Throughout my career — like a chief financial officer in companies small and big, like a corporate and nonprofit board member, and today as CEO of the fast-growing privately held startup — I’ve learned becoming a change agent. It’s a badge I wear proudly, the other that has educated me in as to what works and just what doesn’t when managing change.

Every change initiative is unique, though the truths about producing change succeed are, by and large, exactly the same. Here I’ve collected 10 truths about change management. Imagine them like tools in a toolbox — you need to have them nearby, you need to know cooking techniques and also you should determine the correct time and energy to pull them out and place results. That’s the progres agent’s primary job.

1. Change is around people.
I lead a software company providing you with a game-changing connected planning platform. And while I have faith that technology can help our organizations grow, evolve and improve, change management is ultimately about people. As leaders, we have to set the example in the change we would like from the people around us. As the great NBA coach Phil Jackson said, “You can’t force your will on people. If you’d like these phones act differently, you should inspire these phones change themselves.” Only when you help individuals change could you desire to change a corporation.

Related: 5 Principles to relieve symptoms of Constant Change

2. Spend some time.
Some changes are quick, but real, transformational change can — and often must — take years. We’re all amazed with how quickly things change in Silicon Valley, and the power to react fast may be fundamental to survival. But, changing hearts, minds and eventually culture (see No. 1) often can’t be done using the snap of the fingers.

3. Build a vision.
Stake out in which you need a transformation to consider you at the outset of Cheap Change Management Books. Understand what success appears like. That doesn’t mean all things have being fully baked from Day 1. In fact, beware of doing that — as it means you haven’t engaged the people who you need to get aboard along. And don’t be rigid, because that can get in the way of success. (More on that in a bit.)

Related: 5 Ways CEOs Can Empower Teams to Develop Collaborative Workplaces

4. Engage your stakeholders.
This is central to selling the vision you established. Know the people that will probably be affected by the progres, and acquire them involved and invested in the work and its success.

5. Acknowledge tradeoffs.
When we are required to change, be familiar with the effects. It’s similar to like pulling the loose thread on the shirt — it sometimes might cause some control to go away. In the event you add resources — dollars, people, space or some different — to 1 project, attempt to understand what normally takes a back seat. And time is the ultimate finite resource, if you ask a superstar who’s already working at ability to do something extra, understand that her productivity in her “day job” might need to be shifted.

6. Assist the willing.
Not everyone within your organization will probably jump in the progres train. That’s natural; many people will have methods for thinking and dealing which might be incompatible using what you should accomplish. So, while it’s maybe the least fun section of change management, sometimes you should make new people that share your eyesight, and release people that don’t. I don’t must let you know that staff changes are expensive, though the costs of misalignment and wasted time on resisters are really much greater.
7. Overcommunicate — after which communicate even more.
I’ve used every medium imagine to convey about change. Town halls, emails, newsletters, intranet sites, videoconferencing, collaboration tools — every one has an area. Sometimes, it’s appropriate to share with you internal change with individuals outside your business, it mat be most people. For example, each of us were transforming Cisco’s finance department coming from a number-crunching machine right into a strategic business partner, we published a Q&A from the Wall Street Journal about the project. People mixed up in effort shared the piece around, and took greater pride from the work — and a few people we hadn’t been able to reach by other methods finally understood what we were wanting to do.

8. Listen.
The communication I merely described can’t be considered a one-way street. You have to listen to individuals who’re making the progres, and listen to the people affected by the progres. That doesn’t mean you value all feedback equally, or supply the people who are complaining additional time. But look challenging for the useful nuggets in what people tell you, and plow it into the plans. In a way, this can be the extended sort of engaging your stakeholders (No. 4).

9. Empower the silent majority to talk up.
When you listen (No. 8), you’re more likely to hear several voices the loudest. Know that they’re not necessarily speaking for most people. So, supply the silent majority several solutions to make their voices heard: Anonymous polls and surveys can help, but not you should train and persuade folks to talk up. Going one situation by which someone posted an extremely negative, scathing comment about a project in a very public forum. Instead of engage in this public platform, an abandoned but valued member of my team emailed him directly and incredibly respectfully invited him to chat — one on one, personally — about his concerns and helped work on a solution. This individual immediately backed down, and my team member then asked him to consider back his comment on exactly the same public forum. He did.

Related: Why Problem Solvers, Not Whiner, Always Win operational

10. Learn as you go along.
Challenges will arise as organizations change; the success or failure of the change management effort depends on how we reply to those challenges. For example, because finance team at Cisco became strategic business advisors (rather than simply back office human calculators — see No. 7), many people found themselves in unfamiliar territory. These folks were brilliant accountants, but had gaps within their business knowledge. We addressed this by creating new learning opportunities and career development paths for people in finance. The same is possible in any area of your company.

Because i noted earlier, each and every these truths sign up for every situation. And admittedly, none of those things is particularly novel, however that doesn’t mean they’re hard to overlook. The organization landscape is full of change management projects that failed for reasons which might be, in retrospect, painfully obvious.

But, every one of these truths is nuanced, and success depends on their application. The wisdom of change management is always to know which tool to make use of, so when to use it. And that’s where leadership will come in.
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