Some leaders take an “old school” approach to change management — employees get a paycheck, so they’ll deal with any changes without a need for much explanation. But that sets the organization on a path toward failure.
“The biggest problems are when leadership does not account for the fact that resistance is definitely an option,” says Mark Deans, practice leader in Organizational Development & Change Management at Sequent.
“You could build a perfectly streamlined business process, or add the most efficient tool, but if employees don’t understand how to execute it to meet your expectations, it’s not going to succeed. Try as you might, you can’t make people do things,” Deans says.
Smart Business spoke with Deans about ways to ensure successful implementation of a change process.
What is involved in change management?
It’s supporting a change in business processes or systems, technology, etc. The practice of change management applies to any significant change in an organization, including leadership change as part of an acquisition or divestiture. It’s about how employees are supported through the change process.
The methodology is that there is a journey the organization, departments and individuals go through, and each has a completely different time path. Two people might do the same job, but each has his or her own change capability, and it’s a matter of identifying and managing all of those within an organization to make the change as seamless as possible.
How does the change process work its way through an organization?
First and foremost, leadership must be on the same page. Start with getting leaders aligned so they can be the driving force behind the change, helping each individual understand his or her part.
Organizations are taking a more holistic view nowadays. A change might mean more work for some departments but provides an overall net benefit for the organization. It used to be that each silo fought for its own interests. Now, it’s about how departments operate together, and some teams taking a hit if necessary to ensure the overall organization is as successful as possible.
One of the first steps is acknowledging the need to change, and the benefits. There should be some compelling reason, whether it’s regulatory changes, an attempt to improve market share or boost the bottom line. If the overarching goal is to improve margins, explain what that means for each group, and ultimately for each individual. You have to manage change upfront and get everyone onboard at the start rather than waiting for problems. It’s analogous to going to the dentist. If you see your dentist on a regular basis, keep your teeth clean and get X-rays, you can catch cavities when they start and are easier to fix, instead of not going for a long time and having major damage. The same holds true for change management, if you start a project and haven’t thought about how to communicate it to employees, going back and fixing it is much more difficult.
Is it important to state a desired outcome?
Absolutely. That is where some companies fail as well. They make a change and aren’t sure why. A company buys hundreds of iPads as part of a mobile technology strategy without addressing the intended use. So people are updating their Facebook status or playing Angry Birds because they don’t have a burning business reason to utilize these tools. That might be a ridiculous example, but there are plenty of cases in which companies want to hurry up and do something because it’s a shiny, new object.
You also need to accept it if a change didn’t work. Evaluate the success of the change, including what happened and didn’t happen as planned. Change projects always take longer and cost more than expected. Organizations that handle change well go back and figure out what they did well, and what could have been done differently. Then they remediate anything that did not get executed as well as planned. They learn from the experience so the process can be improved next time.
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