A 5-Step Change Management Plan to Lead Your Organization Forward

The pace of change inside business today is greater than ever. Leaders and employees can argue whether it’s fair or even necessary, but the reality is that constant change is here to stay.

In our work with scores of companies working through change, we’ve identified some key best practices for managing change well, which we explore in depth here – providing you with a clear roadmap to success in navigating change inside your organization.

The Challenge of Change

Change has always been a part of business and the experience of the pandemic has pushed the change momentum pendulum even further. That’s partly because leaders saw how quickly change can happen when businesses must adapt and change in a crisis. The thinking goes – “Well if we could change during the pandemic that fast, why can’t we do so again now?”

So leaders – driven by market demands, changing customer preferences, and pressure for greater efficiencies, higher profits, and rapid growth – continue to push their employees to keep changing.

Yet, so many companies still handle change initiatives poorly. Employees end up feeling burned out and checked out, and the change plans often falter. According to recent research from Bain & Company, 88% of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions.

Repeatedly, a lack of strategic planning, a poorly articulated vision, and poor communication are among the top reasons cited for a lack of successful change. As it turns out, managing the change is the key to making the change successful.

Given this reality, it’s critical for business leaders to become experts in change management planning. This doesn’t mean you need to bring in an expensive management consultant to manage the change. Often, it’s just about handling change in a way that’s more engaging of the team that’s responsible for the change. And it’s always about getting much better at communicating the change. These are all things that The Grossman Group specializes in, and we’ve been encouraged by seeing the progress organizations can make when they become a lot smarter about change management planning and communication.

What is a Change Management Plan?

A well-executed change management plan is a multi-stage plan that spells out the case for change, clearly defines the business outcome and what the organization is trying to achieve, and clearly lays out roles and expectations of everyone involved in the change.

Why is Change Management Important?

Change management is vital because there is so much of it – and therefore, it needs to be done well to succeed. Well-managed change minimizes disruption, helps generate buy-in, and increases the likelihood of success.

1. There’s Simply a Lot of Change Going On

Ask any employee working today and two simple words – “change management” – can often prompt an eye roll.

• Employees see so much change that they are often suspicious that the proposed changes are well-intended.
• Employees often feel change is just being forced upon them for the sake of it, or because business leaders think it creates the illusion of forward movement.
• They also often worry that the changes won’t result in many positives for them, and instead may just lead to layoffs, added workloads, and more stress.

A recent Gartner Group study identified an 80% increase in planned enterprise changes since 2016. Willingness to support organizational change collapsed from 74% of employees in 2016 to just 43% in 2022, making change fatigue a major challenge for employers today, according to the Gartner study.

2. Change Initiatives Aren’t Achieving Their Goals

A growing body of research finds that all the change going on isn’t having the desired impact. For example, a 2023 study published in the Harvard Business Review reported that actual strategic alignment among employees, managers, and executives was two to three times lower than perceived alignment.

In other words, people often think the change is working and that people are all on the same page and working toward the same goals when in fact, there’s much disagreement about the future direction and key objectives of the organization.

“Too often, executives and employees alike find themselves in an echo chamber, assuming that everyone shares the same understanding of the company’s strategy while actually pursuing divergent or even clashing goals. This inevitably leads to politics, firefighting, unproductive meetings, and interpersonal challenges, all of which distracts everyone from their jobs and hinders actual value creation,” the study’s authors wrote.

Our own recent research with The Harris Poll found that all the change initiatives are taking a big toll on employees and their managers alike. More than 75% of employees and 63% of managers report feeling burned out or ambivalent in their current position. Yet managers aren't recognizing just how overwhelmed their employees feel, with 89% saying their employees are thriving compared to the actual thriving figure of 24%. That's more than a 3-to-1 discrepancy.

Source: Burned Out & Checked Out - What Employees and Managers Need to Thrive, The Grossman Group/The Harris Poll, 2024

The research finds the biggest driver of burnout for both groups is "a great deal of constant change." Other factors include unnecessary work from senior leadership, employees frequently having to shift focus throughout the day, and high turnover rates that often lead to even more work for those left behind.

3. Employees Need to Know the Context Behind the Change

One of the biggest problems with change initiatives is that organizations treat changes as one-off silos and fail to connect shifts in the business to an overall company story about where the company is going and why.

A better way to handle change is to put the changes in context by creating a larger narrative story – the overall change journey that shares the context behind the challenges the organization faces and why shifts need to be made, how the shifts will make the company stronger, and what the changes will mean for individual employees. In the best-case scenarios, the overall change narrative also answers for employees the WIIFM question (What’s In It For Me?) because that gets employees more engaged and invested in the change journey.

For example, we’ve worked with organizations that had to make tough decisions on layoffs, but they presented the decisions with the proper context. Rather than just letting people go to cut costs, leaders shared that the company was re-investing in new initiatives that would lead to growth and new opportunities for those who remained, and would also allow the company to better compete for the future. While layoffs are never easy to accept, context is everything and goes a long way toward building greater trust within a team.

On the other hand, we’ve also seen leaders do the opposite. Sometimes it’s clear CEOs aren’t big believers in providing proper context. They may just feel employees don’t need to know the background and instead just need details for the new plan. The expectation is that those employees have a responsibility to just follow through on whatever the new expectations are.

While that may sound reasonable on paper – and may feel easier to implement at first – this is often the reason transformations don’t take root and don’t gain true acceptance from the team. They never feel part of the change, nor do they feel respected enough to be brought into the plan.

This brings us to our next important point – the power of employee engagement in the change process.

