Team Engagement Journey > Team Engagement Toolbox > Dealing With Change

Dealing With Change

A CREW TOOL: COMMITMENT & DIRECTION

A logical, practical process for dealing with change makes it easier for the whole team. The change process is for a team to understand (change of head), and then believe in the change (change of heart), then have a change in the behaviour (change of hand), and finally have a change in their habits (change of home).

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Purpose

This tool helps teams manage change dynamically and systematically.

Typical scenarios

  • An event has caused a big change within the team.
  • Buy-in is needed from the team due to the introduction of a new system, process or project.
  • Developing a future-ready team that is able to adapt quickly.
  • A team getting stuck in the implementation of an action plan

Why this is important

In the ever-changing world we work in, teams need to be agile and ready to adapt at a more regular pace than usual. However, few teams have a systematic, smart or logical approach to navigating significant change. This tool provides a logical, practical approach to working through the change process and overcoming the typical hurdles when dealing with change.

The process

Steps for dealing with change

The first step is for the team to understand the what, why and how of the change – what change is needed, why is it needed and how will the change be implemented. The process of problem-solving (see the Problem Solving tool) becomes important in this step. If the team can go through a thorough problem-solving process (or if they see that leaders have gone through a problem-solving process), it gives clarity on what problem caused the change and how the change will be implemented.

The next step is to change the heart of the team on the issue. If people don’t believe in the change, then they won’t follow through on what needs to change. The team needs to have their heads and hearts into the issue. The team needs to take ownership of what needs to change. There needs to be buy-in before the team will accept and embrace change. Identify what will help get ownership from the team, as this is the key to reaching step 2 in the process. One thing that can assist in getting the team’s ownership is to involve everyone in the problem-solving process (see step 1).

After people’s hearts have been changed on the issue at hand, the team moves towards the Hand phase. This phase is the action phase – where behaviours are changed. Once people know what they need to do and they want to do it, it still requires accountability to get the team to step 3. Identify what accountability is needed and how accountability will be built into the change process. 

If behaviours have changed, it still requires repetition to form habits within the team. Not all change needs to be habitually implemented, but the team needs to know which change is required to go to the Home phase where behaviours become part of who the team is. The team moves past the need for accountability because change is permanent and repeated spontaneously. The hurdle to overcome to get to this phase is ensuring the repetition of the new behaviours. Identify what actions need to be repeated by the team for the change to become second nature.

Dealing With Change Sample Spreadsheet

Change to be implemented HEAD HEART HAND HOME
What Why How How ownership will be nurtured Accountability to be implemented What needs to be repeated

Download resources

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DOWNLOAD THE SPREADSHEET