Using Feedback Loops to Enhance Change Management

If you seek ongoing feedback during the change, you can understand the aspects that represent a challenge for employees, address those issues, and improve their training to achieve greater acceptance and retention after the launch. The most important part of a feedback cycle is also where most of the time it falls short. Sharing the ideas or findings you have with your employees is essential to keep the feedback cycle going. Set a time to chat with each person you reviewed and have an open and honest conversation about the results.

Then work together to find ways to improve and grow. By having these follow-up conversations, you show how much you value the program, increasing accountability and improving response rates in the future. A survey conducted by Zenger Folkman, which analyzed the feedback practices of 22,000 leaders, revealed that employees are much happier, work harder, stay employed longer, and have vastly better relationships with their manager if their leader provides effective feedback. The key to communicating through change is to give people the tools to stop, reflect, collect and share ideas.

This can be very powerful and provides leaders with the information they need to lead change. Without coming full circle with those comments, your change management program is unlikely to succeed. Effective change management always includes reinforcement, but projects often overlook this step, even though it is critical to the long-term success of the change. Many teams fall into the trap of completing their change management checklist without listening to what employees have to say.

In addition, integration with the project team to understand where the project is located, what milestones lie ahead and how the project evolves, provides you with the opportunity to continuously reinforce the value of change management and focus on how projects affect your staff. For additional information on how to reinforce change and measure your change management efforts, see the latest edition of Prosci's best practices in change management research report. For me, that's why any management team that doesn't listen to its people during the change is negligent. Not only will employee feedback help your staff cope with change, but it can also drive the design of your change program.

The daily work you do with sponsors and staff managers reinforces messages about why the change is happening, how it affects employees, and why the change is important. Tim Creasey is the director of innovation at Prosci and a globally recognized leader in change management. In reality, your entire change management plan should include reinforcing efforts from the start. The feedback you collect will be useful for developing corrective actions and post-implementation change management activities.

If that cycle isn't closed, your change management program may take longer, be more difficult to implement, cost more money, or be more complicated than you expected. To effectively enforce change, it's important to follow up with employees to understand how the change works. As the three-phase Prosci process progresses, they are reinforced in phase 2 (Managing Change) and phase 3 (Maintaining Results). Utilizing feedback loops in a change management process can be an effective way to ensure successful implementation of changes within an organization.

Feedback loops provide an opportunity for employees to provide their input on changes that are being implemented as well as identify any potential issues or challenges that may arise during implementation. By collecting feedback from employees throughout each stage of a change process, organizations can gain valuable insights into how their employees are responding to changes as well as identify any areas where additional training or support may be needed. This allows organizations to make adjustments as needed in order to ensure successful implementation of changes. In addition to collecting feedback from employees throughout each stage of a change process, organizations should also consider setting up regular follow-up conversations with those who provided feedback in order to ensure that their concerns are being addressed. Having these follow-up conversations shows employees that their input is valued and helps build trust between them and their managers. Furthermore, organizations should also consider integrating their project teams into their feedback loop process in order to ensure that all stakeholders are aware of any changes that are being implemented as well as any potential impacts they may have on staff members. This will help ensure that everyone involved in a project is on board with any changes being made. By utilizing feedback loops in a change management process, organizations can ensure successful implementation of changes while also building trust between managers and employees.

This will help create a more positive work environment where everyone feels valued and respected.

Madeline Credille
Madeline Credille

Friendly pop culture evangelist. Devoted internet junkie. Professional travel expert. Passionate web ninja. Subtly charming coffee geek. Typical twitter fan.

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