Throughout my career — as a chief financial officer in companies small and large, as a corporate and nonprofit board member, and now as CEO of a fast-growing privately operated startup — I’ve learned to become change agent. It’s a badge I wear proudly, the other which includes taught me about what works as well as what doesn’t when managing change.

Every change initiative is unique, but the truths about producing change succeed are, in general, exactly the same. Here I’ve collected 10 truths about change management. Think of them like tools in the toolbox — you need to have them nearby, you need to know using them so you need to determine the proper time and energy to pull them out and put the right results. That’s the progres agent’s primary job.

1. Change is around people.
I lead a software program company that provides a game-changing connected planning platform. Even though I believe that technology will help our organizations grow, evolve and improve, change management is ultimately about people. As leaders, we will need to set the instance from the change we wish in the people around us. As the great NBA coach Phil Jackson said, “You can’t force your may on people. If you need these to act differently, you should inspire these to change themselves.” Not until you help individuals change could you hope to change an organization.

Related: 5 Principles for Dealing With Constant Change

2. Spend some time.
Some changes are quick, but real, transformational change can — and frequently must — take years. We’re all amazed with how quickly things change in Silicon Valley, as well as the ability to react fast can be important to survival. But, changing hearts, minds and finally culture (see No. 1) often can’t be performed with the snap of your fingers.

3. Create a vision.
Stake out where you need a transformation to look at you at the beginning of Kogan Page Change Management Books. Know very well what success appears like. That doesn’t mean everything has being fully baked from The first day. In fact, watch out for doing that — because it means you haven’t engaged those who you need to get up to speed with you. And don’t be rigid, because that may impede of success. (On that in the bit.)

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

4. Engage your stakeholders.
This is central to selling the vision you established. Identify the individuals who will likely be impacted by the progres, and have them involved and purchased the work as well as success.

5. Acknowledge tradeoffs.
When people are motivated to change, be familiar with the consequences. It’s similar to like pulling the loose thread with a shirt — it sometimes might cause a button to go away. In case you add resources — dollars, people, space or some different — to a single project, make an effort to understand what usually takes a back seat. And time could be the ultimate finite resource, if you ask a superstar who’s already working at chance to make a move extra, recognize that her productivity in their “day job” might need to be shifted.

6. Work with the willing.
Nobody within your organization will probably get on board the progres train. That’s natural; many people may have means of thinking and dealing which can be incompatible in what you should accomplish. So, while it’s probably the least fun part of change management, sometimes you should bring in new individuals who share how well you see, and released individuals who don’t. I don’t need to tell you just how staff changes are expensive, but the costs of misalignment and wasted time on resisters are extremely much greater.
7. Overcommunicate — and then communicate some more.
I’ve used every medium imaginable to communicate about change. Town halls, emails, newsletters, intranet sites, videoconferencing, collaboration tools — every one has a place. In some instances, it’s appropriate to speak about internal change with folks away from your business, possibly even everyone. For instance, in the end were transforming Cisco’s finance department coming from a number-crunching machine into a strategic business partner, we published a Q&A in the Wall Street Journal on the project. People mixed up in effort shared the piece around, and took greater pride in the work — plus some people we hadn’t been able to reach by other methods finally understood what we should were trying to do.

8. Listen.
The communication I just described can’t be considered a one-way street. You’ll want to listen to individuals who’re making the progres, and listen to individuals impacted by the progres. That doesn’t mean you value all feedback equally, or supply the people who are complaining additional time. But look challenging for the useful nuggets with what people show you, and plow rid of it to your plans. In a way, this is the extended type of engaging your stakeholders (No. 4).

9. Empower the silent majority to speak up.
When you listen (No. 8), you’re prone to hear a few voices the loudest. Remember that they’re not invariably speaking for some people. So, supply the silent majority a few approaches to make their voices heard: Anonymous polls and surveys will help, but not you should train and persuade folks to speak up. I remember one situation in which someone posted an extremely negative, scathing comment with regards to a project really public forum. As opposed to engage within this public platform, an abandoned but valued person in my team emailed him directly and incredibly respectfully invited him to talk — one-to-one, directly — about his concerns and helped focus on an answer. This person immediately backed down, and my team member then asked him to look at back his reply to exactly the same public forum. He did.

Related: Why Problem Solvers, Not Whiner, Always Win operational

10. Learn along the way.
Challenges will arise as organizations change; the success or failure of your change management effort depends on how we answer those challenges. For instance, because finance team at Cisco became strategic business advisors (as opposed to simply back office human calculators — see No. 7), many people found themselves in unfamiliar territory. We were holding brilliant accountants, but had gaps of their business knowledge. We addressed this by creating new learning opportunities and career development paths for those in finance. Exactly the same can be done in a division of your small business.

When i noted earlier, each and every these truths connect with every situation. And admittedly, none of the things is specially novel, but that doesn’t mean they’re difficult to miss. The organization landscape is plagued by change management projects that failed for reasons which can be, looking back, painfully obvious.

But, every one of these truths is nuanced, and success lies in their application. The wisdom of change management is to know which tool to work with, and when doing his thing. And that’s where leadership also comes in.
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