HITEPAPER ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT · 2017-12-15 · Organizational change management involves first identifying the groups and people who will need ... projects and leadership
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
There should be little doubt in any visionary leader’s mind that the world is on the cusp of
revolutionary change. Technological advances here and around the corner are poised to disrupt
industries and markets. Political upheaval and economic instability threatens to uproot norms and
create new paradigms of power and influence. An ever-increasing demand on competitive forces
and dwindling resources will affect every organization. Now, more than ever, change is the new
normal a; leaders and organizations must be prepared to think strategically and proactively to
meet the challenges of the future. Effective change management may be the difference between
an organization destined for success, or one doomed into irrelevance.
Think of Kodak that filed for bankruptcy the very week that Instagram was acquired by Facebook
for over $1 billion, or giant retailers like Borders that didn’t prepare for the onslaught of competition
from Amazon and on-line purchasing. Communications company RIM, makers of the Blackberry,
once had a market value of nearly $100 billion only to see that drop to $4 billion in a decade. All
these organizations did not, or could not, continually create value for their customers and adapt
to a fluid environment.
Change Management guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to successfully adopt change and drive successful outcomes for your organization.
It requires vision, discipline and an element of analyzing, interpreting and planning for uncertainty.
While all changes, individuals and organizations are unique, decades of research show there are
actions you can take to influence your people and your organization as they undertake in their
respective transitions into future states positioned for optimal success. The five tips we provide in
this paper will help you achieve effective change in support of your vision.
1. INDIVIDUAL CHANGE MANAGEMENTCommunicate and set the mindset that change is the only normal condition in our
business age.
While it is the natural psychological and physiological reaction of humans to resist change,
we are actually quite resilient creatures. When supported through times of change, we can be
wonderfully adaptive and successful. Individual change management requires understanding
how people experience change and what they need to change successfully.
It also requires knowing what will help people make a successful transition:
. What messages do people need to hear when, and from whom?
. When is the optimal time to teach someone a new skill?
. How do I coach people to demonstrate new behaviors?
. What makes changes “stick” in someone’s work?
Individual change management draws on the disciplines of psychology and neuroscience to
apply actionable frameworks to individual change.
Organizations should frequently be communicating the vision of the company as a dynamic
and constantly evolving entity, where change is embraced when it positively affects outcomes
and where complacency is unacceptable. Employees should hear this message from initial
onboarding and have it reinforced at every staff meeting, in your mission and vision statements
and through your policies and actions.
2. ORGANIZATIONAL/INITIATIVE CHANGE MANAGEMENTThink of the individual as a part of an organization or an initiative.
While change happens at the individual level, it is often impossible for a project team to manage
change on a person-by-person basis. Organizational or initiative change management provides
us with the steps and actions to take at the project level to support the hundreds or thousands of
individuals who are impacted by that project.
Organizational change management involves first identifying the groups and people who will need
to change as the result of the project, and in what ways they will need to change. Organizational
change management then involves creating a customized plan for ensuring impacted employees
receive the awareness, leadership, coaching, and training they need to change successfully.
Driving successful individual transitions as a part of the whole should be the central focus
of the activities in organizational change management. Organizational change management is
complementary to your project management.
Project management ensures your solution is designed, developed and delivered; Change Management ensures your solution is effectively embraced, adopted and used.