Change management activities range from individual projects to large programs, such as digital transformation that introduces many new processes and applications. Change efforts often involve management teams and other stakeholders. Department-level management and employee buy-in is essential.
To be effective, a change management strategy must do the following:
- Consider how a change will impact processes, systems and employees.
- Include planning and testing the change, scheduling and implementing it as well as
- Include planning and testing the change, scheduling and implementing it as well as
documenting and evaluating its effects.
- Provide documentation to maintain an audit trail if a rollback becomes necessary and
- Provide documentation to maintain an audit trail if a rollback becomes necessary and
ensure compliance with internal and external controls, including regulatory compliance.
What Are The Benefits Of Change Management
Taking a structured approach to change management helps organizations mitigate disruption, reduce costs, reduce time to implementation, improve leadership skills, drive innovation and improve morale. In addition, there are ways change management can add structure to IT and operations:
- Improved documentation of enterprise systems.
- Greater alignment between suggested change and what gets implemented.
- Better starting point for automation initiatives.
- Clearer understanding of why systems were made.
- Ability to reverse-engineer changes made to existing business processes and infrastructure.
- Better ability to identify what can be safely eliminated or updated.
- Greater alignment between suggested change and what gets implemented.
- Better starting point for automation initiatives.
- Clearer understanding of why systems were made.
- Ability to reverse-engineer changes made to existing business processes and infrastructure.
- Better ability to identify what can be safely eliminated or updated.
Change Management For Project Management
Change management plays an important role in project management because each change request must be evaluated for its impact on the project. Project Managers - or the senior executives in charge of change control must examine how a change in one area of a project could affect other areas and what impact that change could have on the project as a whole.
Project areas that change control experts should pay particular attention to include the following concerns:
Scope - A change request could affect the project scope
Schedule - A change request could alter the project schedule.
Costs - Labor is typically the largest project expense and changes that increase time to
complete also raise project costs.
Quality - Change requests might affect the quality of the completed project. For example, accelerating the project schedule can affect quality when work is rushed.
Human Resources - A change request might entail bringing on additional or specialized labor. Also, when the schedule changes, key resources might be moved to other assignments.
Communications - Change management is interactive. Approved change requests must be communicated to the appropriate stakeholders at the right time.
Risk - Change requests must be evaluated to consider risks they pose. Even minor changes can have a domino effect on the project and introduce logistical, financial or security risks.
Procurement - Changes to the project can affect when, where and how materials and contract labor are procured.
When an incremental change is approved, the project manager documents the change in one of four standard change control systems to ensure all thoughts and insight have been captured with the change request. Changes that aren't entered through a control system are labeled defects. When a change request is declined, this is also documented and kept in the project archives.
When an incremental change is approved, the project manager documents the change in one of four standard change control systems to ensure all thoughts and insight have been captured with the change request. Changes that aren't entered through a control system are labeled defects. When a change request is declined, this is also documented and kept in the project archives.
Types Of Organizational Change
Change management can be used to manage many types of organizational change. The three most common types are the following:
Developmental Change - Any organizational change that improves previously established processes and procedures.
Transitional Change - Change that moves an organization away from its current state to a new state to solve a problem, such as implementing a merger and acquisition or automating a task or process.
Transformational Change - Change that radically and fundamentally alters the culture and operation of an organization. The result of transformational change might not be known ahead of time. For example, a company may pursue entirely different products or markets.
Popular Models For Managing Change
One of the popular model is ADKAR & Kotter's 8 Steps.
ADKAR
Prosci founder Jeff Hiatt created the ADKAR model. It consists of five sequential steps:
- Awareness of the need for change.
- Desire to participate and support the change.
- Knowledge of how to change.
- Ability to implement desired skills and behaviors.
- Reinforcement to sustain the change.
- Knowledge of how to change.
- Ability to implement desired skills and behaviors.
- Reinforcement to sustain the change.
Prosci 3-Phase Process
This expands on the ADKAR model and includes three phases: preparing for change, managing change and reinforcing change. It provides a comprehensive framework for managing change initiatives.
Kotter's 8-Steps For Leading Change
Harvard University professor John Kotter's model has eight steps:
- Create a sense of urgency.
- Build a guiding coalition.
- Form a strategic vision and initiatives.
- Enlist a volunteer army.
- Enable action by removing barriers.
- Generate short-term wins.
- Sustain acceleration.
- Institute change.
- Build a guiding coalition.
- Form a strategic vision and initiatives.
- Enlist a volunteer army.
- Enable action by removing barriers.
- Generate short-term wins.
- Sustain acceleration.
