Change initiatives are notoriously prone to failure. As an employee you want to learn how to be a weathervane. Which way is the wind blowing? How do we make the most of good weather, and set the damage from a thunderstorm right?
You also want to know what a good mix of positive indicators looks like. Here are 10 pretty reliable ones that a change initiative is going well. (You can infer from their opposite when it’s not.) Note that they tend to occur in combination and reinforce each other – just like ketchup and mustard look strangely good sitting side by side.
1. Leadership has stated the vision in broad terms.Middle management can translate that vision into action items. Staff can say it in an elevator ride.
2. People are excited to talk about it.
3. Cultural readiness is apparent as people seem impatient to just start implementing already.
4. Opportunity presents itself in the form of distinct “easy wins” toward the bigger picture.
5. Team members have a way to align their natural talents with goals in such a way that they are self-motivated as well as largely self-directed.
6. People can join the team and understand what it’s working toward fairly easily.
7. The scope of the change initiative can be modified without losing focus, because all have a fixed gaze on the ultimate destination.
8. The organization is willing to accept some level of sacrifice in the name of achieving the overarching goal.
9. Commitment over time becomes an ingrained part of the process – people expect it to take years, not months.
10. Resources are committed to get the job done well – it’s not a setup for failure.
* All opinions my own. Photo by me.
Management Excellence 
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