Change Management For Performance Improvement

In 2021, I proposed an initiative I thought was brilliant—it would help my team make faster progress and better leverage each member's unique skills. Brilliant, right? Yet, it didn’t take off. Many ideas or initiatives fail because we struggle to gain buy-in. The reasons for resistance are many, but Rick Maurer simplifies them into three core categories: (1) "I don’t get it" Resistance here is about lack of understanding or information. People may not fully grasp the reasons behind the change, its benefits, or the implementation plan. This often leaves them feeling confused or unsure about the impact. (2) "I don’t like it" This is rooted in a dislike for the change itself. People might feel it disrupts their comfort zones, poses a negative impact, or clashes with personal values or interests. (3) "I don’t like YOU." This is about the messenger, not the message. Distrust or lack of respect for the person initiating the change can create a barrier. It might stem from past experiences, perceived incompetence, or lack of credibility. When I work with leaders to identify which category resistance falls into, the clarity that follows helps us take targeted, practical steps to overcome it. - To address the "I don't get it" challenge, focus on clear, accessible communication. Share the vision, benefits, and roadmap in a way that resonates. Use stories, real-life examples, or data to make the case relatable and tangible. Give people space to ask questions and clarify concerns—often, understanding alone can build alignment. - To address the "I don't like it" challenge, emphasize empathy. Acknowledge potential impacts on routines, comfort zones, or values, and seek input on adjustments that could reduce disruption. If possible, give people a sense of control over aspects of the change; this builds buy-in by involving them directly in shaping the solution. - And to address the "I don't like you" challenge, solving for the other two challenges will help. You can also openly address past issues, if relevant, and demonstrate genuine commitment to transparency and collaboration Effective change isn’t just about the idea—it’s about knowing how to bring people along with you. #change #ideas #initiatives #collaboration #innovation #movingForward #progress #humanBehavior

Most change initiatives don't fail because of the change that's happening, they fail because of how the change is communicated. I've watched brilliant restructurings collapse and transformative acquisitions unravel… Not because the plan was flawed, but because leaders were more focused on explaining the "what" and "why" than on how they were addressing the fears and concerns of the people on their team. People don't resist change because they don't understand it. They resist because they haven't been given a compelling story about their role in it. This is where the Venture Scape framework becomes invaluable. The framework maps your team's journey through five distinct stages of change: The Dream - When you envision something better and need to spark belief The Leap - When you commit to action and need to build confidence The Fight - When you face resistance and need to inspire bravery The Climb - When progress feels slow and you need to fuel endurance The Arrival - When you achieve success and need to honor the journey The key is knowing exactly where your team is in this journey and tailoring your communication accordingly. If you're announcing a merger during the Leap stage, don't deliver a message about endurance. Your team needs a moment of commitment–stories and symbols that anchor them in the decision and clarify the values that remain unchanged. You can’t know where your team is on this spectrum without talking to them. Don’t just guess. Have real conversations. Listen to their specific concerns. Then craft messages that speak directly to those fears while calling on their courage. Your job isn't just to announce change, but to walk beside your team and help your team understand what role they play in the story at each stage. #LeadershipCommunication #Illuminate

I was excited to see McKinsey & Company share research about teams that is very much in line with the work we are doing. Team-focused transformations can lead to 30% efficiency gains in organizations that implement these strategies effectively. The tough part? Not all teams are created equal, so this approach is a bit more complex. Here are four actions leaders can take to build a network of effective teams, based on case studies of organizations. One: Identify the Highest Value Teams Start transformation by identifying high-value teams. Select teams aligned with the organization’s purpose. Empower teams through guided journeys and support from facilitators. Begin with a core group, then add teams in waves. The result: cultural shifts, improved agility, and measurable results. Two: Activate the Teams Give teams clear goals and decision-making power. Cut bureaucracy and empowered teams. Teams focused on high-value work and involved key stakeholders. The result: faster decisions, better collaboration, and continuous improvement. Three: Lift the Leaders to Support Their Teams Traditional leadership skills must evolve to inspire purpose and remove obstacles. Leaders act as connectors, share successes, and address challenges. A growth mindset helps leaders navigate new ways of working. The result: empowered teams, faster decision-making, stronger collaboration, and a scalable transformation driven by purpose-led leadership. Four: Scale this Approach to More and More Teams Share success stories to inspire enthusiasm and highlight the benefits of the transformation. Measure impact with tools like team barometers, tracking alignment, mood, trust, and teamwork levels. Scale transformation by moving from prioritized teams to a broader group of value-creating teams. The result: scalable transformation driven by a network of change agents. The result of all of these steps: significant performance improvements.

