Organisations often need to change quickly to stay ahead of their game, but since it’s people that roll out and implement change, how do they change?

New processes, management, reorganisations….it’s all about change! Over 70% of change programs still fail because of resistance to change’ (Beer, 2000) and organisations experience higher costs and greater risks when the people-side of change is not managed effectively, yet we continually focus on organisational change and not on employee development.

It’s individuals who need to understand, manage and implement change, adapting to new circumstances, so how do you ensure that your employees are set up for success and embrace change?

Whilst little literature exists on how organisational development and people development can best work together theoretically, (Bachkirova, 2017:163 – 168), opening channels for two-way dialogue and understanding some of the reasons why individuals resist change can be helpful in improving the process of gaining acceptance for change.

Knowing what drives a team member’s behaviour is a good start to understanding whether their inherent traits will serve your organisation well, or not, during change.

Team coaching is a method which I frequently use to understand what makes individuals tick in the team context; their resistors and drivers; in combination with the next generation of professional development tools, Lumina Spark, supporting individuals, teams and organisations to work more effectively and improve the bottom line.

Unfortunately there’s no 24-hour pill for change projects, but ongoing personal development in the form of individual and team coaching combined with channels of communication which encourage two-way dialogue are a great start to successful change initiatives!

If anything in this article has piqued your interest, please contact me.

Helen Martin is a qualified coach and trainer and lives in London. She is a member of the Association for Coaching and coaches individuals through change. She can be contacted here.