This is the second post of the series “5 Reasons Why a Change Management Strategy Matters“

Have you ever tried pushing noodles with chopsticks? I’ve heard organizational change described as just that, pushing noodles with chopsticks…frustrating! Why? Because it’s hard!

To illustrate…I had three separate conversations recently with colleagues who described this phenomenon. In one case, the company wants more collaboration among highly skilled and highly paid professionals who are not used to working like this, and are not welcoming the change. In another case, the board of directors is not seeing what’s crystal clear to the chairman, and therefore, not going in the direction the chairman believes they should go. In yet another case, the business is in need of some clearly needed and logical improvements, but the politics involved have stalled any progress forward. In every case, they are confronting the same ‘soft’ issues. All workable stuff, all soft stuff. All hard to deal with.

As I have worked with executives, project managers, business improvement professionals, consultants, and others trying to implement business solutions, the feedback is consistent: a large majority (80% to 85%) of the root cause for failure to implement change is what most people consider the soft issues. Soft issues include politics, lack of communication, mismatched expectations, low trust, poor leadership, unclear objectives, unclear scope, competing priorities, fear, conflicting messages, complacency, attitudes, hidden agendas, etc.

What to do?

1. PREPARE FOR IT: No one likes to be surprised unpleasantly. There are things you can do to minimize and manage the soft stuff. See an earlier post that discusses 7 points of preparation.
2. EXPECT IT: Expect the ‘soft’ stuff to get in the way and plan for it. The earlier the better. One way to start is by conducting a Stakeholder Assessment (see related post)
3. REFRAME IT: Because ‘soft’ issues are hard to pinpoint, hard to understand, and difficult to deal with, it’s tempting to just label them as ‘resistance.’ But doing so does not help, and often it makes things worse. What people resist is not so much the change but being changed. See related article on resistance.
4. ADDRESS IT: The early work of preparation and assessment will help uncover the real issues. You can then plan on how to address those issues. The plan will naturally involve communication, but should also include other things such as interaction with specific people, addressing specific concerns, involving stakeholders in the process, and refining some of the organizational structures that may be hindering the change, among others.

Yes, ‘the soft stuff is the hard stuff.’ What looks straightforward in a business plan, sales presentation, or project plan, rarely plays out the way it’s planned. Most of the time it will feel like pushing noodles with chopsticks. And that’s particularly true when people are involved.

Another reason why a good change management plan is important.