Three Big “How”s of Change Management

Change capability is one of the strategic capabilities which underpin successful execution and move the organization from efficiency to agility.

Change becomes fundamentally difficult in most organizations because it is treated as something distinct from running the business, evolving performance and increasing results over time. There are many reasons for changes, and perhaps, even more, reasons for resistance to changes as well: It may be a shift in power, a need to learn new skills, to manage a different team, to adopt the new way (mindset, methodology or process, etc) to do things, etc. Besides three big “WHY” about changes, three big “WHAT”s about changes, and here are three big “HOW” about Change Management?  

How much do senior leaders need to support Change Management? Change Management is a leadership game, and leadership involvement is a must. More often than not, however, leaders do support the change but radically under-estimate the importance of their active and visible support for the change. Many seem to believe that if they make the decision to implement the change then the rest can be left to the project team. Nothing is further from the truth The weak support from senior leaders is the most common reason for failure. Sometimes key leaders actually do not support a change and actively undermine that change. More often than not, however, leaders do support the change but radically under-estimate the importance of their active and visible support for the change. Senior leaders need to gain an in-depth understanding of changes, especially at the strategic level.

How to handle change inertia with empathy? Organizations are a huge melting pot of various personalities and depending on the generation the comprised employees belong to, 'change' is probably the last thing on their minds, regardless of how enthusiastic the management team is. People often resist changing because they don't understand how it is relevant to them. Looking at the change in a way that addresses empathy. Resistance is the outcome of an inward mindset. Empathy is the key as it allows each person to get where the other person may be at. What they are experiencing and how they see it through their eyes. Sometimes it helps to get people talking about the positive change they have experienced and what made it positive then, how they can use that to make small transformations towards the new goals. As Leaders, empathy is the key to great leadership allowing you to speak to a person from the space they stand not where you think they should be.

How do you well tune the 'Change Management' process? Change Management always fails when management thinks they get all the answers, and they come up with a plan in a vacuum and try to sell it. First of all, Change Management is all about balancing the main elements impacting change: People (the most important one), Strategies, Processes/ Procedures and IT. It’s important to have the team own a process by bringing them in early and getting their involvement in creating the process. Change Management is all about balancing the following main elements impacting change: People (the most important one), Strategies, Procedures and IT. And you have to maintain and fix any imbalance in those elements by establishing a committee involving the management in the HR, IT and operations. Secondly, you want to emphasize the Human Resources role in Change Management because people are always considered as the real axle for the organizational movement. In order to execute a successful Change Management process, there is a need to delegate roles and responsibilities of the process, and have a strong honest communication plan in place. Make each individual feel responsible for the success of the plan, engage them actively and make sure that your new proposal solves their current problems, and provide a better working environment. During the whole process, make sure that all staff is aware of the plan/process, timely updated, and responsible for something.

Change capability is one of the strategic capabilities which underpin successful execution and move the organization from efficiency to agility. Thus, the change should be part of a company’s culture and should be stimulated by the top management, it is resulting in a flexible and dynamic organization able to adapt to new and unexpected situations and market demand and execute strategy more seamlessly.