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Management Insights
Expert Advice from Today’s Top Professionals

Getting Others to Engage in

Change: The Five-Step Process
When it comes to implementing large-scale internal
changes, most organisations are reasonably
good at kick-off but falter when trying to sustain
employee commitment over the life of the project.
In order to succeed, it’s critical to apply a strategy
that facilitates communication and keeps people
engaged during each stage of the change process.
To be fair, the affected departments hadn’t been
completely ignored by the project team. About
eight weeks earlier, they had been given a generic
roll-out briefing. However, there hadn’t been any
contact since then. Worse yet, there was no plan
established to keep them informed on—or engaged
in—the project’s progress once it was set in motion.

The importance of applying a strategy was In my role as advisor, I decided to propose a simple
confirmed for me recently: A project team was five-step process that would enable all parties
implementing an end-to-end integrated logistics to embrace the change and execute a successful
process that would affect several jobs across transition.
multiple departments. Having all their process
charts ready, the equipment ordered and the
plan “up on the wall”, the team was looking
forward to the start date just three weeks in
the future. My responsibility was to review the
team’s plan as part of their due diligence.

Unfortunately, what I found was a classic case

of a team focusing so narrowly on the details
of the plan that they were overlooking what
was really important for any successful change:
motivating the affected parties to take a
personal interest in the success of the project.
Bob Black
Organisational development consultant Bob Black offers a simple process
for change management in this edition of our Management Insights series.

CALL 1-800-843-8733
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Learning Tree
Management Insights
Expert Advice from Today’s Top Professionals
Getting Others to Engage in Change: The Five-Step Process
Once I provided my observations to the project
team and their senior management, they quickly
adjusted to achieve a more balanced focus. I then
recommended the team adopt the following five-step
process that would engage the people affected by
the change:
Step 1: Create a People- and
Process-Change Plan
When creating a project plan, ensure that it is a
balanced plan that gives due attention to both people
and process. To ensure that balance, begin with the
people first and do the process second. When looking
at the people side, drill down to the individual level in
order to establish a strong connection between the
planned change and its implications for individuals in
the organisation. In other words, answer the “how will
this change affect me” question.
Step 2: Perform a Time-Sensitive
Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholder analyses tend to start by identifying the
key players. Unfortunately, this narrow focus doesn’t
take into consideration that the roles of individual
stakeholders change over time. There are those who
are immediately critical, those who will be important
in the short to middle term and those who will be key
in the latter stages. In practical terms, the level of
information required by each stakeholder will differ
based on the immediacy of their involvement. A time-
based analysis allows you to develop an engagement
plan that recognises short-, medium- and long-term
communication requirements for each of the
stakeholders.
Step 3: Get Involvement Early
The more people are involved, the more opportunity
there is for getting their emotional buy-in, which in
turn affects their motivation and support for implemen-
tation. A good opportunity for early involvement is
during the creation of the “Change Vision” (or “Mission”
or “Project Brief”). Unfortunately, the vision is often
created by a select few and then distributed through-
out the organisation without the involvement of the
many who are affected, assuming all will agree with
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(and adopt) the vision. This assumption in no way
ensures engagement so bring everyone into the
development of the vision right from the start.
Step 4: Plan to Manage Conflict
Conflict is inevitable. How it’s dealt with determines
whether you reach a positive or negative outcome.
The team must agree up front how they will deal with
conflict—both internal and external—throughout the
entire process. Don’t allow “optimism bias” (the belief
that things will be better this time) to cloud the ample
evidence that conflicts always arise in projects.
Step 5: Engage through Communication
Finally, you must ask for feedback from the affected
parties at every stage of the project. When you receive
it, always acknowledge and respond, even if it’s only
to say “we’re thinking about it” or, more importantly,
“we’re not going to do it and this is why”.
Following this clear set of steps, the team set up a
preliminary series of face-to-face meetings with one
key goal: convey the message of why the change
was needed and the benefits of the change in both
personal and individual terms. Then, by continuing
to follow the steps, engaging the stakeholders and
adjusting the message as the changes progressed,
the team was able to maintain buy-in through the
life of the project, thus including everyone in its
successful completion.
About the Author
Bob Black is a principal partner in the firm People Skills
Organisational Development Consultancy, specialising in
organisational change management and leveraging project management
techniques as a change agent. He is also the author of Learning Tree
Course 288, “Change Management: People and Process”, and Course 341,
“Negotiation Skills: Achieving Successful Outcomes”.
CALL 1-800-843-8733
OR VISIT www.learningtree.ca
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