Successful Change Starts with Asking the Right Questions

At the kickoff of a recent engagement, the Vice President who introduced our team to the project team said, “We’ve brought Switch in to lead us through this [transformation]. Having worked with them before, I can tell you they are not like most consultants you have worked with. They are on our team and will be from the beginning to go live and beyond. They see the forest and they are with us in the trees.”   

We partner with clients through projects to help them lead with empathy, authenticity, and a listening ear so that their team performs optimally through even the most challenging transformations. Asking the right questions is a critical component of successful change leadership. Asking good questions identifies critical data, taps into the knowledge and experience of your people, and builds a strong foundation for change, ultimately improving retention, reducing risk and securing business outcomes. Answers to your well-timed questions will drive change planning, inform resistance mitigation, and support the assessment of organizational readiness. 

In this article, we lay out suggested questions for each of the phases in our Making Change Easier™ Methodology:  

As you read through these questions, note additional ones that come to mind. You know your people and culture best, which means you know the questions that will resonate and will uncover the critical data you are searching for. Utilize this list as a brainstorming tool for all of your future change projects.

At the outset of a new change project, the first step is to focus on understanding. It’s important to identify what’s driving the need for change, its scope and high-level impacts, and what success looks like. Key questions can include:

UNDERSTAND

In the next phase, shift your attention to planning the details of the change, including opportunities for communication and engagement, and the need to provide learning opportunities and training. 

PLAN

With an accurate understanding of what is changing and why, and with critical data collected to plan a successful change strategy, the final set of questions focuses on ensuring that the change project is successfully launched. The right questions enable you to lead your team through the change and ensure the change is sustainable.

LAUNCH

If we can help Make Change Easier™ for your team, please reach out to us at Contact@SwitchConsultingGroup.com

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