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Management of Change: Conclusion

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We have reached it, the exciting conclusion to our series on Management of Change.  It is here where we will reiterate our most important change messages and send you on your way to successful changes in your organization. 

We started our series defining crucial concepts, i.e. change includes anything that takes a company from its current state to a new, desired state and that it takes the buy-in and adoption of the people in the company in order for change to be successful.

This statement encompasses several ideas and focused areas, each of which we explored during this series.   

  • The executive piece focused on the leadership required as company change agents – establishing goals, creating clear direction and modeling the new, desired behaviors.
  • Our financial commentary focused on the numbers of change: establishing numerical baselines, checkpoints, and the financial ranges indicating success.
  • The project management information recognized your company’s project managers as those best suited to manage and evaluate the change process, since that’s what they already do for your clients.
  • The marketing article acknowledged the multifaceted role marketing plays: the industry researcher who sees the need for change; the communicator/positioner for your company, your clients and your employees; and an area that needs to embrace the change themselves.
  • Our final focused blog piece from the human resources perspective really explored the people – the most important part – of change.  If the people in your company aren’t clear on change, all the spreadsheets and tools in the world won’t make it work.  

Information Technology – yet another key aspect of change

We investigated, at a high level, about each area and their responsibility toward change and the adoption of that change.  We also made reference to some of the tools that can contribute to this change process. For example, in the executive focus we made reference to an executive dashboard to help leaders keep abreast of their company changes.  Furthermore, project managers are very technically savvy with their project management software.  Marketing, also, has technology that they have to employ to keep abreast of changes in their jobs.  The common denominator to all this and more is … technology.  Partnering with your IT department allows for smoother change.  And, like all the other roles, technology plays a dual role offering technology that empowers employees in potentially two ways: 

1) As a new technology that companies can now use, changing the way they do their work.

In Aaron Jones’ article, “Change Management: 8 Tips to Successfully Implement a New Technology” he states “Companies that have been through successful implementations of new technology understood employee concerns and addressed those concerns early in the process” and offers the following steps for successfully integrating a new technology.

  • Select the Right Technology
  • Check References
  • Involve Employees  
  • Get all Personnel Involved Once a New Technology is
  • Focus on Training
  • Document Everything
  • Create Short Terms Wins
  • Demonstrate No Fear  

2) As a technology that helps manage the change process itself. 

In Henry Hornstein’s article, “Using A Change Management Approach To Implement IT Programs” he explains, “The importance of managing organizational change effectively has compelled a growing number of organizations to incorporate the discipline into major initiatives of all sorts, from the introduction of IT software packages to business process and organizational structure changes. The contribution of effective change management/leadership to the achievement of positive results cannot be ignored … when combining high usage of innovative Human Resource Management (HRM) practices with high usage of information and communication technologies (ICT), in change initiatives.” 

The single most important thing to keep in mind when implementing change is to understand why the change must happen.  There are three steps to implementing change:

  1. Un-Paralyze your Organization - Develop a persuasive reason both why the change must happen and if it weren’t to happen, what would the negative impacts be. This creates a motivating reason why the change must happen. 
  2. Show Benefits to Individuals - Individuals that are impacted by the change need to understand how it will benefit them. People want to be in the know. So communication and managing expectations are key.
  3. Re-establish Standards – When employees feel they are constantly in flux and don’t know what to do, it creates uncertainty. Implementing change in a phased approach with continued reinforcement of those expectations helps people feel they know what is expected. Change will happen once you have a good QC process and a well-established protocol of what is expected.

Change in the end

It all leads to one conclusion.  Change is never done alone.  It takes the interactivity of every aspect of an organization (leaders, individual contributors, tools) to make change management successful. 

Gone are the days of five year plans.  Today’s speed of business requires an agile organization who can change even as frequently as 12 – 18 months.  Having a comprehensive and thorough management of change process is the only way businesses can survive … and flourish.

And remember that friend who asked about the investment return from the beginning of our series?  After reading each blog piece and taking the time to process each area’s responsibility toward the success of change, you can now tell your friend that the initial investment may indeed be huge, but because you have been given the necessary information for effective change management, we will ALL be able to prove enormous returns!

 

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