Time For Change
Make time your friend in a change process.
Change requires time, but if it doesn’t happen quickly enough according to your client, it suddenly becomes a constraining factor.
If someone has been working according to certain processes for years — in some cases, decades — it takes quite a bit of time and effort to make changes. This applies to one person, and even more so to a large group of people.
As a coach in mostly larger organizations, I frequently encounter misplaced expectations regarding change. It is often thought that changes in the way of working will be “implemented” within a few months — or sometimes even weeks.
It sounds so good: “We have been working very successfully for some time, but now we want to take the next step in our growth, so we are starting change process X.” The accompanying tight schedule is often made before an experienced coach is hired. This leads to unrealistic plans that you as a coach are confronted with from day one.
On paper, it’s just a matter of doing an introductory session with a full room and then starting with the new way of working. Maybe a few learning points here and there, that still sounds logical, but after a few weeks of working this way, everyone should be used to it, right?