In a world where stability feels comforting, your capacity to navigate uncertainty determines what's truly possible. According to McKinsey & Company's 2025 Adaptability Index, organizations with high change readiness outperform competitors by 52% in market share growth and demonstrate 47% faster recovery from market disruptions. Here are three ways to transform change resistance into strategic advantage: 👉 Create "future-back thinking" rituals. Regularly practicing visualization of desired future states before mapping backward reduces change anxiety by 64%. Design structured processes that normalize positive future imagination as a core organizational competency. 👉 Implement "change partnership" protocols. Pair stability-oriented team members with naturally adaptive colleagues to create balanced change navigation teams. These partnerships demonstrate 3.4x greater implementation success than traditional top-down change management. 👉 Practice "possibility mapping". Replace threat-response with opportunity identification when disruption emerges. Build adaptive capacity by immediately documenting three potential advantages for every perceived challenge in the change landscape. This works and neuroscience confirms it: constructive change engagement activates your brain's reward pathways rather than threat responses, enhancing creativity, reducing cortisol, and enabling higher-order problem-solving. Your organization's resilience isn't built on rigid planning—it emerges from a culture where change becomes the most reliable competitive advantage. Coaching can help; let's chat. Follow Joshua Miller #executivecoaching #change #mindset

Too often sales managers and VP's 'Set Expectations' but then are SHOCKED when people don't follow through. More often than not it's because they skipped some VERY important steps when it comes to rolling out anything new. So for change management to really occur, any new process, these are the steps you have to follow. 1. Sell vs Tell - Sell WHAT you want done. Tell the story. Tell the impact. Sell the WHAT, not just tell it. 2. Explain the how - Aka WGLL (wiggle aka what good looks like) - Here is what good looks like. 3. Teach and Train - Don't just assume people know how to do it! You have to actually teach it step by step. 4. Get Agreement and Commitment - You need direct agreement back saying 'yes I will do this thing and I feel confident i can do this thing' 5. Do it together - The first few weeks/iterations ideally are done as a group. Get the momentum going, get the questions out of the way, etc. 6. Inspect and Follow Up - Don't let weeks go by and THEN check in. That needs to be done before something is due AND after. Don't wait for the miss. 7. The 4 R's - Recognize (If they did it, recognize them for it!) Reward (same idea, what does it unlock) Repercussion (If they didn't what are the repercussions) Repeat/Repetition (Keep it going. Review, Update, etc) This is change management. So if there are certain things your team is supposed to be doing but arent... Go to these 7 steps. Did you miss something?

Change isn’t just about strategy—it’s about people. Yet too often, leaders roll out new initiatives, restructure teams, or shift priorities without providing the necessary context, expectations, or support. The result? Confusion, frustration, and resistance. When change lacks clarity, it also lacks two key emotional intelligence competencies: 💡Empathy (Social Awareness): Leaders who don’t anticipate how change impacts their people miss the opportunity to address concerns proactively. Without empathy, employees feel unseen and unheard. 💡Relationship Management: Change requires trust, communication, and alignment. Without clarity, teams struggle to stay engaged, morale dips, and trust erodes. You know what else happens? Key contributors lose confidence when they no longer feel competent in their roles. People don’t resist change—they resist uncertainty. And uncertainty thrives in the absence of clear, emotionally intelligent leadership. And emotionally intelligent leadership lowers the threat threshold of their team. Before implementing change, ask: ✅ Have I clearly explained why this change is happening? ✅ Have I acknowledged the emotional impact on my team? ✅ Have I created space for questions and dialogue? ✅ Have I prepared proper training to support my team? Emotional intelligence isn’t just about staying calm—it’s about leading with clarity, connection, and care. Because when people feel informed and considered, they don’t just endure change—they help drive it. How have you seen EQ (or the lack of it) impact organizational change? Let’s discuss. ⬇️ #emotionalIntelligent #changeManagement

