As a result of this column you and your organization will: Learn that people have to know why change is needed and see relevance. Give good reasons and constantly reinforce them. Understand building trust starts with smaller issues including diversity of views and challenges to your ideas. Effectively communicate the change and get buy-in by explaining it using one of five different methods. General Electric’s celebrated “work-out program” included questioning the need for every report. Prior to the adoption of this program, GE’s decision-making was bogged down in a glut of paperwork. Then, under the guidance of Jack Welsh, the company began to ask some very important questions. Does this decision need approval of so many people? Do we really need to have this meeting? To get better, for that matter even to survive, all American businesses, like GE, must question everything they do and be bold enough to embrace change.

Seventy percent of all change efforts fail for one basic reason. It isn’t easy. Initially, you have to ask your staff to be patient with you as well as with their managers and with each other. Remember that fear and anxieties are natural outcomes of change. When your people are asked to say what’s on their mind and challenge the old ways, they may feel unsafe and vulnerable.

In addition to feeling safe expressing themselves, your people need to know why change is needed. The only way to create relevance in change is to give good reasons for it and constantly reinforce those reasons. Make people feel safe in taking risk and assure them that their jobs and careers are not in jeopardy.

You must also make every effort to build trust. Start with smaller issues including diversity of views and challenges to your ideas. Show respect for skeptics by letting them be heard out and by accepting new behavior. If you criticize your people when they make decisions, they will forget about empowerment and go back to just doing their jobs.

Reward people for the results they produce. Eliminate the busy work and get people to talk about the unnecessary tasks and paperwork they are doing.

Change the process of decision-making by explaining there are five methods and each may be used at different times.

• The first of these methods is telling. Basically, you are saying “Here’s the decision and this is what I want you to do.”

• Selling is another method whereby you say, “Here’s the decision and this is why I made the decision. Now, do it!”

• A third method to consider is testing in which you articulate, “I came to this decision. Now, what do you think?”

• Consulting involves asking for input and waiting for a solution you like.

• The final method is consensus building or co-creating. The advantage here is that people are always more committed with decisions they have co-created.

Being clear about which of the five processes you’re using in each situation saves twenty to thirty percent of time normally needed and an awful lot of resentment.

In addition, you should always praise progress as soon as it happens and encourage self-evaluation, everyday. Lasting change takes a long time; we all need to be rewarded along the way.

Also, when innovating, expect mistakes. They are bound to happen, but they aren’t the end of the world, and don’t forget, innovation is doing something new, for the very first time. Remember the first time you rode your own two-wheel bicycle? When you fell off, it wasn’t the end of the world either.

You should always be mindful that the core roll of executives has changed as more and more decisions are made at grass roots levels. Spend time questioning assumptions about markets, competitors, and the very nature of your business.

When questioning core beliefs, such as strategy and purpose, expect to feel uneasy. After all, you’re challenging the validity of what you’ve been doing with your life.

The very essence of innovation means facing uncertainty and figuring out things as you go along. Fear and anxiety are a natural part of every learning process. When no one is anxious, no one is learning.

Recognize that assessing progress will be different, and it might be difficult to transition from the old to the new standards. Just because a team starts talking about its problems openly, doesn’t mean that the team has more problems. They now have more people focused on solving them and this will foster more rapid change and innovative solutions.

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