JS Tip 593: Leading Through Change, Part IV

We’ve been talking about leading through change. 

Three weeks ago, we introduced the acronym ADKAR (awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement) as a leadership tool. 

We’ve been exploring each of the principles. Today: knowledge. 

Identify the Difficulty

Let’s drop back about five hundred years to a fellow named Niccolò Machiavelli. He said this about change:

It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. (The Prince, about 1532)

Identify a Solution

Knowledge.

Knowledge is the “how to” part of change management. Knowledge is having the skills and the behaviors to make the change happen. To help others make the change happen.  

Identify a Source

Some suggestions: 

Read. Read the journals of your profession. Stay current (or ahead) in your job knowledge. Read biographies. See how others managed change. Henry Ford. Steve Jobs. Bill Gates. How did they do it?

Observe and ask questions. Find those whom you think handle change well. Watch what they do. Ask them questions about why and how they do it. 

Establish peer-learning groups. Eat lunch with your co-workers. Ask those co-workers questions about how they handle difficulty.

Knowledge: How to make the necessary change happen.

Next week: Ability. Moving from knowledge to action.

Oh, we love this stuff. We really do.

Hollie, thank you.