Organizational Change Management and Communications

Organizational Change Management and CommunicationsOCM

Enamul HaqueAssociate General ManagerHCL Great Britain Limited

Definition

Organizations are almost always in a state of change, whether the change is continuous or episodic. The Change Management and Communications Plan includes a strategy and framework to effectively engage stakeholders and communicate changes necessary across the transformation areas to achieve the desired results and sustain the benefits of the effort.

As shown in figure above, the discipline of organizational change management (OCM) is intended to help move an organization's people, processes, and technology from the current "as is" state to a desired future "to be" state. To ensure effective, long-term, and sustainable results, there must be a transition during which the required changes are introduced, tested, understood, and accepted.

Objectives – 1/2

The goal of the change management and communications effort is to align executive leadership and build commitment, manage the changes, and enable the organizational transformation to support the complex process of implementing the approved recommendations in the Strategy & Governance, Organization, Sourcing, and Technology areas.

Achieving the change management objectives helps the organization more effectively implement the changes necessary to realize the vision for the transformation, achieve the desired results, and realize the long-term benefits of the new initiatives.

Objectives – 2/2

The objectives of organizational change management is to enable:

• Effective leadership and build and sustain ownership and foster effective communication.

• Organization members and other stakeholders to adapt to the new vision, mission, and systems.

• Identify sources of resistance to the changes and minimize resistance to them.

• Mitigate the tension and strain it creates so that it can evolve.

• Effectively transfer knowledge and skills that enable users to adopt the new vision, mission, and systems and to identify and minimize sources of resistance.

Transformation Process

The three elements of organizational transformation e.g. People, Process and technology are the key consideration to any process success.

• People: Empowering people to be successful with technology.

• Process: Enable organizational excellence through the adaptation of industry standard processes.

• Technology: Get the right technology to ensure business continuity and spur innovation.

The Change Process

By defining and completing a change process, an organization can better define and document the activities that must be managed during the transition phase. Moving through these stages will help ensure effective, long-term, and sustainable results. These stages unfold as an organization moves through the transition phase in which the required transformational changes are introduced, tested, understood, and accepted in a manner that enables individuals to let go of their existing behaviors and attitudes and develop any new skills needed to sustain desired business outcomes.

Change Management ActivitiesChange Management activities enables leadership to gauge the readiness, willingness, and ability of organizations and employees impacted by Procurement Transformation to function in a new environment.

In any enterprise transformation effort, there are a number of variables that exist simultaneously and affect the acceptance of change by an organization. These variables range from Congressional mandates to the organization's culture and leadership to the attitude and behavior of the lowest-ranking employee.

Research

Studies have found that the lack of effective OCM in an IT modernization project leads to a higher percentage of failure. According to a Gartner survey on "The User's View of Why IT Projects Fail," the findings pinned the failure in 31 percent of the cases on an OCM deficiency. This demonstrates the importance of integrating OCM principles into every aspect of an IT modernization or business transformation program.

“OCM deficiency

FAILS31% of IT initiatives”

Stages of Change – 1/5

In order to maximize the goal of OCM, organizations would require to follow different stages of effective alignments such as:

Build

Enable

Manage

Communicate

Stages of Change – 2/5

BuildBuild Alignment and Leadership Commitment - Support creating leadership alignment allowing program sponsors and leadership to speak with a “single-voice” regarding the ongoing transformation effort.

Stages of Change – 3/5

Enable Enable organization to transform -change strategies assume that change will occur if impacted units and individuals modify their perspective from old behavior patterns in favor of new behaviors and business/work practices. Participative change typically involves not just changes in rationales for action, but changes in the attitudes, values, skills, and percepts of the organization.

Stages of Change – 4/5

ManageManage the change: Closely align the change management effort with program leadership to assist in scheduling activities focused on identifying challenges based on the rate of change or the capacity for the organization/individuals to cope with the amount of change

Stages of Change – 5/5

Communicate Manage the change: Closely align the change management effort with program leadership to assist in scheduling activities focused on identifying challenges based on the rate of change or the capacity for the organization/individuals to cope with the amount of change

Managing Changes

• Use a change management interaction model to select multiple and appropriate activities at any given point in time of the transformation

• Implement a Change Network as a way to formalize peer-to-peer information sharing and support program communications, as well as, implement changes as a result of process or technology initiatives

• Leverage various meetings and forums to share successes and leading practices, prepare individuals for upcoming changes, encourage participation in change efforts, and gauge adoption of and/or resistance to specific changes

• Use both Change Readiness Surveys compared to the results from the baseline survey and other short readiness surveys to monitor watch areas, gauge readiness for specific initiatives, and identify issues

Communication is the key

• Use a cascading communications approach to align messaging and leverage existing communications vehicles/channels throughout the organization

• Implement an efficient process to review and approve all communications to allow for timely information sharing and mitigate the potential for information overload for employees involved

• Use a single Communications Tracker as the primary mechanism to schedule, track, and de-conflict formal communications in order to logically leverage multiple communications channels and minimize redundancy and information overload for stakeholders

• View communications is an iterative process which must be continually monitored using various feedback mechanisms to gauge the effectiveness of messages

Communications Vehicles and Format

• Create website with standard program briefings

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and post links to related information, e.g., Administrative Code, pending legislation

• Create two standard communications vehicles—a Transformation Postcard and a Transformation Update—to “push” information to targeted stakeholder groups

• Use formal memos from leadership for formal announcements, to establish policy, and periodically provide updates on progress of the transformation and supporting activities

• Use the official templates to create a program identity and support consistent communications

Tangible Communication Assets

Approaches

An Integrated Change Management and Communication Approach effectively builds stakeholder engagement by proactively executing change activities and carefully managing communications across a transformational project.

