Steps to Effective Change Management
By Michael Jackson, CEO Supple & Sage Enterprise
Remember, regardless of the reason for your change, whether mergers and acquisitions, a new IT solution, new business processes, etc. All changes require an excellent robust change management process to obtain buy-in. If everyone is not on board, the challenges to the change will increase. The reality is, the more substantial the percentage of change is to your organization, the more critical it is to have the right leadership on board with the change. Commitment needs to be obtained from the top to the bottom of the organization and the bottom to the top. The higher the level of commitment, the better off you are getting things done timely and effectively.
1) Identify the organization and team which will be impacted.
a) Determine if impacted teams will get additional personnel, lose resources/personnel, or need to work with their current staff
b) Sale benefits to the groups affected
i) Get people from the impacted organization involved in the tactical implementation and readiness
2) Then present the business case to all organizations that will need to work with changes being implemented. Promote the positive attributes of the changes you’re looking to achieve.
a) Focus on critical benefits only (3 to 5 points )
b) Remember who is the targeted audience and what they value
c) Acknowledge challenges
i) Speak to 1 or 2 key challenges
ii) Speaking to these challenges helps the entire objective and highlights the credibility of the leadership team
d) Have Q & A ready Only ask for questions
3) Create a roadmap. Ensure steps for phases required to achieve your solution is effectively displayed and available.
4) Evaluation. Provide clear expectation about how the new process solution will be evaluated and how you will make the appropriate steps to modify and make adjustments to be successful
5) Communication plan. Set up a communication plan which will focus on target organizations impacted to keep them informed on when the different phases will be implemented and how to provide feedback and input to improve the solution or processes. Ensure the communication can be tied back to why the change is necessary.
a) Communication structure
i) Item of action that needs to occur
ii) Why this item is necessary
iii) Timeline for the items of action
iv) Where to direct questions?
v) How will the progress or success of effort be evaluated?
6) Monitor and manage risk or resistance. Ensure that the feedback loop is close. Work to get input from the impacted teams. Validate information and work on improvements. Remember, if your solution or processes is in cumbersome and causes problems, the groups affected will find workarounds and other means to get their job done.
7) Communicate and celebrate success stories
8) Implement a review process and how improvements will be implemented. Enhancements time frames maintenance releases etc.
9) Communicate to everybody impacted what success will look like for the business unit for whatever change you are applying.