Getting Change Management right

Change Management helps organizations stay relevant with the changing economic landscape. Change process is so important that it has saved many top organizations from extinction & many companies ceased to exist just because they were not able to get this process right. Despite that, over 70% change management initiatives fail to deliver desired results. This is an alarmingly high percentage for a crucial management process. As against general belief, it is possible to manage change well and predict results. Some guiding principles for managing change well are: 

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Establishing a credible need for Change

First step in a change management process should be to establish a clear need or reason for change. This not just helps in the communication process at later stages but also aids transparent decision making process by leadership. How a change in process, product, platform, organizational structure or culture will help in achieving overall objectives of the organization and what benefits will be derived from the change should be clearly established.

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Getting  management to fully commit to change​

Change processes often fail to deliver when it lacks full backing of the management. Once a need for change is established, management should be taken on board and made to fully commit to the change. Success of a change project is often directly proportional to the belief leaders show in that change. Good leaders have this ability to remove the noise around bottlenecks and hurdles and visualize the end results.

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Importance of communication

Decision making on the change process is made at the top but the actual process often runs down to the lowest levels in an organization. People often make this mistake of not emphasising enough on communication before or during a change process. Sending out an email or a formal announcement may not be enough. Effort should be made to get a buy in from all stakeholders and the need & benefits of change should be communicated clearly.

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Removing barriers to change

It's human to resist change and It's natural that many change efforts fail due to employee resistance. People like stability & predictability. A two way dialogue is important to help get people buy into the idea of change. Clear responsibilities & ownership should be assigned across the organization & line managers should be taken on board as direct reporting managers have the biggest influence on people. Other barriers to change should be identified and clearly accounted & planned for.

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Monitoring & flexibility

Any change process takes time to deliver results and the urgency or motivation for change can die down during this period. There can also be new surprises throughout the process. Regular monitoring helps the management keep track of the progress & feeds them with inputs basis which adjustments can be made in the process. There has been a big change in the Change process itself over the years and flexibility - ability to make adjustments is key to delivering successful change projects at a time when the economic landscape is changing faster than ever.

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