According to research by the Economist Intelligence Unit, behaviour change in the organisation is 'the most important measure in determining the success of a change initiative.'
However another research reveals that only 14 per cent of the companies are effective at sustaining behaviour change.
The main reason for this is that most organisations spend the bulk of their resources on equipping people with new skills and knowledge, but not on aligning individual employees' goals to those of the company, or sustaining the new skills learnt.
Business leaders must plan the sustaining process way before they start to equip their employees. Behaviour change that drives business change requires more than a training solution. It requires a carefully designed system in which each piece contributes to the whole.
To improve focus on aligning employees to the learning process, organisations must ensure learners see the connection between business goals, individual performance and learning opportunities.
Sustaining behaviour change starts long before there is anything to sustain. First, senior stakeholders must agree on which behaviours will drive execution of their strategy, and how those behaviours will be measured.
To make the behaviour change successful it is critical to get the right people in on one conversation: executive sponsors, business leaders, subject-matter experts, core team members, people playing analytics roles, and people representing marketing, finance, and strategy functions.
This meeting, catalyses the measurement strategy - and commitment.
After gaining alignment on the measurement strategy, it is time to choose the learning methodology and content that will equip people with the skills they need to support the change. This is the 'equip' phase.
Effective leaders know that this learning phase - sustain - has the most impact on behaviour change. To make the application of learning more consistent and effective, we must pay equal attention to what happens after the learning event as to what happens in the learning event.
Business leaders need to understand that the impact of results achieved through the correct ratio of aligning, equipping and sustaining behaviour change is far more beneficial to their organisation than merely supplying employees with new skills.
The focus needs to be shifted to equipping employees with the mastery of the skills they have learnt over an extended period of time, rather than throwing them in at the deep end and expecting them to swim.
Courtesy: www.achieveforum.com
