Make alternations stick - A recipe for Success

Since the first caveman spilt honey on his sabre-tooth tiger skin, stickiness has been a part of life. It's everywhere, from the glue that holds our children's models together to the Velcro that binds astronauts to their space-shuttle. Even the internet has 'sticky' content.

Whether it's in the boardroom or at the beach, the fact is, man will always aim to progress. How quickly, how effectively and how monumentally this happens depends on more than one individual's determination and desire alone. Making a positive change can make a big difference, but the trick is making it stick.

A sticky recipe for success*

1: Design the best fit change approach

A pile of LEGO bricks is an invitation to create something unique every time. In the same way, managing change is a challenge to create something that is an exact fit for the job in hand, something that's involving, has real benefits and is sustainable. Not borrowing from some past experience, not doing it the way we did it last time. The possibilities are endless.

2: Keep benefits at the heart of change

It's easy to lose sight of a real benefit. Penicillin came along and honey was consigned to the anti-bacterial history bin. It's the same with projects. We identify a real benefit but, over time, we can lose focus. We reckon that a staggering 75% of projects fail to meet their approved objectives. So instead of UMF, let's make business better with a KSF that keeps business benefits at the heart of change.

3: Challenge the data and its interpretation

John Gotti – known as the Teflon Don - had it all including more crimes to his name than you could squeeze on a rap sheet all that was missing was the evidence to put him behind bars until persistence paid off and the FBI caught him on tape discussing a number of murders. Always check your evidence thoroughly. You'll only get results if the data supports the recommendation. Ask why you're doing what you're doing. Is there a clear business benefit? Then and only then can you make the case for change.

4: Agree the measures of success and how to monitor them

Dr Spencer Silver's invention of 'lowtack' reusable glue sat gathering dust at 3M for more than six years until Arthur Fry, frustrated that his bookmarks kept falling out of his hymnal at church choir, came up with the idea of using the glue to keep bookmark in place.

And so the first Post-it© note was born. Dr Silver might not have waited so long for success if he could have looked at the potential outcomes of his invention more rigorously. Defining success at the outset means we don't start running the project until we're absolutely certain of what we want to achieve.

5: Focus on the actions that make a difference fast

Just as the chameleon keeps itself content by rapid feeding tactics, if we can identify, implement and communicate quick wins, we can generate confidence that the changes are possible. People will see things happening and be more prepared to get involved.

6: Through involvement build a vision and hunger for success

Sticky Date Pudding. A name guaranteed to set most people salivating for a steaming bowl of sweet treacly goodness leading to over 280,000 results in Google, a best seller on American Amazon and the 2006 winner of Häagen-Dazs's Scoop! flavour search to join the permanent repertoire of ice creams. Yum.

If everyone had been told to eat Sticky Toffee Pudding it would never have caught on. Change is the same. We need to work with the people who will make the change happen so that we can paint a picture that inspires us all.

7: Engage the frontline before, during and after

In the early 60's, during a very nasty merger an insurance company wanted to perk up their workers and implemented a 'friendship campaign' for which a smiley yellow face was designed to remind people to smile during office hours.

Success means keeping people involved. The smiley campaign succeeded because it was simple and it grabbed the imagination making it a local hit and later a cultural phenomeon. We need to make sure anyone we're working with, at any level, is involved and understands what successful change will look like when it happens.

8: Communicate with a purpose

You've done the dance, you know the actions, but you'd really rather the song wasn't stuck in your head. Unfortunately, when Agadoo was unleashed on the world the writers had no idea had created one of the most irritatingly catchy records of all time.

Researchers believe that catchy songs work by causing a 'brain itch' that can be scratched by repeating the tune. No one would want to subject our clients to a fate as awful as dancing to Agadoo, but it is vital that our messages about change are heard, understood and, most of all, responded to (and that doesn't mean a dance with actions).

9: Give leaders the skills – and the heart – to lead

It wasn't much fun waiting for mail in the early 19th Century. If the mail arrived at all, it was usually late and worse still you had to pay for it when it arrived. Sir Rowland Hill noticed a young woman too poor to redeem a letter sent by her fiancé and was spurred to write his pamphlet Post Office Reform and before long the postage stamp.

Rowland Hill had the vision to see what success looked like in practise. To make change stick we need to give leaders a vision of success – so that, like Sir Rowland, they can set the tone for change by their actions and behaviours.

10: Make sure systems, processes and culture reinforce the change

If you were very small and lived in a rocky river bed, pounded night and day by freezing cold, raging water you might want to give up and find somewhere drier, warmer and altogether pleasanter. But not if you're a Caulobacter crescentus bacteria, which produces the toughest glue on Earth to keep a grip on those rocks.

Likewise, once we've decided on a programme of change we've got to stick to it like glue. We need to make sure all the 'ways of working' needed to deliver the benefits of change are reinforced by business processes, performance measures, peoples' skills and knowledge, supporting systems and the working environment.

Stick with it

Toys, bugs, puddings, honey or stamps may not be the first things to spring to mind when we're making change stick. But if they help us remember what to look out for in the process, then they'll have done their job. And hopefully they'll make the challenge of doing our job just that little bit more fun too.

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