Throughout my career — being a chief financial officer in companies small and large, being a corporate and nonprofit board member, and today as CEO of an fast-growing private startup — I’ve learned to become a change agent. It’s a badge I wear proudly, the other which includes educated me by what works and just what doesn’t when managing change.

Every change initiative differs from the others, but the truths about making change succeed are, generally, the same. Here I’ve collected 10 truths about change management. Think of them like tools in a toolbox — you might want them close by, you should know cooking techniques so you need to determine the correct time for you to pull them out and put them to work. That’s the modification agent’s primary job.

1. Change is approximately people.
I lead a software company that gives a game-changing connected planning platform. And even though I believe that technology may help our organizations grow, evolve and improve, change management is ultimately about people. As leaders, we have to set the example with the change we would like from the people around us. Because the great NBA coach Phil Jackson said, “You can’t force your may on people. If you’d like the crooks to act differently, you need to inspire the crooks to change themselves.” Only once you help individuals change is it possible to aspire to change a company.

Related: 5 Principles to help with Constant Change

2. Take some time.
Some changes are quick, but real, transformational change can — and sometimes must — take years. We’re all amazed with how much quicker things alternation in Silicon Valley, and also the capacity to react fast might be important to survival. But, changing hearts, minds and consequently culture (see No. 1) often can’t be performed with all the snap of the fingers.

3. Create a vision.
Stake out in places you desire a transformation to adopt you early in Cheap Change Management Books. Know what success seems like. That doesn’t mean all things have to become fully baked from The first day. The truth is, avoid doing that — since it means you haven’t engaged those who you should get fully briefed together with you. And don’t be rigid, because that will impede of success. (On that in a bit.)

Related: 5 Ways CEOs Can Empower Teams to Develop Collaborative Workplaces

4. Engage your stakeholders.
This really is central to selling the vision you established. Find out the those who will likely be affected by the modification, and obtain them involved and committed to the project and its particular success.

5. Acknowledge tradeoffs.
When folks are asked to change, be familiar with the end results. Consider it like pulling the loose thread on the shirt — often it might cause control button to go away. In case you add resources — dollars, people, space or anything else — to 1 project, make an effort to know very well what will take a back seat. And time may be the ultimate finite resource, if you ask a superstar who’s already working at capacity to take a step extra, realize that her productivity in their own “day job” might need to be shifted.

6. Use the willing.
Few people with your organization is going to get on board the modification train. That’s natural; a lot of people will have methods for thinking and working which are incompatible in what you need to accomplish. So, while it’s possibly the least fun portion of change management, sometimes you need to generate new those who share how well you see, and released those who don’t. I don’t need to tell you that staff changes are very pricey, but the costs of misalignment and wasted time on resisters are really much greater.
7. Overcommunicate — after which communicate a lot more.
I’ve used every medium you can imagine to communicate about change. Town halls, emails, newsletters, intranet sites, videoconferencing, collaboration tools — each one has a location. In some instances, it’s appropriate to share with you internal change with people beyond your organization, even perhaps most people. As an example, each of us were transforming Cisco’s finance department from the number-crunching machine in to a strategic business partner, we published a Q&A within the Wall Street Journal on the project. People mixed up in the effort shared the piece around, and took greater pride within the work — and several people we hadn’t been able to reach by other methods finally understood that which you were wanting to do.

8. Listen.
The communication I recently described can’t certainly be a one-way street. You have to listen to individuals who are making the modification, and listen to the folks affected by the modification. That doesn’t mean you value all feedback equally, or supply the those people who are complaining additional time. But look hard for the useful nuggets in what people inform you, and plow it well in your plans. In ways, this is the extended sort of engaging your stakeholders (No. 4).

9. Empower the silent majority to talk up.
When you listen (No. 8), you’re planning to hear a few voices the loudest. Be aware that they’re not always speaking for almost all people. So, supply the silent majority a few methods to make their voices heard: Anonymous polls and surveys may help, but sometimes you need to train and encourage people to talk up. I remember one situation in which someone posted an incredibly negative, scathing comment of a project in a very public forum. Instead of engage in this particular public platform, a basic but valued an affiliate my team emailed him directly and intensely respectfully invited him to speak — one-to-one, directly — about his concerns and helped work with a remedy. This person immediately backed down, and my team member then asked him to adopt back his discuss the same public forum. He did.

Related: Why Problem Solvers, Not Whiner, Always Win running a business

10. Learn along the way.
Challenges will arise as organizations change; the failure or success of the change management effort relies on how we respond to those challenges. As an example, because the finance team at Cisco became strategic business advisors (instead of simply back-office human calculators — see No. 7), a lot of people found themselves in unfamiliar territory. These folks were brilliant accountants, but had gaps inside their business knowledge. We addressed this by creating new learning opportunities and career development paths for folks in finance. Precisely the same is possible in a part of your small business.

While i noted earlier, not every these truths connect with every situation. And admittedly, none of those things is particularly novel, but that doesn’t mean they’re hard to overlook. The company landscape is littered with change management projects that failed for reasons which are, in retrospect, painfully obvious.

But, these truths is nuanced, and success is based on their application. The wisdom of change management is to know which tool to utilize, and when in working order. And that’s where leadership comes in.
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