Gather input

• Input is gathered from available means to form the basis for the change management and communications strategy.

• Stakeholder Map - Analysis to define stakeholders and their needs and concerns relating to the program; identifies the level of impact the program will have on the stakeholders and the key messages to address their needs.

• Change Readiness Survey Report - Highlights the degree of readiness measured in six dimensions:

– Vision and Leadership

– Action and Alignment

– Adaptability and Change

– Involvement and Collaboration

– Training and Performance Management

– Communications

Develop Strategy

• Leading practice change management and communications practices adapted to meet the needs of the transformation effort.

• Change Management Strategy - The Change Management Strategy outlines the approach, guiding principles, and types of activities used to support the transformation.

• Communications Strategy - The Communication Strategy outlines the approach and communication principles used for planning communications

Plan

• The strategies are used to develop an integrated set of activities.

• Change Management Plan - The Change Management Plan is a living document outlining recommended change management activities by timeframe, audience, key drivers and outcomes, and recommended interventions.

• Communications Plan - The Plan is a living document outlining communications activities by timeframe, audience, key messages, recommended vehicles, and development/sender responsibilities.

Execute

• Activities are executed and the plans are updated based on feedback.

• Integrated Plan and Execution - The Change Management and Communications Plans are integrated into an actionable plan which efficiently and effectively implements the change management and communications strategies to support the transformation.

Change Management Interaction Model – 1/2

The program team should consistently anchor communications, training, and other activities to the vision, goals, and context of the overall transformation initiatives and timelines to reinforce the alignment of the changes and support individuals’ discovery of “what’s in it for me?”

Change Management Interaction Model – 2/2

Instructor-Led

(Classroom)

Instructor-Led

(Virtual)

Web-Based

Job Aids

Specialized

Training

Manuals

Procedures

Swat Teams

Expert Coaching

All Hands Meetings

E-mail

Briefings

Website

List Serve

FAQs

Fact Sheets

Peers

Change agents

Team leads

OCM Risks – 1/2

• Resistance is a critical element of organizational change activities.

• Resistance may be a unifying organizational force that resolves the tension between conflicts that are occurring as the result of organizational change.

• Emotional resistance occurs as the unit or individuals balance emotions during change.

• Emotions about change are entrenched in an organization's values, beliefs, and symbols of culture.

• Emotional histories hinder change. Signals of emotional resistance include a low emotional commitment to change leading to inertia or a high emotional commitment leading to chaos.

OCM Risks – 2/2

• Behavior resistance is an integration of cognitive and emotional resistance that is manifested by less visible and more covert actions toward the organizational change.

• Signals of behavioral resistance are the development of rumors and other informal or routine forms of resistance by units or individuals.

• Business benefits are not well understood by whole organization.

• Inadequate communication to external stakeholders.

• Internal communications not delivered or inconsistently delivered by managers

• Written communications not read.

OCM Risk Mitigation – 1/2

• Accurate, truthful, and timely information replaces gossip and rumor and eases anxiety.

• Managers to assist in building and validating metrics for balanced scorecard reporting

• Identify key stakeholders and their particular concerns and needs.

• Determine the specific benefits (and pain points) of the project for each stakeholder group.

• Communicate early, often, and clearly. Tell stakeholders what is going on, tell them why, tell them what they need to do, and specify the benefits for them.

• Resistance is often seen as a negative force during transformation projects. However, properly understood, it is a positive and integrative force to be leveraged.

OCM Risk Mitigation – 2/2

• It is the catalyst for resolving the converging and diverging currents between change leaders and respondents and creates agreement within an organizational system.

• Set up feedback mechanisms and solicit stakeholder input to continuously review and improve the project.

• Understand how people may be disrupted and work to build support structure in advance of disruptions; clearly communicate benefits of the change; engage steering committee leadership to create incentives to change behaviors.

• Review all communications for clarity and consistency; ensure appropriate senders are identified to ensure credibility of the communication; develop standard key messages and talking points

References• Burke, W., 2008, Organizational Change: Theory and Practice. Sage Publications, 2nd edition.

• Burke, W. and G. Litwin, 1992. "A Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change," Journal of Management, Vol. 18, No. 3.

• Flint, David, 2005, "The User's View of Why IT Projects Fail," Gartner Report.

• Kotter, John P., 1998, "Winning at Change," Leader to Leader, 10 (Fall 1998), 27–33.

• Lawson E. and C. Price, 2003, "The Psychology of Change Management," McKinsey Quarterly.

• Kelman, S., 2005, Unleashing Change: A Study of Organizational Renewal in Government, The Brookings Institute.

• Mergers and Transformations: Lessons Learned from DHS & Other Federal Agencies, November 2002, GAO-03-293SP. http://www.gao.gov/assets/240/236371.pdf

• Ostroff, Frank, May 2006, "Change Management in Government," Harvard Business Review.

• Gartner's Business Analytics Framework http://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/summits/docs/na/business-intelligence/gartners_business_analytics__219420.pdf

• Pictures are from Google and graphs designed by me.

Enamul HaqueTweeter: https://twitter.com/haquenamWeb: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haquenam