Overcoming resistance to change within federal agencies

Here’s your conundrum: You’re an advocate for change within your federal agency or your organization. You understand change is inevitable, and that the pace of change is accelerating, yet many of your colleagues are resistant. 

Change can be risky, and for many people, scary. It can lead to unexpected developments, and most of us are comfortable sticking with the familiar. From your perspective, whether as a leader or a forward-thinking employee, that just is not an option. 

I’ve encountered this exact situation many times in my work with CGI’s passport program. I’ve worked within the passport program for nearly 20 years, and I can confirm that change within the program is coming faster than ever before—just as it is in many other federal programs and agencies. Emerging technologies, new workflows and processes, new ways to structure contracts and the evolution of workplace culture into remote and hybrid models are among the key contributors to this, although far from the only factors. 

For example, as the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic passed and restrictions lifted, people who had been confined in quarantine and deprived of social interaction were ready to travel. Passport services quickly became inundated with work.  To meet the sudden surge in demand, our client adjusted the way work was allocated across the country – for most sites, this meant a need to determine how to organize new workstreams to best support the client and meet public expectations and developing new workflows.
 
We were working to meet the enormous demand and had to do more with no resources beyond what we already had. This meant finding more efficient and smarter ways to utilize those resources. We built more flexibility into the day for CGI personnel working in passports, allowing them to quickly switch functions as workloads changed. That increased production and minimized down time.  We worked with our client to create additional workstations, and we are still constantly re-evaluating current procedures looking for ways to improve.

Changes, especially fast-evolving changes, can ripple into areas that you might not think about. The spike in demand led to a need to expand storage space, even though no actual increase in space was coming. We had to come up with creative storage solutions as well as find a way to remain organized.

The post-pandemic surge also led us to hire more personnel quickly, which necessitated changes to the way we trained and onboarded new members, especially those in leadership roles.

I have found that most people will say they are open to change, but when change is actually implemented, many of those same people have a difficult time and often push back. Yet, change is inevitable and offers an opportunity to improve efficiencies and best practices.  

Easing the path for change

Fortunately, there are several best practices leaders can implement to increase your team’s receptiveness to rethinking their processes and updating their tools. While these may not always be enough, they will often help open doors. 

1. Clearly articulate, and frequently reiterate, the goals and benefits that come with change. People need to understand what’s in it for them if they are willing to do something they consider to be risky. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to explain it so that they understand what they’ll gain. 
2. Maintain open communication. A leader can always mandate change, whether your team understands the need or not. You’ll get better results, though, if you keep an open ear and mind to their concerns and keep the communications pathways open. 
3. Encourage feedback and participation from employees and clients working closest to the change. Those are affected most directly have the most reason to be wary, and the best opportunity to spot genuine issues quickly. Pay particularly close attention to their concerns and let them know you’re listening. 
4. Change course as needed. Not every change is going to work out as expected. Measure results and adjust the sails when things are not going quite right. The best results may not come on the very first try.
5. Communicate results. Let people know what worked, what didn’t and what you need to adjust. Keep the information flowing through multiple iterations until the changes have achieved their goals and people have become comfortable with new ways of working. 

Change management isn’t just for leaders.

You can be a change agent even if you aren’t in a supervisory role. As a peer, you can be an advocate and echo messages from leadership. Encourage your colleagues to keep their minds open and be willing to try doing things differently. 

Becoming adaptable and open to change enables faster implementation of change and an agile mindset in which something not working the first time becomes a learning opportunity rather than a failure. It heightens your ability to meet client goals, as your organizational culture becomes more able to reconfigure business processes to deliver on our agreements. 

Learn how CGI can help you navigate change management and find out more how we help enable passport services.