4. Employees Should Be Regularly Engaged in the Change Process

One of the surest ways for companies to build a successful change is to involve employees in the process at critical touchpoints along the way. The days of 300-page transformation plans just delivered to employees in an all-company meeting are still too common in many organizations, and they are doomed to fail in many cases because employees often feel they are not part of the change journey. Change just feels like something that’s happening to them, and that can be very disengaging.

This doesn’t mean employees and middle managers are writing the change plans from the start, but their input at key junctures is vital. Let’s face it: just because a senior manager says, “Follow me” doesn’t mean the employee will. Instead, leaders need to build trust and belief that the change is worth the effort and worth the employees’ time and energy.

When employees get the context behind the change – and are engaged and invited to offer feedback and suggestions – they can begin to see their fingerprints on the path forward and they start to feel heard and part of the team. After all, transforming itself is not a predictor of success. An engaged team certainly is.

5. Employees Need a Roadmap and Clear Objectives

Many researchers point to a lack of clear objectives and poor communication as among the top reasons that change initiatives fail.

This is why effective change management is so vital. Employees and leaders need to have clear objectives – not pages and pages of plans, but a short list (ideally three, but possibly four or five) of main objectives the company is looking to accomplish and why. Otherwise, the message will be lost on employees pretty quickly after the change is launched.

Setting clear objectives and then communicating them regularly and over time is the cornerstone of an effective change management plan, and it’s a big reason why change management planning is so vital.

Your Simple 5-Step Change Management Plan Template

As you map out your change management plan, there are a few core steps you need to take.

Step 1: Understand Where Your People are Today

Before leaders launch any change, they must first know their audience. What’s already on the minds of employees and leaders? Are they already feeling overwhelmed? Burned out? Disengaged? If so, they’ll need extra care and extra context before hearing about any additional changes. Further, they’ll need to know why the change that’s coming has the potential to make their working lives better and the company stronger.

The best changes are positioned so that employees end up feeling that they are worthwhile for them personally and for the company as a whole. Additionally, employees will need to know what actions are expected of them as a result of the change. How will they need to do their job differently in the future? That needs to become crystal clear.

One way to achieve this is to apply a simple know, feel, and do template for each impacted group that’s part of the change. This insight can be taken into account as you finalize the change management plan, so you ensure that the employee mindset is considered in your plans.

It’s also important to point out that the listening phase for employees needs to be ongoing. The best companies don’t just listen at the beginning and then go away. Rather, feedback is gathered along the way and at multiple touchpoints along the journey.

Step 2: Develop Your Narrative for What You’re Trying to Get Done

As we’ve repeatedly pointed out, context is everything. All employee stakeholders need to understand that change isn’t happening just to make the company more money. Instead, the change has to be part of a bigger picture – an overall narrative that includes an inspiring vision for the short-term and long-term future of the company.

The narrative also needs to be shared again and again. It’s not about the launch party and then it’s over. All employees need to truly know the company story and feel as if they are singing from the same songbook.

Here’s a useful template that can help craft your company narrative and the case for change:

Build Your Case for Change Narrative

Step 3: Create Your Roadmap for the Change Process

A specific change management roadmap, with milestones along the way, is essential for employees to see the big picture. What is happening and when – as well as what’s still being worked out – is critical for employees to see so the full change journey is clear.

This roadmap can be high-level if the plan is not fully flushed out, but a basic sense of where you’re headed is essential for the team. Details can be filled out as the plan naturally evolves.

A sample roadmap:

Overall Business Objective: To transform Tupperware from an in-home service sales model to one of the nation’s premier digitally-driven customer service companies

Step 4: Communicate All Along the Way, Not Just at the Launch Phase

Any effective change management plan helps employees see where they fit in and provide answers to their deepest concerns, such as:

• What does this mean to me?
• How will it impact my work life on a daily basis?
• What do I need to do differently?

As we’ve already shared, employees need to have multiple opportunities for feedback and questions. This could include town halls, conference calls, one-on-one meetings with key leaders in the change process, and frequent written communication.

The process should be a “surround sound” approach so that employees are constantly getting information from multiple sources about the change process and their role in it, as well as having ample opportunity to ask questions, get clarity, and share what support they may need to be successful.

Step 5: Measure Progress, Gather Feedback, and Adapt as You Go

The most successful change management plans are adjustable. Leaders need to be ready to evolve their activities to meet changing needs. That means continuously evaluating the effectiveness of the plan as well as the communication efforts.

This gets done a lot easier when leaders engage regularly with those on the frontlines of change – whether through focus groups, surveys, or periodic input meetings with a cross-functional work team.

How We Can Help

We support organizations in navigating complex changes and driving successful transformations by helping them clarify and communicate a compelling vision for the future. By partnering with clients to effectively manage change, we align leadership, empower employees, and ensure that operational, organizational, and strategic changes are embraced and implemented effectively.

Our team has helped hundreds of organizations share the vision for what can be and has successfully prepared leaders to both inspire employees and improve the overall employee experience – key ingredients for driving lasting change.

Learn more about how we support our clients through transformation or contact us today to partner.

Final Thoughts

Change management is more than just a buzzword in business. It’s the way of business today.

That can be very hard for many people to accept. Often, we hear employees and leaders alike share that they just hope to arrive at a “steady state” without a lot of change inside their organizations. Yet the reality of business today comes back to the fact that change is here to stay.

Changing consumer demands, financial and market pressures for constant growth, digital transformations, and the like all point to change as a constant.

What big change is ahead for your organization and how will this roadmap help you plan for it?

—David Grossman

Change is hard for organizations, for employees asked to change, and for leaders and communicators who deliver on the change. Click below to access the Change Management Communication: 5 Step Planning Guide (featuring 5 free tools and templates) to help you communicate, implement, and execute your change initiative.