The Tribe Report 4. The Change Management Issue | Page 7

To help smooth the disruption that any business
transformation can cause, Cbeyond targeted three specific
areas. First, they needed to get their senior leadership on
board and engaged with the different components of the
change. They themed their change efforts and created a
central repository for all change communications. They
also utilized multiple communication methods and started
a bimonthly online manager huddle. Second, they charged
leadership with engaging employees and having an ongoing
dialogue with them. This was accomplished through
multiple platforms including email, Yammer, video and
screensavers. The third focus of the process was to monitor
and understand where employees were with the change. This
would allow Cbeyond to identify disengaged individuals and
work to gain their support. The plan worked, and today the
company is seeing positive results because of it.
General Motors Corporation sought a culture change for
multiple reasons. The unrelenting pace of change in the
auto industry, the need for faster decision-making and
the perception of GM as a slow-moving and bureaucratic
company were all factors. To help their organization
advance this transformation, they launched the GoFast!
change process.
To accelerate acceptance by leadership and employees, GM
positioned GoFast! as a problem-solving tool and not the
branding for a major culture change. To increase buy-in
and acceptance, they made a point to listen and improve
processes based on employees’ feedback. The program
resulted in leaders and employees working together to
improve efficiencies in different areas of the company.

TAKEAWAY
In any change initiative,
employees will be watching and listening to leadership,
from the C-suite to their direct managers. It’s important
to have the buy-in and backing of leadership as you
implement the change, so that their confidence and
acceptance is communicated to employees.

the

EMPLOYEE
PERSPECTIVE
When attempting to understand the many different
components of change, it’s important to gain an allencompassing perspective that includes information
from different employment levels. Tribe spoke with
an employee of a large technology company who
recently went through the change process. For the
purposes of this article, we’ll refer to him as “John.”
John was a project m