Imagine being a fish and swim upstream, it would very tough to make progress, wouldn’t it?

In addition to the current, you could encounter various obstacles like bears and rocks that would make the effort even more difficult.

That’s exactly what happens when you and your people are not all on the same page.

Have you ever felt like swimming upstream in your team or in your organisation?

How tough was it?

This can certainly be true for leaders and employees alike.

I remember the frustration as a senior manager to find some kind of opposition from my team and also to experience it from the other side of the fence when I was an employee and I felt like I was not getting anywhere no matter what.

What can you do to ensure that everyone is aligned and pushing toward the same direction?

According to Dr. Kotter that are 8 steps that can help you create unity, alignment and engagement.

Establish a sense of urgency. The idea is to take everyone out of their comfort zones and make them understand the need (You need 75% of them to make it work).

Form a guiding coalition. This coalition will help to manage and encourage your employees to “buy in” and aid the transformation process.

Develop a strategic vision & initiatives. A clear and achievable vision can help people understand why you’re asking them to change.

Convey the vision for buy-in. Only by effectively communicating the vision and the initiatives will you get everyone to accept and support the change initiative.

Empower others to enact action. The leader and the guiding coalition should remove any obstacles that are blocking your organisation’s journey towards success.

Generate short-term wins. Ask your change coalition team to focus more on short-term goals rather than long-term.

Sustain acceleration. After the initial success, you must push the pedal harder to keep the momentum going. So, it is essential to sustain the change for long after implementation.

Incorporate changes into the culture. To have a lasting effect, you must anchor and truly embed the changes within the core of your organization.

Great success and growth occur only when everyone is aligned when there is unity and when the purpose is ingrained in all players at all levels and in the organisational’s culture.