9 tips for change champions

Here are nine lessons for would-be change agents.

1. Be open to data at the start. Even if you think you know what you're doing, chances are you don't know what you could be doing. Open up your mind to as much new thinking as you can absorb. You may find different and better ideas than the ones your organisation started with.

2. Network like mad. There are many networks of people who are thinking about learning organisations. You can get in touch with them easily.

3. Document your own learning. People in the organisation need to see documentation for their own comfort. Create a matrix of ideas from leading thinkers and document two categories of thinking -- the elements of a learning organisation, and the pitfalls to avoid.

4. Take senior management along. Some in the people in the senior group can be very skeptical. It helps to take them on benchmarking trips to show them other companies that were actually doing some of the same learning practices.

5. No fear! You've got to be fearless and not worry about keeping your job.

6. Be a learning person yourself. Change agents have to be in love with learning and constantly learning new things themselves. Then they find new ways to communicate those things to the organisation as a whole.

7. Laugh when it hurts. This can be very discouraging work. You need a good sense of humor. It also helps if you've got a mantra you can say to yourself when things aren't going too well.

8. Know the business before you try to change anything. So that when yoy go about the work of creating a change strategy, you already have an understanding of the people in your organisation and what they do.

9. Finish what you start. Make a list of change projects you've started and never finished in the past. Call it 'the black hole' and determine early on not to be part of a second-rate movie.

For advice and assistance on management change and projects, please contact us.