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A Simple Accelerator for Change Communications.

People resist change. You’ve heard it, read about it, and experienced it first-hand.

But you have a big change initiative upcoming in your organization. Maybe it’s a new technology, an acquisition, a new process… You’ve already heard people don’t want it. They want things to stay the same.

So, you’d better start turning that resistance around, right? Winning the hearts and minds of everyone you need to adopt this change.

Not so fast. You don’t need to combat resistance on every front. You don’t need to reach everyone, just your sweet spot.

Don’t waste time on those dead set against this change. They’ll never come around, and you don’t need them to.

Don’t waste time on those who are already on board. You will be, as they say, preaching to the choir.

Spend time on those in the middle – mildly supportive to mildly resistant – and who matter when it comes to the success of your project.

That’s your sweet spot. Get them, and you’ll win.

  1. Identify your stakeholders. Group them in whatever way makes sense for your project: by business unit, function, role, and/or geography.
  2. Map them. To do this, figure out two things: their level of resistance or support of the change, and their level of influence on the success of the change.

Here’s an example grid you can use to map your stakeholders.

As you can see, the sweet spot includes those who can influence your success, and those who are not firmly for or against. Focus your energy there.

  1. Engage the sweet spot. To start, you need to understand each group in your sweet spot.
  • What do they care about? How does this change address those things?
  • What are the benefits and opportunities for this group?
  • What challenges will the change pose for them?
  • What are the consequences of non-compliance?
  • What channels do they prefer for engagement and communication?
  • What kinds of words or images appeal to them?
  • Who are the people who influence them?
  • What is their history with similar changes?

Answering those questions will help you craft an “experience plan” for each group, to begin moving them from awareness to engagement to adoption to ownership.

So, do you ignore the hecklers? No. Give them all the support you are giving employees in their stakeholder group, like communication, training, and post-launch support. Just don’t spend extra energy trying to turn them around.

This is different from what I was originally told years ago. “Find the naysayers and turn them around. Naysayers will tell you where your blind spots are. They will ultimately be your biggest advocate.” The research says otherwise. Most of the naysayers won’t get on board.

As you engage the sweet spot and the momentum shifts toward your change, the highly resistant will quiet down or change their minds.

Consensus is not the goal. Adoption, ownership, and performance are the goals. Every person in your organization doesn’t have to agree with every decision made. But if it’s a sound decision, you need to make its implementation a success.