More and more these days, managing change requires a significant event or common threat around which to rally the troops. The problem is that it's no longer enough to just use competitors, market conditions, data insecurity or a fear of losing one's job as the bogeyman. You need something more compelling, something positive and even emotionally uplifting to which a lot of IT and business workers can relate. And it doesn't necessarily have to be strictly business- or IT-related either, just motivational and sustainable.

Those who manage change well usually display the following success factors:

• Manage transition, not change. Resistance to change is more deeply rooted in transition -- which is psychological in nature, more internally felt and focused on endings -- than in change itself, which is mostly situational, outwardly projected and focused on outcomes. Consequently, nothing undermines change like the failure to think through who will have to let go of what.

  Fear is palpable in companies pursuing change initiatives. In breaking through fear-fueled resistance, it's critical to identify who's losing what, anticipate overreaction, acknowledge the losses and give something back. Look for signs of grieving and allow workers to openly vent their anger and frustration. Provide information until it slowly sinks in. Explicitly define what's over and what's not, mark endings and treat the past with respect, symbolically and even literally, by letting people take a piece of the old ways with them.

• Keep change teams small. Research indicates that small, empowered teams of six to eight have the greatest impact on change efforts. They're better at following rules, but also at improvising solutions when facing barriers. And small teams make experimenting with essential performance-oriented reward and incentive programs easier.

• Anticipate and embrace failure. Recognize that progress is what counts, that learning the new is difficult and that relapses are normal.

• Use metrics. Appropriate metrics must be developed to more easily measure and reward performance toward achieving change objectives. Besides, if it can't be measured and tracked, how can you expect to sustain precious support?

• Be in agreement. For enterprisewide change initiatives, make sure there's clear agreement among influential managers and workers on a compelling need for change, plus consensus on the business vision and understandable first steps toward change. Dissension fuels resistance.

• Invite broad participation. At least 15% of the workforce must be actively engaged and committed for enterprisewide change initiatives to succeed; 5% is needed to start the process. For smaller-scale initiatives, ensure that there's representation for all who have something at stake.

• Over-educate. Management must constantly manage expectations and resistance by actively and repeatedly communicating mission, vision, philosophy, process, choices and details about change initiatives. Frequent management-hosted open-door meetings are common.

• It takes time. Don't be fooled by magazine stories about wildly successful change efforts. Companies spend years quietly practicing and preparing, building capabilities, experimenting on project teams and carefully analyzing progress.

• There's never a clear answer. Learn to tolerate ambiguity, and you'll never feel too afraid to take risks. Accept occasional failure as a natural event and never stop moving forward and trying new things.