How to Effectively Implement Innovations on Your Way to High Results

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Collabio Spaces

7 min readJun 24, 2020

Our world is constantly changing. The progress is happening so fast that if we hesitate for a while, we will never chase all those missed opportunities. This is the reason for implementing best change management practices in everyday life, be it weekdays in the office or some private decisions you put off until tomorrow.

We won’t go into complex details and specialised things about this approach, only what you will be able to practically implement and benefit from.

Please, note that these are a series of articles and this piece is about the basic rules of making big differences, which will be followed by detailed thematic stories. The full list of topics is at the end. ;) Still, we recommend you to get familiar with this one first!

Why Do You Need to Leave your Comfort Zone?

Adhering to the traditional way of life and work may be familiar and convenient. You know all the paths and don’t need to re-invent the wheel. Still, this common practice leads to stagnation of ideas and creativity, as well as a decrease in success. But non-standard solutions always carry more satisfaction and profit.

Standing still is costly. The progress needs you to keep up with the time, otherwise, you will suffer from financial losses, no matter whether this is in professional or personal life. The Boston Consulting Group’s research found out that over 50% of the Fortune 500 companies have either gone bankrupt or have been acquired since 2000. This happened due to the lack of substantial transformation required by the modern day market.
Effective change implementation increases your chances of success. We can’t say that this “guarantees”, but the increase of newly opened opportunities can be impressively dramatic.

It’s a sure thing, that you’ll be satisfied after taking a look at the “Before and After” picture and once you’re also positive on making more changes in your life. We will see in which steps and on what levels you can achieve this!

The Origins of the Change Management Paradigm

Founded in 1994, this discipline has grown so much that now it is an integral part of every business strategy. Some people may say that there’s lots of science behind the approach and they will be right. Implementing any innovation is hard as traditional foundations are very difficult to move, even if they are outdated.

In the 21st century, when we witness globalisation and evolving technology, businesses have to adapt to them to remain profitable. Individuals have to constantly learn and hone skills to keep their success on the same level and overcome others in a highly competitive market economy.

Classic Change Management Stages and Activities

To know how to use tips and best practices in real life, it’s crucial that you all know the theoretic part and basic terms.

The main stages of implementing any change are clear and logical:

The preparatory stage when you develop a strategy and tactics for introducing innovations. The more information and options you collect on this stage, the more precise results you get.
The managing stage when you integrate your plans for adjustments into the entire project plan. This is the time when you see how well your strategy works in practice. So, make changes and measure their results in figures.
The reinforcing stage when you check the results and enhance them by working on mistakes.

General activities for managing changes:

Making sure that there is a real reason for a change, not just a call of intuition.
Identifying people who need to be involved in the process, as you are not able to make the whole teamwork by yourself. If we consider an example of an average business, the process consists of creating a concept, designing the idea, testing it, presenting the innovation on the market, and so on.
Planning the involvement level of all the participants.
Deciding on communication channels and methods based on your organisational structure. Everyone should understand the purpose of further transformation. Also, people might need help and support during implementing innovations.
Forecasting all pros and cons of made and postponed or even denied changes.
Identifying the indicators of success. All in all, developments and innovations should lead to better results, for example, higher revenues or more clients’ satisfaction with the brand. Without proper measuring, you’ll never know if the change was successful.

Still, these are only basic activities — classic change management implies much more of them. Some actions in one project will be never needed in another. So, experts usually act based on the current situation and business needs, so can you in your teamwork or personal life.

Where Can You Implement This Approach?

The beauty of change management is that you can implement it on different levels and various spheres of life.

1. Individual level

Humans may resist progress, but in most cases, we are resilient and adaptive. Every person on Earth has some preferences and desires, and if the change meets these desires, one embraces transformation with joy. If the revision is not clear to someone, it’s crucial to realise the goal and answer the questions: “What? Why? Where? When?” to see the real problems and the necessity of their solving.

It is kind of an individual approach to the issue. And you can completely use this in your life, even in the simplest cases, for instance, when changing your daily schedule or adding new activities to it.

2. Organisational level

When it comes to implementing changes within a team or company, we have to understand that managing the process person-by-person is ineffective.
A team should think of hundreds or even thousands of persons who will be affected by this change. We talk about all employees involved, clients and customers, business partners, and any other person related to the project.

It’s crucial to identify and segment these individuals by groups and forecast in what way their future activities will be affected.
When creating a plan, include the necessary training, coaching, and leadership every segment will need.
If all pros and cons, causes and consequences are determined correctly, the solution will be adopted and actively used.

What Are the Components of Efficient Implementing Changes?

According to Prosci — a company specialising in successful change management — the ADKAR model aptly describes the prerequisites for the fruitful implementation of any innovative decisions:

Awareness, when you realise there is a need to leave the comfort zone.
Desire, when you are eager to make changes and improve the current situation.
Knowledge, when you know what to do and what tools to use to drive the desired results.
Ability, when you possess skills and resources to make the reality meet the expectations.
Reinforcement, when you can sustain the change and keep the results on a high level.

If any of these essential points are absent in your plan, be ready to miss the goal. So whenever you plan an adjustment in your life, create a brief list for all these five points and analyse whether something is missing from the ideal scheme.

Also, this ADKAR model is effective on the organisational level as well, and can be realised when developing plans for communication, training, coaching, and managing resistance.

How to Get the Most of Yourself and Possible Opportunities

So, you are now familiar with what you need for leaving the comfort zone in search of success, which stages you’ll pass, and what the components of a successful strategy for making great changes are.