So… everything has changed.

You know, as thankful as I am for the chance to deliver my message with guitar and comedy, I must confess, that’s not the main reason my clients bring me in.

The unanimous reason you, my clients procure my services, and what drives every client conversation is…

Change.

They call me when they are dealing with, managing and navigating change.

We work together on…

• the critical move from a culture of managing change, to creating change.
• identifying the opportunities that will drive change.
• creating a cultural willingness to set aside old thinking and step into the new.

So, now that EVERYTHING JUST CHANGED, let me ask you a critical question?

What if people in your organization don’t want to change?

Do you have associates and colleagues who are waiting for “things to get back to normal?” (Which, by the way, is not happening).

Should you ignore them? Fire them? Just tell them to “get over it?”

Here are a few steps to help bring everyone on board with the changes YOU MUST MAKE to remain solvent, salient, and thriving.

How to humanize the change:

1. Results: Keep the potential results, the positive reason for the change up front, driving the narrative in your group. People fear change when they associate negativity with it. So… show them the positive!
2. Care for people’s needs. There are real challenges people face when major change is involved. It’s not their fault and it’s not their weakness. So, listen, learn, talk and be ready to help with the needs they have due to major change. This will also create a deeper bond and sense of “family,” an unintended benefit to change.
3. Be Invitational It’s easy to fall back on your position as a leader and simply give people orders, “do this because I said so!” That’s how parents treat children and this will only undermine your credibility as a leader. Instead, invite them along.
4. Gratitude and celebration. If you’re successful you have good people. They identify with and may have even been part of creating the process, product or service you’re now modifying or dumping. Acknowledge them, thank them, even celebrate what they created, as you appreciate their movement into the new.
5. Solve the problems. The reason I hate it when Apple updates my IOS is because of all the problems it creates. Similarly, some of your teams will only see problems as they look at this new direction. So… solve them. Or at least address them. And communicate this to everyone. When you address or solve the anticipated problems early, much of the fear of change disappears.
6. Be a respectable leader. When people don’t trust a leader they are far less likely to support the changes they make. When, instead, you walk your talk and show empathy, integrity and wisdom, while they may be cautious about the change, because they trust your leadership, they’ll be down with the change.

This is an unprecedented time in history.

You must move from managing to creating change.

You must identify the opportunities that drive change.

You must set aside old thinking and step into the new.

Most importantly for team unity, you must humanize the change.