Change Management has been focused on by business for some time, but it seems that some companies do it better than others. I know from personal experience that government agencies sometimes revert to old habits that keep this from being implemented in an effective manner. Meanwhile, private sector businesses do a better job, but again, sometimes they also miss the mark.
What is Change Management?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Change Management is the planning and introduction of new processes, methods of working, etc. in a company or organization.
I thought that this would be an excellent time to look at this tool for business from an earlier time. Change Management, if done incorrectly, can have a devastating effect on the morale within a company, which will eventually catch up with the business and cost more than a couple of dollars on a spreadsheet. It could result in your company’s viability. So, take heed, and let’s look at Change Management.
Over the years, there have been many theories on this topic, many of which are similar. Recently, there’s been a new focus on Change Management and how to implement it so that the result is something that everyone in an organization is happy with. Making changes to make the appearance of progress is in itself very counterproductive because of the simple fact that “buy-in” from the community affected hasn’t been achieved. Without this “buy-in”, any new change management attempt will be unsuccessful.
Responsibility
The employees of a business do not have a responsibility to manage change for their company. Their primary duties are to work and perform at their best for the company. Depending on where they work, and what function they are holding, many factors that may go into this are health, maturity, stability, experience, personality, motivation, and so on. Responsibility for managing change is with the Management of the organization, and they must accomplish this change in a way that employees can create “buy-in” with or a sense of ownership. A manager must facilitate and enable change within their company and understand the situation from an objective and then present this in a way to help employees understand the overall goals of the company.
1. At all times, involve and agree on support from employees within the business or organization.
2. Understand where you and the organization are at the moment.
3. Understand where you want to be in the end. When will this be, why, and what will the measures look like once there?
4. A planned development must be appropriate, achievable, and have measurable data sets which to measure success or failure.
5. Communicate, involve, enable, and facilitate involvement from people as early as possible.
Kotter’s eight steps to successful change
One prominent theory is based on John P Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor and leading thinker of change management. Kotter’s actions to a successful change have been refined to eight steps someone must take for a successful transition to happen. Each stage points to a fundamental principle identified by people’s response and approach to change in which people react and then apply to change.
Kotter’s eight-step change model can be summarized as:
1. Increase urgency – inspire people to move, make objectives real and relevant.
2. Build the guiding team – get the right people in place with the right emotional commitment, and the right mix of skills and levels.
3. Get the vision right – get the team to establish a simple vision and strategy focus on the emotional and creative aspects necessary to drive service and efficiency.
4. Communicate for buy-in Involves as many people as possible. Communicate the essentials steps and respond to people’s needs. Declutter communications make technology work for you rather than against it.
5. Empower action – Remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback, and lots of support from leaders – reward and recognize progress and achievements.
6. Create short-term wins – Set aims that are easy to achieve – in bite-size chunks. Manageable numbers of initiatives. Finish current stages before starting new ones.
7. Don’t let up – Foster and encourage determination and persistence – ongoing change and encourage ongoing progress reporting – highlight achieved and future milestones.
8. Make change stick – Reinforce the value of successful transition via recruitment, promotion, new change leaders. Weave change into culture.
Change management is essential in today’s business world and must be given careful consideration for a successful outcome. The days of Management only issuing mandates and take them or leaving the company are over. A valuable employee can bring more to a company than just his knowledge, which he was hired for. Their insights and experience from other endeavors can pay handsomely for a company that will listen to their new ideas. The “Buy-In” of the employees is necessary, and what better way than doing this than having the employees take part in the discussion.