One of the key challenges in change management is trying to get everyone on board with the change.
Sponsors are key contributors in that area!
Sponsorship support is the ultimate expression of an executive’s willingness to bring change to fruition. It’s an indication of a high commitment to change, and a willingness to improve the efficiency of the change initiative.
Why lack of sponsorship support remains one of the most frequent issues in change management?
The lack of sponsorship support is a very challenging subject to tackle which comes down to the way you, as a change practitioner, manage communication with the sponsor.
It is critical to understand that priorities – yours, and your sponsor’s, are different and the problems you are trying to solve can also differ. Let’s come up with an example on how conflicting priorities can complicate the change management process. First, define your sponsor’s problem and your problem as a change practitioner. Most of the time, the sponsor’s driver on a day-to-day basis is the P&L. Thus, the healthy revenue stream is always on the top of your sponsor’s list.
- The problem for us, change management practitioners, is the lack of employee engagement during the change implementation phase.
- The problem for the sponsor is the potential effect of our strategy on either productivity or operations.
What are the consequences of a lack of sponsorship support?
While change managers may have a better understanding of what is needed to make a successful transition, they will need to connect with an executive sponsor by speaking the same language and adjusting to the sponsor’s way of seeing the change problem.
Help your sponsor understand that if there is a lack of employee engagement in the change, then it will roll back to your sponsor’s P&L. Thus, this will lead to financial consequences.
How to solve this issue?
Ensure that you position the importance of change in such a way that the sponsor will understand it and prioritize it going forward.
Try to show the correlations between your strategy and the sponsor’s top priority: such as in our previous example – P&L. The P&L can be negatively affected by the lack of sponsor’s engagement. One of the solutions to improve this situation would be a sponsor’s participation in the change management process that would minimize the financial risks. Make sure to present a win-win solution to this problem and actively communicate every step of your initiative.
