Involving people can end up feeling like it generates a fire hose of information, with no shut-off valve!

When it comes to change, leaders get wake-up calls — whether they want them or not. The calls can come from the product quality group or the media, the customer, or a lone voice deep in their organizations. The wake-up call usually sounds like:

"What we're doing isn't good enough any more."

"What we did yesterday puts us at risk today."

"We have a new opportunity, but so does our competition — and whoever gets there first, wins."

Change leaders need the courage to put change into motion — to put their reputations on the line, and to make a claim for something better. Whether improving the dynamics of a small team, or achieving an organizational transformation, significant change does not come easily for the people whose lives are affected — and leaders need to make peace with this tough reality. Throughout any change process, they can expect noise from some sectors, and deafening quiet from others. Some people will object in writing. Others will avoid meetings. People may even attribute motives to leaders that are exaggerated at best, distorted at least, and sinister at worst.

Some leaders are particularly resilient in the face of these challenges. Beyond strong convictions and a good measure of self-esteem, they have ways to bolster their resolve and sustain attention and focus, and, ultimately, achieve successful outcomes. They embrace the unique responsibility of the change leader.

In our work with clients, we have found three change leadership strategies emerge as best practices. Successful change leaders:

• set up their organizations for success.
• build leadership alignment around the case for change.
• ensure the right stakeholders are engaged throughout the change process.

Let's look at how that's done.

Setting up the organization to succeed

Part of what makes change so hard on people and organizations is the dual requirement to stay on top of the change process, while simultaneously running the business. The work must go on. Just because you're turning things upside down doesn't mean your customers will forgive you if you falter in your ability to deliver.

To meet this challenge, leaders must put a change infrastructure in place. The more complex the change, the more robust the change infrastructure must be. The term "change infrastructure" probably sounds daunting, and costly, but it needn't be. Simply put, it's some combination of people and technology that enables on-going communication, meaningful involvement, and a work plan to get it done.

Following are some examples of change infrastructures, sized according to the complexity and depth of change:

• A pharmaceutical team needed to learn some lessons from past challenges and, from that learning, implement changes in roles and work processes. The only infrastructure it needed was a short-term planning team (comprised of the project manager, the team's leader, and an Interaction Associates consultant) and a work plan for meetings and milestones.

• A financial services corporation launched a major transformation in strategy and culture. The leader chartered a dedicated core transformation team, with ad hoc extenders in the communications, Human Resources, training, and Information Technology groups. Sub-teams were put in place to lead tracks of work, such as organizational design and development of a new market for the company's services. The transformation team developed Web-based capability to conduct spot surveys for quick feedback, disseminate brief news releases to keep people current with evolving changes, and rapidly provide special management communiqués, so that local leaders could be informed in advance of broadcast announcements.

• During the final stages of a medical center restructuring, a change leader convened a group of respected advisors ("the people everybody trusts"), representing several levels in the organization. She met with them on a regular basis to keep her informed about how the process was going, and where there were issues resulting from changes in the reporting relationships and expectations of staff.

A tip for managing a change infrastructure:

Keep the boundaries clear. No change team or consultant, internal or external, should ever act in the role of the people who have formal authority for leading the organization. No one, regardless of their passion and eloquence, can take the place of visible and vocal leaders. True, leaders can be deeply challenged by the constant need to stay on message and in the spotlight, and they may need help. At Interaction Associates, we see our role as fortifying leaders' resolve and capability, not doing their job for them.