Introduction
Change management as a discipline has evolved and matured over the past quarter century. We need to prepare, equip and support businesses and organizations going through change to successfully embrace change. Without acceptance, the changes will not be successful and we will not deliver the desired results. Management of Change is an umbrella term used by change management professionals to refer to the different ways to prepare for, support and carry out change after the fact. When planning your change management, you often need to consider who and what is affected in your organization to narrow down your options for your change strategy or initiative.
What is Management of Change?
To move from the current to a desirable future state, using a coordinated and structured approach in collaboration with stakeholders defines Management of Change. The change lifecycle framework includes formulation of change by identifying the change required for the business and whether the business is ready to make it.
- Plan the change by deciding how to deliver the proposed change
- Implementation of the proposed change
- Manage the transition
- Sustain the change by assessing the outcome and measuring the actual benefit out of it
Types of Change Management
Businesses are continuously converting as they grow into new markets, hire or fire personnel, and strategize extra services and products to offer. When thinking about how organizational changes takes place and a way to respond, smash down your modifications into these 5 foremost types of changes.
Organizational Change
Organizational change affects each and every member of the company regardless of their department. This type of change applies to personnel, company technology, policies and over all business strategies. Examples of such types of Changes may be the merging of an entire company or a part of a company with another organization, new policy from the HR department or the entire company is switching to a new office.
Personnel Change
This change occurs whenever an employee joins or leaves the organization. This change can be on a smaller or on a larger scale. Few examples to mention are a member of the team promoted to manage a new department, the top authority of the company resigns, a member of a team is fired for any misconducts, due to the company’s struggle with budget or loss, company lay off its staff, a team member has passed away, etc.
Unexpected Change
You may also call it as unplanned changes that you did not consider in your business strategy. Your organization network was breached and vital information became compromised. Your corporation comes to a decision to replace its safety infrastructure and rules as a result. Natural calamity like Covid 19, hiring an employee as an additional recruitment are some examples to mention.
Remedial Change
These changes are made to compensate for any performance problem in the organization such as if any team member has missed their goal for consecutive months. This change is a support in difficult situations before they become bigger issues. To mention a few more examples related to this type of change, the marketing departments use tools that are expensive, require constant troubleshooting, and rarely used. The department manager decides to scrap the tool in favor of the new solution.
Evolutionary Change
Transformational change is done to change or convert the company’s working module or operations or how it serves its customers. This may include change of product or service, restructure working plan for growth for next 5 years, partnership to expand the company in a new market etc.
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Why Management of Change Is Important?
Following factors decide why Management of Change is important:
1. Lack of clarity on how the change effort aligns with the organizational strategy
Without planning and managing change effectively, it’s easy to be responsive to the business environment without really thinking about why the change is happening and how the company is approaching its goals.
2. Lack of resources to implement change
Speaking of resources, effective change management helps ensure you have the right resources to get the job done. Whether it’s having enough people with the skills and capabilities to effect change, or the right skills to support change, resource planning is key to successful change.
3. Insufficient planning for change to happen effectively
Not only resource planning that needs to happen, but a robust operational change readiness assessment is also important for good change management. This helps identify all the things that need to be done to effectively achieve change. This may include understanding system and technology requirements, identifying necessary process improvements, or employee training and development opportunities.
4. Resistance to change
Following are few reasons, for people are resistant to change:
- Concerns about one’s own competence
- Previous experience with poorly managed change
- Fear of losing control of the status quo
- Anger at having lost face if they helped create the current state
- Real worries about job loss, increased workload
Resistance to change can be frustrating for those trying to move forward, but these are real fears. Addressing the fact that change can be uncomfortable, listening to important issues and taking the time to address them is critical to successful change management.
5. Poor communication strategies
Poor Communication is the common feature of an ill planned change of management. Effective communication is the key to engaging people in change.
Strategies to Implement Management of Change
Above we have seen the factors which can affect the change of management rather, the keys for poor Change Management. Now we shall see the top-notch keys to combat this poor change of management.
Identify and Involve your Stakeholders
The hardest thing in managing change is helping people overcome it. A crucial first step is to identify your key stakeholders. After all, you can’t get people involved if you haven’t identified them first. And you definitely don’t want them to show up and further sabotage your endeavors. Stakeholders can be organizational leadership and functional managers of key departments that need to support change, such as human resources and IT.
Evaluate the Impact of Change
The impact of change is generally seen in 3 ways:
- Process change: What changes are needed in the way people work as a result of this change?
- System change: What changes in our technology infrastructure are needed to support this change?
- Organizational change: how to build an organizational culture that makes this change sustainable?
Help the Organization Prepare for the Change
This may include:
- New branding to signal the change
- Training and development opportunities to build future viability
- Process mapping and optimization activities
- Systems changes
- Activities that begin to move the organizational culture to a place where it supports change
Communicate Change Effectively
At this stage, those leading the change should have a compelling idea of ??why they are making the change and how it will make things better. There should also be a clear roadmap showing how the change needs to be achieved and what needs to be done to prepare the organization.
Make the Change
After all the thinking, planning and preparation, this is the actual implementation of the change. Celebrate the first steps to improve the future of the company. Consider a fun and engaging launch event to build excitement around change. Make sure early benefits are communicated to the company as tangible proof of the positive difference this change will make.
Evaluate & Support the Change
It is important to evaluate the impact of a change management over time. Have the expected benefits been realized? If not, why not and how does this affect your decision making about future changes? Sustaining the change requires ongoing communication about the reasons for the change and perhaps a little reminder that life wasn’t exactly a lap of luxury before.
Change Management Software
There are several options for change management software that can help you through the entire transition process. However, most of the services are unsatisfactory and may not be efficient. Texas Change Management software provides a great platform that handles change management effectively and automates services tailored to your specific needs. Our team is made up of highly skilled and knowledgeable people who can guide you through the entire hassle free change management process. Software driven Change Management process will certainly minimize the risks.
To Sum Up
A well-planned Change Management can decrease the fear of the unknown. Effective change management is about helping people connect with a vision of how the future state is better than the current one. Supporting people to feel ready for change – through proper planning, up-to-date processes and adequate training – reduces the fear of being unprepared. And a good communication strategy helps to engage people and provides feedback opportunities to make sure they feel heard. Change management is continuous process and need effective change management plan with execution tracking, appropriate communication channel and related tasks management to make change management easy and efficient.