A Smooth Sea Never Made a Skillful Sailor – Committing the Change Team

  Change Management  

A Change Team and a Project Team have a very similar purpose: they both need to migrate smoothly to a new, and in most cases, unknown situation. The journey is not a common one, the obstacles are diverse, and the result is unique each time.

There is, however, a difference in performing this very exciting job: the Change Team has an additional challenge. The members of the Change Team need to convince the rest of the organization that their endeavor is the right one, that the result of their struggle is the best solution. The Change team has to ‘sell’ the change to be implemented and to gain stakeholders’ trust and collaboration throughout the journey. In order to do so, the Change Team’s motivation needs to be strong, and its level of engagement and commitment extremely high.

This very practical presentation provides examples on how several group dynamics theories could contribute to raise the commitment of the Change Team and demonstrate how tangible results can be obtain by applying accessible tools. The ‘catch’ – as there is always a ‘catch’ - is that as simple these tools may look, their application requires time, patience and willingness to hear and to understand each team member’s perspective: a time-consuming process but one that pays back. 

A Change Team and a Project Team have a very similar purpose: they both need to migrate smoothly to a new, and in most cases, unknown situation. The journey is not a common one, the obstacles are diverse, and the result is unique each time. This very practical presentation provides examples on how several group dynamics theories could contribute to raise the commitment of the Change Team and demonstrate how tangible results can be obtain by applying accessible tools.