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Best practices reveal supervisors' critical role

Module 5 - Importance of supervisor involvement

The Change Management Learning Center is excited to announce the last module in its tutorial series on how to work with supervisors when managing change. This tutorial series, taken from the Change Management Guide for Managers and Supervisors, presents the essential steps to enable supervisors to coach their front-line employees successfully through change.

Module 1 provided a training outline you can use to introduce change management to your supervisors. Module 2 provided a communications package outline for supervisors to use with their employees. Module 3 addressed frequently asked questions from employees and provided answers to those questions. Module 4 taught managers and supervisors how to use the ADKAR model to identify gaps in the change management process and provide effective coaching for their employees. Module 5 concludes the series with change management benchmarking results found in the Employee's Survival Guide and Best Practices in Change Management.

The Best Practices in Change Management report presents comprehensive findings from 288 companies on their experiences and lessons learned in change management. This report makes it easy to learn change management best practices and uncovers what change management teams throughout the world find is working, what is not working and what they would do differently next time. The change management best practice information provided below asks five questions and the answers reveal the importance of supervisor involvement in the change management process.

Best Practice Results

Question 1: How often should you communicate information about your change?

In nearly all cases, teams would have communicated with employees more frequently than they actually did on their project. Over 85% of teams recommended communications at least weekly (see figure below).

Communications frequency

Question 2: If weekly is the recommended communication frequency - who should deliver the message?

Participants were fairly split over who was the ideal sender of change management messages. The top two senders indicated by participants were:

the employee's supervisor
CEO/President

Question 3: If supervisors are one of the preferred senders, what messages do employees want to hear from their supervisors?

the impact of the change on the day-to-day activities of the employee (WIIFM- What's in it for me?)

implications of the change on job security (Will I have a job?)

specific behaviors and activities expected from the employee, including support of the change

procedures for getting help and assistance during the change

Supervisors are preferred senders of the message about how the change impacts employees directly. Because this is the type of message employees want to hear from their direct supervisors - direct supervisors are the best group to coach their employees through the change both organizationally and individually. This best practices data confirms the importance of supervisors and managers and their role in change management.

Question 4: Supervisors play a key role in obtaining buy-in and commitment from front-line employees. It is essential to have their support and understand their position and role in the change. What are the top-six reasons for manager resistance to change?

Loss of power and control

Overload of current tasks, pressures of daily activities and limited resources

Lack of skills and experience needed to manage the change effectively

Fear of job loss

Disagreement with the new way

Skepticism about the need for change

Question 5: What are the top 5 action steps change management teams need to be sure to complete when engaging supervisors in managing change?

Train supervisors on the basic change management concepts such as ADKAR

Ensure supervisors have the information they need at the time they need it in order to properly manage change with their employees

Encourage and solicit feedback from supervisors as to what they are learning as they work with their employees through the change - a data collection system

Recognize supervisors who are doing well and being role models in managing change with their employees

Celebrate successes with supervisors and involve them in the process of building a history of change competency

All above information, as well as additional change management best practices, can be found in the Best Practices in Change Management. The 2005 Best Practices in Change Management study is now being analyzed and includes an additional section with new insight regarding supervisors' role and participation in change management.

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Related Resources:

Change Management Guide for Supervisors and Supervisors: a guide specifically designed for supervisors and supervisors dealing with change - complete with team and individual coaching activities, best practices findings and frequently asked questions.

NEW - Change Management Pilot Professional: a fully electronic version that combines the Change Management Pilot with the Change Management Guide for Managers and Supervisors and Employee’s Survival Guide - a combination that allows you to reach each level of the organization.

Change Management Pilot: a fully electronic version of Prosci's popular change management toolkit with templates, worksheets, assessments, checklists, eLearning modules, ready-to-use presentations and guidelines.

Change Management Toolkit: a comprehensive change management process, including templates, worksheets, assessments, checklists and guidelines - a must have for change management team members and consultants.

Best Practices in Change Management: 426 companies share experiences in managing change and lesson on how to build great executive sponsorship. Includes success factors, methodology, role of top management, communications, team structure and more. The report makes it easy to learn change management best practices and discover the mistakes to avoid when creating executive sponsorship.

Change Management: the people side of change: a solid foundation in change management perspectives, theories, activities and practices.

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