Change Management

Leading, Managing and Monitoring Organizational Change

Change management is the process by which company leaders clearly communicate the need for change, the benefits they expect to accrue from the change, how the changes will affect the organization, teams and individuals, and how the organization will be lead during the change. Some key points to consider:

• Effective change must be lead before it can be managed. Strong leaders realize that people don't object to change – they object to BEING changed.
• At the heart of effective change is a well-developed, well-implemented communication plan. It's in this area where most organizations find they need assistance from the outside – an objective look at the risks the change poses, the stakeholders who are likely to be affected by the change, and a strategy for leveraging the supporters of the change and for dealing effectively with those who resist the change in order to minimize risk.
  
• Effective change management depends heavily on effective risk management.
  
• Effective change agents (outside consultants) can only be successful if they're supported by key executives and have access to these executives. Strong executive sponsorship is required for the change to be successful.
  
• Effective change can be measured like anything else. Comprehensive metrics (hard and soft measures) should be established up front and monitored during the change. Constant monitoring allows for mid-course corrections if needed and will ultimately be used to judge the effectiveness of the change.

Typical Scenario:

1. An organization commits to a new technology, new business processes, a new market niche, or acquires/merges with another business in the same or different market.
2. Realizing that the change is likely to be disruptive to the employees, the company brings in someone from the outside to take an objective look at the situation and to work collaboratively with senior management to build support and commitment for the change among employees and outside stakeholders (e.g. suppliers, customers).
3. The change consultant works with the key sponsor (usually someone at the CEO, COO, or CIO level) to identify risks, where the support for the change lies, who is likely to resist the change, the benefits and downsides of the change to key groups affected by the change, a plan of action for communicating the change and leveraging the organization's strengths to mitigate the risks involved in the change.
4. Usually a core team of leaders works with the consultant to manage the change, with active support and involvement from the sponsor.
5. The success of the change effort, and therefore the success of the consultant's work, is judged by the achievement of the project's goals and the actual and perceived disruption caused by the changes.

Methods and deliverables:

• Stakeholder analysis. Who/what groups will be affected by the change; what is likely to be their perception of the change; what's actually changing for each group and what will stay the same.
• Impact and influence strategy. For each key player in the organization, where do they stand re: the change and how can we leverage our supporters so they influence the doubters/resistors in the direction we want them to move.
• Impact assessment. Usually done with a survey or focus groups, this method assesses people's actual perceptions of the change and their confidence in the organization's ability to successfully carry out the change.
• Cultural assessment. A formal approach to evaluating the organization's culture; e.g. how people views their leadership; how empowered people feel in making decisions; how team-oriented the organization is; how people feel about their direct management and their co-workers; how change has been introduced in the past.
• Communication strategy and plan. What is our overall strategy for communicating the change to all levels of the organization, our suppliers, our customers, the media, etc. Strategies describe how we will communicate in general, how often, to whom, how we will position the change, etc. Once the strategy is developed, a tactical plan is developed that identified, for each constituency, the "5 w's and the h"; i.e. who, when, where, why, what and how. Dates and responsibilities are assigned and the communication plan in put into action, usually managed by an internal (client) team.
• Metrics. Key success measures are identified up front and are monitored throughout the change. Some metrics are "hard"; i.e. numbers-driven; others are "soft"; i.e. qualitative. Constant monitoring of the metrics allows for mid-course adjustment of the strategy if required.