I’ve Seen Change Inaugurated, Then Things Return to Before the Change. How Can I Avoid Slippage Back into Old Ways?

Success carries a hidden risk. Having achieved excellent results through effective change, the change agents lapse into complacency. They don’t monitor the project to ensure that new policies and procedures continue to be practiced or follow-up plans are initiated.

Such slippages can be prevented by developing stretch targets to move the change continually forward. These new objectives should be communicated clearly to everyone. Progress should be tracked. You will be monitoring your employees’ work while the plan is in its transitory stage. Don’t stop there. Use frequent meetings and rely heavily on "management by walking around" after the fact to see how people are coping with the change. By not following up with staff, you may be unintentionally communicating that the change isn’t that important—and employees may go back to old ways.

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To keep moving forward with change initiatives, ask yourself these questions:

  1. Have I circulated to all stakeholders the action steps to sustain the change?
  2. Do stakeholders and senior management know the benefits of the change initiative?
  3. Have I held a celebration to commend the team for its initiative?
  4. Have I moved forward to study progress and improve on the current effort—in particular, formed a group of past and new members to identify the next steps in improving operations?
  5. Do the new goals have due dates for implementation?