CHANGE MANAGEMENT
taining a culture of trust within a compa- ny. It allows for leaders to address things openly and for managers and supervisors to feel comfortable managing up. “First of all, I think everybody will agree that culture is key to everything,” said Unruh. If your culture creates an environment where change is resisted, and people fear change and fight change, “something’s wrong with your culture, and change isn’t going to work until you fix the culture.” At Mountain Capital Partners, embracing change is an inherent part of the culture, according to Murray. “We just need to be telling people that if you’re working for our organization, every year is a different year, a different season. Everything changes. The weather changes, personnel changes. We are in a state of change. And people need to start hearing that and understanding that is the mindset, maybe, of the organization,” he said, so when there is a change, it’s not a surprise. Building trust. Thorr thinks that “culture has a lot to do with building trust over time with people through- out the organization, at all levels, in all roles.” Of course, for leaders to foster a culture of trust they need to be good listeners, too. How can good ideas get cir- culated if the boss isn’t willing to make time to hear them?
success by involving people early on and discussing changes before they’re made—and this can lead to the realiza- tion that change may not be necessary. “A lot of times you’ll find when you get people’s input, you don’t go exactly the way you thought you were originally going to go,” said Kapuscinski. “And is it really necessary to do it just to do it, or just because somebody 500 miles away thought that was the best way of doing it? So, you learn a lot by listening and by involving others in the decision-making process. “The decisions or the practices that have gone the best are when more people get involved early on.” Solicit input. Staff members who have good ideas and valuable opinions may not feel comfortable sharing them with leadership, either because of the company culture (more on that in a bit) or they’re just not that type of person. In the latter case, Unruh encouraged asking more questions to pull ideas and opinions out of them. “Very few of us like being told what we’re going to do to change, but if we’re involved in it, then we can get excited, then we can get moti- vated,” he said. Another benefit of involving people in the process is it can help them under- stand why a change is being considered. “The question to ask a lot of times with team members is: What is the prob- lem we’re trying to solve with changing something?” said Thorr. “And, usually, if a team member understands what that problem is and the pinch points of that problem, they’re on board with trying something new because they’re living the problem.” Kapuscinski said involvement is also
key for people to understand the process, the goal, and “what it’s going to take to get from point A to point Z.” These interactions can happen during meetings or even off-site sessions, but they should be something real, not a token exchange. Communication among staff —name- ly which departments must interact about changes being made—has evolved, thanks in large part to technology. “We are now seeing teams communicate differently and more often than maybe they used to,” said Thorr. With new lift technology, for example, “the IT team, who maybe wouldn’t have spoken with the outside operations team so often— now they’re really working together on upgrades and making sure all of the infrastructure and communications are working right.
“VERY FEW OF US LIKE BEING TOLD WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO TO CHANGE, BUT IF WE’RE INVOLVED IN IT, THEN WE CAN GET EXCITED, THEN WE CAN GET MOTIVATED.” — Mike Unruh
“So, we’re bringing teams together now in different ways than we had to before, or maybe had the opportunity to do so before. I see that as a good thing,” she said. To Kapuscinski, one of the keys to successful change management is trans- parent communication from beginning to end. “It’s always been about transpar- ency, it’s always been about communica- tion,” he said. COMPANY CULTURE Good communication and transparency are the pillars of developing and main-
“You need to have a culture where people don’t mind coming to you and know their ideas are not going to be rejected immediately,” said Tregaskis. Murray agrees that staff members need to feel comfortable approaching leadership and asking for a few minutes of their time. “Don’t ever stifle that,” he advised. “Even if you’re busy, because people will come up to you as the boss and they’ll say, ‘I know you’re busy. I know you’re busy.’ And I would always look at them and go, ‘I’m not too busy for you. What’s on your mind?’”
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