1. Commitment

If anything is going to change, there must be commitment at all levels. The top team need to be clear on the need for the change, buy into it and be committed to helping others achieve it.

2. Communication

When employees are not clear what is happening, they start to speculate, make their own judgements and choices. A clear and effective communication strategy is one of the essential cornerstones of any change.

3. Realism

Successful change is grounded in realism. Take for example two organisations that are facing significant financial challenges. The CEO of A PLC states that it will take three years to turn things round. The CEO of B PLC states that everything will be fixed in 9 months. If you are a shareholder, analyst, employee, supplier or customer, which organisation are you most likely to get behind?

4. Defined Outcome

Any organisation that wants to make a successful change needs to be clear on where it is heading and what it will be like when the change has been completed.

5. Clear Accountability

The fifth essential ingredient in successful change is make sure that everyone know what they are responsible for and that there is a clear process that holds people to account for what they have achieved.

What else would you add to the list?

Tags: Change, change management essentials, change success foundations, duncan brodie, goals and achievements

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 10:30 am and is filed under Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.