High-Performance Leaders Spearhead Organizational Transformation with Communication and Collaboration

Change management, or the act of leading organizational transformation, is a business term you have heard a lot about lately. In an increasingly global world that seems to be moving at the speed of light, it’s essential for companies to keep pace with their competitors around the world. One way to do this is to embrace change and implement organizational transformation efforts that improve policies, procedures, and outputs and increase effective teamwork, collaboration, and innovation.

Unfortunately, a majority of transformation efforts fail. Why is it that companies and leaders who can create and implement successful business plans, quake in the face of large-scale transformation needs? From setting transformation goals to measuring outcomes and coordinating company-wide integration efforts, organizational transformation takes strong leadership from the top down. It is built on the skills that good companies have already proved to be essential for long-term success – communication, teamwork, collaboration, and rewarding diversity and innovation.

What is organizational transformation?

Organizational transformation is based on a company-wide commitment to improving quality, customer service, development, and participation at all levels of the organization. To accomplish this, senior management can’t lead to planning and implementation efforts alone. While leaders must model the new direction and vision of the company and support its transformation efforts – they must also include input from all levels to ensure long-term success. This takes strong and motivated leaders who excel at collecting and analyzing employee feedback and have the emotional intelligence to understand and appreciate the importance of it.

Transformational change starts from the inside out – through important details like resources, timelines, and budgets – and is motivated by strong leadership. But it must be backed by a majority of the workforce, and that means giving everyone a seat at the table. To inspire the will to “want to” work toward new outcomes and create a new future for the organization together, leaders must encourage their teams and reward a diversity of thought and innovation. Wanting to change and implementing change are two very different things. It’s not easy, and it takes time, effort and can cause friction – but when it’s done well, organizational transformation can propel a business forward in exciting new ways.

The importance of a transformation roadmap and communication

Transformation efforts require a clear roadmap to success that aligns with the organization’s vision, mission, and business goals. It requires sufficient time and effort placed in measuring success – by identifying milestones, collecting and analyzing data, and reporting company-wide throughout the process. Effective communication from senior leaders and team members, combined with collaborative communication from all parties throughout the transformation process, will provide much more reliable results.

One way that change management professional can fall short is by translating the innovative strategic planning efforts into real action. It’s easy to give an inspiring speech to kick-off transformation planning. Still, the complicated day-to-day implementation duties are what create long-term change, effects individual employees, and need to be communicated clearly and effectively.

To do so, leaders must show how each employee plays a specific role in the company’s transformation and long-term vision. People need to know that transformation efforts align with their job responsibilities and that they will continue to play an important role. Communicating this effectively will not only reduce anxiety throughout the workforce – it will help inspire employees to push for change themselves.

Communication is key

Remember, if employees are left to choose for themselves, they will almost always fall back into old patterns. It is the job of an organization’s leaders to push for change throughout the full process, show the effects through their actions and reporting metrics, and give employees the information they need to understand their new roles.  To keep up the momentum, assign priorities to each effort, celebrate your success, communicate failures and the plan for improving future results, and support your team members by better understanding the impact change has on them.