LESSON THREE: Deploy cultural and behavioural training
When change significantly alters long-established work habits, you can’t expect employees to modify behaviours or learn new skills overnight. This was a big concern during the course of our change management campaign, because our new office environment was very different and the company had less than 10 months to secure the fundamental shift in corporate culture required to operate smoothly and efficiently after the move.
We quickly learned that small victories motivate bigger ones while helping to maintain the pace of change, and that training initiatives, big or small, must be a cornerstone of any change management program. During our campaign, we put in place a series of behaviour-focused initiatives aimed at giving employees the skills they needed to hit the ground running as we entered our new office space. These initiatives included an “Open Door” challenge that moved employees with closed offices to commit to keeping their doors open for a full month. To observe work habits, employees produced weekly job reports, which allowed issues to be addressed and discussed openly. To simulate the small work spaces that the new open-plan office would provide, empty offices were converted into alcoves for ad hoc conference calls or private conversations. To include employees in the decision-making process regarding aesthetic changes, we set up sample work stations for everyone to view and polled employees on their preferences for things such as work station modules, chairs, carpets and lighting. Two months prior to our move, we initiated “Getting to Know You” sessions (think 30-second speed dates) during morning and lunch breaks. This enabled employees who would be seated together in the new office to interact and break the ice, encouraging the development of the collaborative relationships that would be necessary when working side-by-side in the new space.
In addition to this culture-based training, we prepared employees for new tools. For example, our new workstations were equipped with wireless telephony and laptops to allow employees to take full advantage of the flexibility of the open-plan space. So prior to the move, the “Change Ambassador” group concerned with technology offered training sessions to ensure the maximum use of these tools upon arrival in the new office.
Finally, to mitigate the culture shock of the move, particularly for those who had been working in closed offices for many years, we produced etiquette guidelines for working in an open-plan environment. The guidelines communicated suggested behaviours for working in close proximity, addressing noise, distracting behaviour, clutter, food and odours, along with the proper use of community areas, to pave the way for greater comfort and a more productive and harmonious environment.
LESSON FOUR: Surround yourself with the right people
Assembling a great team is crucial to a successful change management program. As a leader, you can’t do everything, so you must leverage external expertise. To steward our campaign, I recognized the need to combine elements of Leadership, Human Resources and Communications. None of what we achieved would have been possible without the combined efforts of all concerned.
CONCLUSION
When taking stock at the end of a campaign, it is tempting to cherry pick statistics to support a rose-tinted view of what happened. But no campaign will achieve 100-per-cent success. At the end, there is often work still left to do. Keep in mind that there is no magic formula for managing large-scale change. It is different for every organization, and each experience will present its own peculiar challenges.
Nevertheless, as a leader faced with major change, you must:
• Ensure that your company seizes the opportunity when senior management is open to organizational change;
• Take a proactive approach to employee engagement, and be open and transparent in all your communications; and,
• Work in tandem with other key corporate departments, particularly with human resources and communications, to achieve your objectives.
At Sanofi Canada, by engaging a total audience of over 425 employees we were able to seize upon a required facility change to precipitate a fundamental shift in organizational culture. By leveraging the opportunity presented by the move to an open-plan space, we have built an open culture at Sanofi Canada, one that is higher performing, while repositioning us for a bright future.
We may have started the change process at a place of common apprehension, but we are now far from that place. Today, our employees work in a beautiful open-space environment that makes collaboration and transparency second-nature. We are working better and are showing unprecedented enthusiasm in our approach to our jobs. We have never been more engaged.