- Institute change.
What Are The Challenges Of Change Management
Companies developing a change management program from the ground up often face challenges. Besides a thorough understanding of company culture, the change management process requires an accurate accounting of the systems, applications and employees that changes are likely to affect. Additional change management challenges include the following:
Resource Management
Managing the physical, financial, human, informational and intangible assets and resources that contribute to an organization's strategic plan becomes increasingly difficult when implementing change.
Resistance
The executives and employees most affected by a change might not be amenable to it, resulting in a backfire effect. In many cases, this happens because people perceive that change will result in extra work. Transparency, training, planning and patience can help quell resistance and improve overall morale. Additionally, care should be paid to address and manage the emotional journey of employees during change.
Communication
Companies often fail to consistently communicate change initiatives or include employees in the process. Change-related communications plans require an adequate number of messages, the involvement of enough key stakeholders to get the message out, and the use of multiple communication channels.
New Technology
The application of new technologies can disrupt an employee's entire workflow. Companies can improve adoption of new technology by creating a network of early learners who champion the new technology to colleagues.
Multiple Points Of View
How individuals perceive the impact of change depends on their own personal view of it, from their own perspective – their ‘hilltop’. Leaders and managers will be looking at the change from their own personal hilltops in the organization, and what they see below may be different from what members of their staff may see who are elsewhere in the organization – on their hilltops – and looking down, and their views may differ from person to person. In any change initiative, success criteria may differ for people based on their roles in the organization and incentives. Managing the impact of these factors is challenging.
Scheduling Issues
Deciding whether a change program will be long or short term and clearly defining milestone deadlines is complicated. Some organizations believe shorter change programs are most effective. Others believe a more gradual approach to change reduces resistance and errors.
Importance Of A Change Management Plan
As a conceptual business framework for people, processes and the organization, change management increases the success of critical projects and improves a company's ability to adapt quickly. Business change is constant and inevitable. But when poorly managed, it can cause organizational stress as well as unnecessary and costly rework.
By standardizing the consistency and efficiency of assigned work, successful change management assures that the people affected by changes aren't overlooked. As changes to work occur, change management helps employees understand their new roles and build a more process-driven culture.
Change management also helps companies remain dynamic in the marketplace and encourages future growth.
As a conceptual business framework for people, processes and the organization, change management increases the success of critical projects and improves a company's ability to adapt quickly. Business change is constant and inevitable. But when poorly managed, it can cause organizational stress as well as unnecessary and costly rework.
By standardizing the consistency and efficiency of assigned work, successful change management assures that the people affected by changes aren't overlooked. As changes to work occur, change management helps employees understand their new roles and build a more process-driven culture.
Change management also helps companies remain dynamic in the marketplace and encourages future growth.
Principles Of Change Management
Three principles of organizational change management build on the three stages of change management.
Three principles of organizational change management build on the three stages of change management.
Unfreeze The Current Stage
Change Agents need to identify what precisely they want to change. They must formulate a "why" that other participants are likely to buy into. In essence, they need to reverse-engineer the future state and translate this benefit to other possible participants. Then they get people to participate in the new idea. This could include executive sponsorship for a big change or co-workers for a departmental change.
Change The System
At this stage, change agents and any collaborators can put the change into practice. The change agents must work with collaborators to communicate the idea and bring other participants on board. It is important to pay attention to any pushback and find areas of shared understanding to either help move the change forward or shift its implementation in response to feedback. Tension might be high as everyone gets used to the new system. It's important to be respectful of their feelings and ideas.
Refreeze
Eventually, people get used to the new system, or they revert to what was working before. At this stage, it is important to declare that the change is over whether accepted or rejected. Even if the change was rejected, declaring it over gives everyone a chance to relax. It is also helpful at this stage to document what happened for future reference.
Conclusion
In general, most people don't like change, even if it's for the better. Some of the best practices to mitigate resistance to change:
Conclusion
In general, most people don't like change, even if it's for the better. Some of the best practices to mitigate resistance to change:
- Clarify the goal of the change being made and identify how it can benefit others.
- Listen to objections and find ways to address them.
- Take the time to build consensus rather than bulldoze dissenters.
- Consider feedback as a guide rather than an obstacle.
- Celebrate success at the end to encourage further change
- Be willing to backtrack when the change doesn't meet desired goals.
- Listen to objections and find ways to address them.
- Take the time to build consensus rather than bulldoze dissenters.
- Consider feedback as a guide rather than an obstacle.
- Celebrate success at the end to encourage further change
- Be willing to backtrack when the change doesn't meet desired goals.
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