4 Steps to a Successful Strategic Organizational Change

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Most employees do not think that their top executives are very effective at driving strategic organizational change. Follow these 4 simple steps to motivate and influence your employees and successfully build a pro-change environment.


4 Steps to a Successful Strategic Organizational ChangeHuman nature makes us naturally resist change, for we are creatures of habit. However, executive leaders must learn how to manage this kind of resistance in order to guide their organization through change.  Jay A. Conger has performed several studies in different companies like Dow Chemical and Toyota, and with these studies, Conger has decoded four steps that executives must take to implement change successfully. These are:  

1.       Signal and Signify Change

2.       Enlist Constituents

3.       Align the Organization

4.       Face Resistance

1. Signal and Signify Change

To create a change-friendly environment, executives must first transmit the urgency for change by creating significant alterations to the way business is normally done. By actually staging an event or story that resonates with the masses, change agents have a greater opportunity to challenge the old system and brand their new initiative.

2. Enlist Constituents

Acquiring missionaries is a powerful way to expand the reach of a change program and ensure its duration.

Conger suggests enlisting constituents or attracting people for a common purpose. Leaders must set an example though their own actions. This could include fielding customer complaints or directly providing service to clients. Next, it is critical to provide a story about where the organization is headed and why.

3. Align the Organization

It is essential to align the entire organization, from the board of directors all the way down to those responsible for the basic support functions. Leaders use simple and memorable rules of alignment, which are called the “must-do’s.” The best leaders use these rules to align the organization both strategically and tactically. With a clear vision and the “must-do’s” in place, change agents then need to back them up with methodologies for each new initiative.

Finally, new metrics, rewards and milestones must be introduced to reinforce and accompany change.

4. Face Resistance

Leaders must confront resistance. This may well be the greatest challenge for all change agents.

One of the most effective ways to address pessimists is to put them in a position where they can experience the problem for themselves.

A perfect example of this step is the case of Bill Bratton, a former New York City and Boston police commissioner. He was able to get his constituents to truly understand the crime problem in the New York subway systems after requiring them all to ride the subway for 30 days. They witnessed a multitude of petty crimes and empathized with the nervous subway riders. The facts were indisputable, and officers went to work correcting the problems. Within six months, the transit system was made safer, and there were fewer crime incidents.


Any type of change in an organization is a hard situation to deal with. There will always be people who resist it; however in order to counter these types of reactions among the staff, it is recommended for the executive team to take the leadership of the situation. There must be communication between executives and employees, and especially among business units.


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Author: Trissa Strategy Consulting

Source: Jay A. Conger