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Change Management Often Lacks C-Suite Alignment
Many CEOs, ahead of an organizational change, are hyper-focused on business outcomes, designing a compelling change narrative, and ensuring that employees are not resistant to the change, so much so that they forget some of the most simple and critical mechanics of how things get done—like getting their fellow leaders onboard.
Alignment in the C-suite and senior leader ranks is imperative to the success of any corporate initiative. Alignment issues exist in every company, and are often simply a sign of healthy competing business priorities, opportunity cost decisions, and/or lack of resources (time, financial, human)—but they must be rectified before the rollout of a change management plan.
After all, the biggest and earliest failure risk of corporate change is a lack of executive alignment.
Expert Solution With Massella Dukuly
Massella Dukuly recently discussed how HR leaders can better manage their workforces through times of change (especially through layoffs) on America Back to Work.
Dukuly is head of workplace strategy and innovation at Charter, a media services company that aims to transform the workplace. She has trained over 10,000 leaders at startups and global enterprises, including Squarespace and the New York Times, and has an MBA focusing on Leadership and Organizational Change.
Dukuly recommends that CHROs or CPOs cultivate better relationships with the CEO, CFO, and other key C-Suite stakeholders before a major change.
“More than anything, really try to build meaningful partnerships with key stakeholders. Your CFO relationship will be particularly important if you’re looking at layoffs or a reduction in force.”
This kind of alignment, according to Dukuly, will help executives make better decisions in the heat of the moment that better serve the company’s short-term and long-term goals for the change, especially when finances are tight and every dollar counts.
When it comes to layoffs, for example, executive alignment between the CFO, CEO, and HR can help facilitate quality decision-making around how employees are let go in the interim—in a way that leaves the door open for them to come back in the future (or at least recommend your organization to another talented colleague in the future).
“Layoffs are part of the employee cycle. It’s not just the end of the journey. These might be people that you want to have come back.”
An aligned C-suite will be able to strategize and let people go on the best possible note, with the most amount of generosity possible—to ensure that the employee lifecycle is not disturbed. If you don’t have the money to keep people in their jobs, you can work with the CFO and CEO to delay layoffs (so that employees can keep the healthcare they need for their families a little longer) or be generous with severance.
Executive alignment also creates the conditions for better, more uniform messaging and timely, consistent communication—the keys to a successful change management process.
Change Management: Looking Ahead
If the last few years have taught us anything—between a pandemic, a labor shortage, and rocky financial times––it’s that change is inevitable and that the nature of corporate change itself is constantly changing.
Despite this evolution, the principles of change management remain largely the same, and by embracing a change management approach that balances strategic planning with human empathy––and that’s powered by open communication and leadership alignment––companies can not only weather the storms of change but also emerge stronger and more resilient.
Learn More About Change Management
→ To dive deeper into executive alignment and change management, watch or listen to this episode of America Back to Work: Expert Interview Series with Massella Dukuly.
And, to hear from other experts or read this change management series in its entirety, please click on the following links: