What is Change Management?
Change management is a critical part of any project that leads, manages and enables people to accept new processes, technologies, systems structures and values. It is the set of activities that helps people transition from their present way of working to the desired way of working. The focus of change management is to address the people and organizational factors that will both drive and obstruct change throughout the organization.
Why do Change Management?
Research shows that over 80 percent of projects fail when organization transition issues are not addressed. This is largely due to the fact that organizational change disrupts people's expectations and their concepts of what is familiar and comfortable about the way they work now in their current environment. When people are not adequately prepared some will deny or resist the change.
Individual Change Transitions
The ultimate goal of any change initiative is to ensure everyone in the organization is ready, willing, and able to appropriately perform his or her role in the new environment.
People's reactions to change vary according to:
- Their ability to understand the change
- Their ability to cope with/adapt to the change
- How they will benefit from the change
- What they will lose as a result of the change
Common Reactions to Change
Establishing new policies, procedures, and processes is not sufficient on its own to ensure successful organizational transition; achieving lasting change in organizations is all about people including the following behaviors in each individual’s objectives:
- Accepting the need for change
- Valuing it
- Adopting it
Therefore, as someone responsible for change management, it is critical to understand, plan for and implement necessary, practical steps to support people through the transition.
Key Challenges
There are typical issues that arise during the change project lifecycle. These can be issues that will affect stakeholders, change team members and change agents. The issues and their potential solutions have been provided in the table below as a guide. It is critical that these issues are identified and steps are taken to resolve them before they become a risk to the project.
Issue Scenario |
Implication |
Potential Solution |
Involvement, buy-in, sponsorship / leadership |
Lack of visible sponsorship |
The change is not perceived to be important or even happening |
Appoint central sponsor team; work together to identify role model behavior; coach each other on demonstrating required behavior |
Unclear, ineffective decision-making process |
Reduced pace of implementation; additional cost: time + rework; |
Assign clear accountabilities and create effective, visible project structure |
Lack of vision, direction and focus at all levels. |
Lack of buy-in; other priorities will be made |
Coordinated, regular communication effort; mobilization efforts hosted by sponsor(s) |
The right people aren't involved (decision-making power, influence, skills) |
Delayed decision making; no sense of urgency; rework required by additional resources |
Realistic (resource) planning and subsequent sourcing of roles. Identify solution to up-skill/coach project team members if required |
Failure to remove organizational barriers to Project Vision |
Project delays and could ultimately fail |
Assess barriers and enablers during stakeholder impact and readiness assessment; plan implementation effort accordingly and monitor progress |
Issue Scenario |
Implication |
Potential Solution |
Change to job / role / capability |
Not anticipating and pro-actively managing people issues |
Increased resistance; attrition; employee relations issues |
Clear and timely planning of projects with HR to identify potential people risks/issues early and ensure mitigation |
Skills for new/changed jobs or roles are assumed and not tested / assessed |
Training effort insufficient - additional effort required / reduced service level; unmanaged staff expectations |
Close liaison between process/technology teams and change and HR teams to plan and conduct effective and efficient skills assessment and plan/develop training accordingly |
Planned organizational rationalization is not achieved |
Staff are retained without a real need |
Create clear expectations with (HR) managers and regional leadership to ensure that business case targets are understood and will be achieved |
Issue Scenario |
Implication |
Potential Solution |
Change in mind-set, behavior |
HR resistant to "letting go" of certain current responsibilities which may in future be no longer theirs |
Reluctance to change behavior: "temporary" double effort; benefits aren't reached (as quickly) |
Open communication regarding pending changes; visible people strategy to address individuals' needs/ capabilities/ ambitions |
Underestimating the time and effort required to "make the change stick" |
Project resources move on to new things once tangible changes have been achieved; effort to make behavioral change is often misunderstood |
Address behavioral changes during Feasibility Stage; plan and communicate appropriate effort to align the changes with the organization's culture |
Lack of baseline/ metrics/ system to measure progress (how far have we got, how far do we still need to go) |
No clear sense of how much HAS been achieved; lack of momentum; project fatigue |
Conduct current state assessment up front to make project progress visible; refer back to and measure against business case targets and objectives on a regular basis |
Mobilizing the Organization
New behaviors associated with the change need to become part of the culture, i.e. "the way things are done around here.” Only then can the organization sustain the benefits and outcomes of the change.
If the effort it takes to transform the business goes against established values, norms of behaviors, practices and habits, then the effort needed to maintain the desired outcome becomes too difficult to sustain. The people will revert to old habits as soon as the pressure for change diminishes.
Conclusion
Change management is not easy. The ability to make the necessary transitions through a change journey requires a structured and systematic approach and must address both the organizational and individual issues.
Conducting change management activities according to the approach in the seven stages is a combination of iterative and linear processes. Throughout the transition to the new environment, or future state, it is important to assess and monitor progress and adjust the approach appropriately.
In every change project, there will be 'in the moment' interventions that are required to address situational factors and potential risks. This is why is it important that all project team members and especially change agents are fully aware of the agreed change management approach and how their individual work and interactions with the organization influence the overall success of the transition.
Any change management approach should endeavor to build and sustain the levels of ownership, commitment and leadership necessary for the change to succeed.
About the Author
Elizabeth Gordon-Pugh is a senior manager and business process outsourcing specialist at Alsbridge Europe, the premier consulting firm providing unbiased advice on Outsourcing, Shared Services and Offshoring. Elizabeth works on offshoring and sourcing strategies for clients across as range of sectors, with particular emphasis on Financial Services. Her current work is focused on near-shoring solutions which combine the cost advantages of conventional off-shoring with the governance benefits of close geographical proximity. Elizabeth can be contacted on 020 7242 0666 or at elizabeth.gordon-pugh@alsbridge.com. |