Any manager can have a high-performing team. Pick one and take action today (tips below): 1. Set a Clear Mission Average teams execute tasks. High-performing teams drive outcomes. Your team needs to know exactly: • Why their work matters • How it impacts the company • What winning looks like The mission isn't a statement. It's their North Star for daily decisions. 2. Hire Aligned Talent High performers want to work with high performers. Stop compromising on: • Work ethic • Learning appetite • Team-first mentality One mediocre hire can destroy your culture. One fantastic hire can elevate everyone. 3. Care for Your Team High performance requires high trust. Get serious about: • Understanding their personal goals • Supporting their life challenges • Being there when it matters The best performers choose teams that care. Show them that's you. 4. Give Real Support High performers need rocket fuel, not red tape. Invest in: • Spaces that raise their energy • Tools that multiply their impact • Resources that accelerate results Remove one major obstacle weekly. Watch their productivity soar. 5. Respect Autonomy High performers need freedom to excel. Start trusting them to: • Design their approach • Make key decisions • Own their outcomes Micromanagement suffocates excellence. Give them space to innovate. 6. Reward Generously High performers know their worth. Get aggressive with: • Above-market compensation • Accelerated growth tracks • Meaningful recognition Don't wait for annual reviews. Reward excellence in real-time. 7. Develop Constantly High performers crave mastery. Create opportunities for: • Skill growth • Stretch assignments • Leadership development Treat learning like a priority. Not an after-party. 8. Eliminate Problems High performers hate waste. Ruthlessly target: • Broken processes • Unnecessary meetings • System inefficiencies Every barrier you remove Multiplies their impact. The difference between good and great teams? Great teams get better every day. Pick one area. Take action today. Watch your team transform. Helpful?  ♻️ Repost to help others.  💡 Follow Dave Kline for more.

Rebuilding a High-Performing Team in an RTO World: A Client’s Success Story When my executive client was tasked with bringing his 650-person department back to the office after four years of remote work, we knew the challenge wasn’t just logistical—it was strategic - and his concern wasn’t just about getting people back to their desks but ensuring he had the right people in the right roles to drive business success. Through our collaboration, we decided to develop a two-phase approach that allowed him to manage change effectively while restructuring his team for optimal performance. Phase 1: Managing the Change of RTO (Months 1-3) Rather than rushing into assessments and restructuring, we agreed that it was best to focus on re-acclimation first. 🔹 Gradual Reintegration: He implemented a structured return—starting with three days in-office before scaling up—giving employees time to adjust. 🔹 Listening Sessions: My client led discussions with teams to understand concerns, workflows, and career aspirations post-remote. 🔹 Cultural Reset: He modeled the company values, reinforced the why behind RTO, and reinforced the culture in every meeting. Phase 2: Assessing & Restructuring the Team (Months 3-6) Once stability was established, the next step was restructuring the team for the future. 🔹 Skills & Contribution Audit: Partnering with HR and others, my client assessed whether each role still aligned with business needs. He found that some functions were now redundant, while others required a new skill set after four years. 🔹 Team Effectiveness Review: He restructured teams to improve efficiency and positioned high performers in roles that leveraged their strengths. 🔹 Strategic Reassignment & Exits: Some employees transitioned into new, more fitting roles. Others, who struggled to adapt or no longer aligned with the business, were respectfully transitioned out. Still others were supported in their current roles with new training to equip them to succeed in the future. Messaging the Changes: Transparency & Stability 🔹 Communicating the Vision: Early on, we knew framing the restructuring as an opportunity was important. 🔹 One-on-One Conversations: My client ensured employees moving into new roles—or out of the company—had clear, respectful conversations about their next steps. 🔹 Rebuilding Trust: By reinforcing that changes were intentional and strategic, employees recognized the thoughtfulness that had been invested in the changes. The Outcome? He's rounding out his six month and says his department is performing at a higher level than pre-pandemic. It's not been easy and there have been a few surprises, but he knows his team is set up for long-term success. What my client learned was that returning to the office wasn't the real challenge - rebuilding the right team was. If you’re navigating RTO and need to reassess your team for long-term success, let’s connect.👇

