Change is hard, but is it?

Many organizations find it very difficult to manage change, whether it’s around new processes, new tools, or new performance expectations. Here are 5 ways to make change stick.

Be (much more) transparent about the support budget

Many support engineers and CSMs, and even their managers are woefully ignorant about how their teams are funded. It’s not their fault: they typically lack a business background and they are often kept in the dark about how the budgeting process works.

Enlighten them. Explain how the company makes money (or is working towards profitability). Explain that budgets are not strictly built from the bottom up, starting with the size of the customer base, forecasting the volume of support cases or success tasks, and deriving headcount. Share the reality that the Finance team determines an envelope based on business goals, with said envelope needing to be reconciled with the bottom-up staffing model. Do not shield managers from the reality of the budget process. It helps them understand the tradeoffs that are made.

Link initiatives to business goals

Team members are understandably skeptical of flavor-of-the-month initiatives. Sure, they think, you want me to create KB articles right now, but if I just sit quietly for a few months and concentrate on my real work, helping customers, the KB initiative will fade away and I can switch to ignoring the next idea you have. Yes, team members can be that cynical!

To minimize the cynicism, link each initiative to a business goal. Are you rolling out a KB initiative? Show how it will decrease case volume. Do you want to move low-revenue customers to an automated adoption process? Explain how it will free up CSMs to focus on enterprise customers. Share the logic behind the decisions.

Restrain your enthusiasm

At the same time, team members are leery of overly-rosy declarations. A better knowledge base may decrease case volume a little bit, but probably not by 50%. Moving customers to an automated adoption process will save money but could also result in lower adoption rates. Don’t overpromise on outcomes, and don’t present punctual successes into great victories.

Prepare leaders to share information

Unprepared managers may default to “I was told to do this”, which is not exactly inspiring. Equip them with a rationale for each initiative (linked to business goals) and with suggestions for handling objections. Having a shared set of talking points will help ensure that the message is consistent across teams.

Use skip-level communications

Especially for larger initiatives, the best approach is to combine messages from the leadership team and direct managers, making sure the messages are congruent. Leaders can lay out the strategic benefits while direct managers can discuss the tactical aspects.

Can you share successful or less successful changes you’ve made recently? What advice do you have for others?