Some people hear, “workshop,” and immediately groan. They think, “We don’t have the time.” What our clients tell us is that bringing their leaders together to learn how to lead through change has been one of their highest-impact investments in their culture, risk mitigation, and productivity.

Managing change is not only a challenge for leaders in the workplace; it is also a challenge they face in their personal lives. Not surprisingly, the latter often impacts the former. At Switch, when we step into a project, we do more than apply tools to a business case; we recognize that the leaders we are working with may also have personal challenges they are navigating.

As they say in Star Trek, “resistance is futile”. Or is it? It’s up to you as a leader to anticipate resistance and make a plan to minimize it - or you can allow resistance to take root through a lack of change planning, leaving your initiative vulnerable to delays and failure. Switch Consulting Group provides insight into change resistance and helps to develop tactics to mitigate and manage resistance when it occurs.

What if a simple matrix could serve as a guide to help leaders understand how to lead their team members more effectively? The Skill Will Matrix, developed by Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard, enables leaders to identify which leadership lever to pull to get the most out of their teams.

One of the roadblocks to transformation that we frequently encounter is a lack of alignment among leaders. The organization will not be successful if transformation is a competition. Instead, the process must be led by a team of individuals who understand that the only way to move forward is together.

Leading people through change can feel overwhelming. The complexities, personalities, and pressures involved are a lot for leaders to manage. At Switch, we have an approach that makes change EASIER. In fact, we are so passionate about helping our clients manage change that we have made it our main business focus.

Have you considered that change management could be the missing element to completing a successful M&A integration? A significant portion of the risk involved in transactions is in the employee experience and ensuring employees understand answers to basic questions: who, what, when and how.