How to Get Commitment from Employees Affected by Change

Should You Be Running Employee Participation Workshops?
If you want to get commitment from employees affected by a change, consider designing an conducting employee participation workshops that bring stakeholders together with members of the Executive and Change Leadership Teams to:

• Learn about the proposed change.
• Openly share their reactions, concerns, and ideas.
• Design pathways for their ongoing involvement in the change initiative.

We know from change management simulation research that employee participation workshops can serve as the cornerstone of the two-way communications efforts to stakeholder groups that may also include other change communication tools such as newsletters, town hall meetings, and videos.

Done right, employee participation workshops form a method for ongoing involvement and growing commitment from employees affected by change.

Timing
Change management consulting experts recommend holding employee participation workshops as early in the change process as possible.  In change management training, we advise holding the workshops within 30 days of the organizational change kickoff so that participants can function as key conduits of feedback and communication to begin the cascade of information through the organization.

Roles
The Executive Leadership Team, Change Leaders, and the Change Catalysts should own and lead the employee participation workshops. The objective is to bring together managers and participants from the parts of the organization that will be changing, in order to:

• Let go of old baggage.
• Consider the design of the new processes.
• Begin to develop new ways to work together.

Both time and money are saved overall by bringing people together in the short term to work out the issues and consider what it will take to make the process operate well.

Scope
Employee participation workshops can be done with groups ranging from 6–250 people across key stakeholder groups. All of the information arising in the workshops should be recorded and shared with participants within five days of each session.

High-Level Design: Employee Participation Workshops

1. Create Receptivity and Openness to Constructive Debate
   In mixed groups at tables of 6–8, facilitate structured conversations that quickly bring participants into talking about what they value and what they find frustrating (i.e., barriers to success) in their day-to-day work. The purpose of this activity is to break the ice and let people know that everything is open for discussion.
2. Share the Current State
   Share where you are in the change process. This includes:

   — What is and what is not up for debate.
   — What the Change Team is doing.
   — The current state analysis.
   — The vision for change.
   — The business case for change.
   — The urgency for change.

   Have participants discuss what they have heard and then formulate table questions that they would like answered to help clarify the current situation and desired state. Facilitate a dialogue about the changes to ensure everyone understands both urgency for change and the magnitude of change needed for long-term viability.

   Have leaders participate in sharing the data and their honest feelings about it.  This is a key activity in the session: even all though the “answers” may not be ready, we know from change management simulation research that most people appreciate receiving full information about the situation they are in. If people affected by change have the opportunity to think through it, they can contribute better to solutions and are more ready to accept potential unpleasant alternatives as necessary.

3. Discuss Change Design Alternatives
   At this point, the Change Team either shares the draft change design for the desired state or 2–3 design alternatives to get from the current state to the desired state. The value of using the second approach is that the Change Team can draw on the thinking of a larger cross-section of the organization. In addition, people throughout the organization will be more personally committed to implementation because they will have been involved in creating the design.

   The mixed-table groups then develop table questions to the Change Team about the design, to ensure complete understanding. After the suggestions are grouped by issues or themes, the participants will vote on and discuss the most important.

4. Identify Current Norms and Needed New Principles
   Table groups develop lists of the current organizational and team norms (“how things get done around here”) and share them with the large room. They are grouped into categories. Then tables each work on 1–2 categories, brainstorming lists of new norms or work principles that would make it possible for the new design to work and produce excellent results for the people AND the business.

   These are shared in the large room. If there will not be large layoffs and it is possible for participants to know roughly what work groups they will be in after the change, then it is best to spend time in the work groups, looking at:

   — What do we still need to find out?
   — What do we need to do differently for this change to be successful?

   This is a key activity, but needs to be handled creatively if it is known that a large percentage of the group will not be in the company after the change.  Then, each person is asked to consider what this will mean for them personally and professionally using simple written questions.

5. Identify How People Want to be Involved?
   People get into table groups now representing their work groups or functions, and brainstorm some of the information they need, and how they want to be involved in the change design process going forward. Each team reports back to the whole group for an open discussion.
6. Agree Upon Next Steps
   The whole group now talks about the action plan required over the next 90 days for continuing involvement.

The Bottom Line
When it comes to change, we know from project postmortem research that active involvement creates active commitment.  If you want to get commitment from employees affected by change, design an inclusive, honest, and transparent process that lets people be heard and put their fingerprints on the changes you seek.

To learn more about how to get commitment from employees affected by change, download  5 Research-Backed Lenses of Change that Leaders Must Pay Attention to