You can't out-coach a toxic environment. But here's the other side: Broken talent systems and outdated people strategies hurt even the best performers. Last year, I worked with a tech company that understood this balance. They didn't just bring us in for leadership development. They brought us in WHILE they rebuilt their systems. Same timeline. Same urgency. Same commitment. Here's what that looked like: While our team at Perfeqta worked with managers on difficult conversations, we worked with HR to redesign their feedback processes. While we built inclusive leadership skills, they updated promotion criteria. While executives learned new ways to lead, the company addressed pay gaps. The magic wasn't in the coaching and training alone. It was in the alignment across people, process, and performance. Too many companies treat people development and culture as separate initiatives. They'll invest in their leaders in Q1. Then maybe look at systems in Q3. If there's budget left. But transformation doesn't work in silos. Your best people need both: • Skills to lead differently • An environment that supports their ability to do it Think about it: What's the point of teaching someone to innovate if your systems punish risk? Why develop inclusive leaders if your policies stay exclusive? How can new behaviors stick when old systems pull people back? The companies that get extraordinary results understand this: People change and system change amplify each other. They work together or they don't work at all. So yes, invest in your leaders. Development is imperative. But also: • Audit what behaviors you actually reward • Align your policies with your stated values • Hold everyone accountable to new standards • Measure both individual growth AND environmental shifts It's not either/or. It never was. — Hi, I'm Latesha, a workplace culture strategist who helps companies align people development with system change. Follow for guidance on leadership and building high-performing cultures.

Most teams struggle to improve performance and culture. Why? Because they ignore how human brains actually work. Here's the truth about driving team excellence. The best lever isn't to keep on telling people to behave differently vs. what they are used to. It is to create the *conditions* that get people to naturally change their behaviors. 4 science-backed frameworks to make this happen: 1. The SCARF Model (h/t David Rock) Your team needs to feel: • Safe (status) • Clear on next steps (certainty) • In control (autonomy) • Connected (relatedness) • Treated fairly (fairness) 2. Nudge Theory (h/t Thaler & Sunstein) Make excellence the obvious choice: • Call attention to excellence • Make excellence the default • Make excellence easy to remember • Make excellence easy to perform • Make excellence fulfilling • Reward excellence 3. Fogg Behavior Model (h/t BJ Fogg) Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Prompt Make it: • Super simple • Instantly rewarding • Perfectly timed 4. The Progress Principle (h/t Amabile & Kramer) Small wins fuel big momentum: • Celebrate quick victories • Address setbacks fast • Build positive feedback loops Great teams are about building systems that make excellence the natural outcome. Want sustainable high performance? Start engineering your environment. Because when you work with human nature, not against it... 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. ♻️ Find this valuable? Repost to help others. Follow Vince Jeong for posts on leadership, learning, and systems thinking. 📌 Want free PDFs of this and my top cheat sheets? You can find them here: https://lnkd.in/g2t-cU8P Hi 👋 I'm Vince, CEO of Sparkwise. We help teams rapidly build skills like this together with live group learning, available on demand. Check out our topic library: https://lnkd.in/gKbXp_Av