At Glass Ripple Consulting, we train change managers.

But we also do so much more.

We work alongside you to upskill your whole organisation in the skills needed to initiative, lead, manage and support workplace change.

Let me explain…

When you train a handful of your workforce to become change managers, they will be able to manage change initiatives…in isolation.

But change never happens in isolation.

Any change initiative, whether it be a process change, an org restructure, a new piece of technology, a change of leadership…will always create ripples through the whole organisation…and as these ripples take hold, these change managers start to come up against resistance.

At GRC we use our Resistance Loop of Change™ model to explain how resistance can be the cornerstone of failed change:

The symptoms can show up in many ways, namely:

1. Audible unhappiness.

1-way communication telling you (and everyone else) that this change is rubbish. That it’s not needed, it’s not going to work, and there’s just no point to it.

2. Disengagement.

Lack of attendance at meetings, lack of participation, or even unquestioning agreement (because they just don’t care).

3. Sabotage.

Breaking new systems, spreading negative rumours, going out of their way to prove the change is wrong. Actively making it hard for the change to succeed. But the most important question we should be asking is WHY? Why does resistance form and how can organisations counteract it, or even stop it before it starts….?

Let’s start with WHY resistance can form – and this is not an exhaustive list, just some of the top reasons we’ve found from working in change for the last couple of decades…

1. Lack of organisational alignment – creating what we affectionately call ‘the hamster wheel of change’ where change is constant and quite often ‘fails’ as it doesn’t align with the wider organisational goals and longer-term vision.

2. Lack of leadership support – an idea forms, the hare is set running, a change manager is found, and the change work begins…but because the change is not aligned with the wider strategic goals, leadership often find their heads turned to something else of a higher priority, and the time they have to support the current change reduces, making it much harder for those ‘doing’ the change to succeed.

3. Lack of stakeholder buy in (communication) – change is a surprise, and a lack of early communication brings excessive uncertainty, stress and rumours. Plus, often time hasn’t been spent analysing stakeholders and understanding what they actually need to know about, resulting in unnecessary blanket communications.

4. Lack of stakeholder buy in (involvement) – this links closely with a loss of control during change. If we were to ask you what the biggest asset in your organisation is, you may tell us that it’s your people, and you’d be right – they are the very foundations of your business and hold in them years of tacit knowledge, tapping into that early helps to build trust and buy in, and can save some very costly mistakes!

5. Juggling BAU vs Change – change is often seen as more work and everyone is already spinning enough plates/juggling enough balls as it is, so even the whisper of change is enough to start early resistance, especially when the benefits/rewards are not understood or communicated.

So, what’s the solution?

For change to be successful, the organisation cannot rely on a small number of change managers driving the change…they must commit to becoming a change ready organisation and aligning change training so that each level of the organisation is given what they specifically need to lead and support change, creating harmony of training, less overlap, more efficiency and a quicker adoption and sustainability of change initiatives.

At Glass Ripple Consulting, we don’t just train people how to be change managers. We also train your leaders to be change leaders, and your workforce to be change agents, creating an organisation that is ready for change, now and in the future.

If you would like to know more about how we can help your organisation become ready for change, please get in touch through our contact page!