Follow-Up
Once your team is through the implementation process, there is still work to do. Things don't suddenly end. For success, follow-through is everything, like swinging a golf club or baseball bat. And there are a number of things you must continue to do to ensure that the changes take and thrive.
Keep Goals on Track
During periods of significant change, people can become so engrossed with the details that they forget the bigger picture. As a leader, you need to keep your team's overall goals in mind. If not for that, then the entire change process would be meaningless. The changes must become part of the processes and structures that support the organization's principles.
Continue Buy-In
Even if you have worked to get team members involved as part of the solution through planning and implementation, you need to do it again. Old habits die hard, and even after you think things are changed permanently, they can move back to where they were. Procedures mean nothing if people don't use them.
You must work with your team members to continue their understanding and acceptance of the necessary changes. This isn't something you need to do forever, but it can take a long time. Don't shortcut the process.
When leaders fail to continue working on buy-in, people quickly go back to their old habits and ways of working, undermining all the previous efforts.
Consider Training
A major problem with change is that you can't count on anything to remain the same. Activities and procedures that once supported the team's goals may no longer work correctly, and everyone on the team will need to get used to working differently.
Consider whether you need to institute a training program for everyone to reinforce new ways of operating. Although it can be costly, it is far cheaper than offering inadequate training and seeing all that hard work at change going right down the tubes.
Take Stock
Once things have settled down, you'll have a chance to take stock of what has happened. Do so. The entire reason for heading down this road was to adapt your team to external or internal changes so it could pursue its goals more efficiently. Watch metrics, talk to team members, and get a sense of how well the team is performing. If you find that performance is off, don't be so wedded to your existing plan that you value it over what the team is supposed to be doing. If things are going off track, reinitiate the change evaluation process. Better to spend time making adjustments than to end up doing worse than you did before.
