever there is a reason to do so.
• This also means that we should ensure an appropriate error culture and have a certain willingness to experiment and take risks.
• The speed of change is so high today that companies can no longer respond with major change projects every few years. Instead, organizations are subject to constant change processes. With the principle of continuous improvement, they can adapt to this better, more robustly and more flexibly. This allows them to achieve greater business agility.
• Helpful methods include scrutinizing the current situation and conducting retrospectives. And the common will to make improvements in the interests of the organization is an important basic prerequisite.

The advantages of participative change processes

This type of methodology, in which changes are handled differently to the traditional way of change management, has many advantages:

• The better solutions are created professionally, because they are co-developed by the people who do the actual work.
• Changes are implemented more quickly because the intrinsic motivation of those involved is higher. Successes reinforce this motivation even further.
• Changes cause significantly fewer acceptance problems from the outset.
• Continuous improvement ensures that the performance of the organization increases dramatically. The corporate culture also benefits.

In all organizations, there is a lot of knowledge in people's heads. Leadership in the sense of the company has the responsibility to bring this knowledge to light and incorporate it into the change processes.

Don't rely on the theory that change processes can be planned and managed like traditional projects. Instead, use methods from the agile toolbox, because change is the new normal. You can only manage this and future-proof your organization together with people. And with the awareness that a change only has a certain half-life before the next change becomes necessary.

There is no simple, universally applicable solution. There are no best practices that you can simply copy in your company. But there are helpful methods - and certainly a solution that suits your organization.