The road to successful change

I recently flew over to Spain to attend the well-known pharmaceutical conference, eyeforpharma Barcelona.

Whilst I was there I attended a presentation from Mikael Nilsson, Director of Marketing Excellence at Biogen Idec who talked all about the road to successful change. According to research we have between 20-60,000 thoughts a day and 98% of those are the same as the thoughts we had yesterday; leaving little scope for change.   

This got me thinking about how we deal with change on a daily basis and how that is reflected in the decisions we make in our professional lives. I thought this was particularly relevant in circumstances where people are embarking on changes such as moving roles or making alternations to their teams. A change of dynamics can be frustrating and disruptive for many employees and it is something that managers have to consider either when hiring a new employee or when teams need to shrink.

Mikael explained to us how when you enter change it is like walking down into a valley and out the other side. You start with a very optimistic outlook as you can “see” the changed state on the opposite hill  but as you continue your journey further down into the valley of change things start to look a little less sunny. Everything is different, it takes longer to learn new processes, you may be working with  new people and the learning curve can be steep; suddenly not so optimistic. But after a while, as you overcome obstacles you begin to climb up the other side and your outlook starts to improve again; this is where you need determination and motivation to make it through and to turn the change into success.

He explained how people and companies make successful changes because of 5 things:

1.       They establish a sense of urgency

2.       They have good leadership and form change teams.

3.       They envisage the future state

4.       They create short term wins and strong communications.

5.       They make it stick, remove obstacles and consolidate improvements

I think all of these can be related to the pharmaceutical industry and are key elements to remember when setting off on a period of change. We all know that moving roles or making changes within your team can be a daunting task and not a decision that is made lightly, so although it may come with huge amounts of optimism it is important to remember that it might not all be plain sailing – you need to allow enough time to reach the other side of the valley and exercise endurance along the way.

Sticking to the above rules will certainly help organisations and individuals succeed on the road to successful change – thank you Mikael for your insight and advice.