“Not really… it’s almost never too late.”

That’s what I told my new client just moments into our first meeting in their Manhattan office. 

A business unit was being spun out of a giant tech firm, as a new company under new ownership. In 90 days, staff in over a dozen countries would transition and pretty much everything was changing – company name, branding, senior personnel, benefits, roles, job titles, culture, ways of working, systems, policies.

There was immense pressure stemming from the new board’s ambitious timeline.

That’s when I was called in to help, and it was important that I wasn’t viewed as slowing things down.

They were on a challenging journey and the stress was high. My job was to work quickly with them to figure out how to develop a change management mission that aligns with the varied perspectives of employees and the overall objectives of the program.

So, yes it was late to be starting… But it’s never too late (well, almost never). 

Here’s how I got started on the right foot, and how you can too when faced with a similar challenge:

1. Impact assessment is foundational for everything you will do, especially with a late start. It doesn’t have to be exhaustive either. Even some quick and dirty work can highlight who is being affected and to what extent.
2. Doing everything isn’t the mission. Doing as much of the right stuff that you can is. Be practical and realistic with your focus on forward progress and great execution, not on a perfect plan.
3. There is time… until there isn’t. Radiate confidence. They need you to.

The best time to start intentionally leading change is at the beginning.

But as I said, it’s (almost) never too late to start.

Have a great weekend!

(This post is an excerpt from an article I wrote on LinkedIn in Q422)