Making Workplace Change Happen in Six Steps
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Many organizations muddle through change. How is your organization
progressing at implementing that new accounting system or moving to a new
employee performance management process? Are your managers nodding approval in
public but sabotaging the initiative in private? Are your employees
shell-shocked and just giving up? Do you have no money left over for
post-implementation support?
Whatever change your organization is trying to implement, knowing about and
working through the necessary steps will go a long way to making your change
initiative a success. I have distilled these crucial steps into a process model
for change. The model is called the CHANGE Approach, with each
letter signifying a step in the process. I have summarized below the key
features of each step leading to a successful change transition.
Create tension
With this first step, articulate why change needs to happen and why it needs
to happen within the planned timeframe. Many change programs start with a big
bang, but then peter out ending in a whimper. Other programs struggle to develop
the initial momentum. Think about the immediate force that will get your people
moving in the right direction. This could be impending legislative changes, new
entrants to the market, high levels of customer dissatisfaction, etcetera. Think
also about the impacts of not changing, such as loss of market share or
fines from regulators. To prepare your company for the impending objections,
collect as much data as you can to back your assertions.
Harness support
Next, get on board the key decision makers, resource holders and those with
the potential to subvert your change process. Start by identifying the key
stakeholder groups; the people with something to lose or gain from your change
proposal. Include in your analysis the end receivers of the new products or
services, such as suppliers, customers and end users of software. Also include
internal decision makers and program implementers, such as information
technology staff. Then construct a communication plan that tailors the
communication content and style to each stakeholder group’s preferences. Be sure
to keep the lines of communication with each group open throughout the entire
process.
Articulate
goals
This step involves defining your organization’s desired outcomes in specific
and measurable terms. Doing this removes any ambiguity about your purpose and
draws a clear picture of where you want your organization to be at the end of
the program. Avoid wishy washy goals, such as “Improve product quality”.
Instead, involve your stakeholders in fleshing out meaningful and verifiable
outcomes, such as “Reduce customer complaints by 50% by year end”. Break the
goals down into manageable chunks and set a baseline for comparison. Most
importantly, set up a measurement regime to help keep track of progress.
Nominate roles
With goals clarified and agreed, now assign responsibility for their
attainment to specific inpiduals in your organization. Make sure you
articulate task and outcome responsibilities for people in each of the change
role categories. The categories you need to consider are the change drivers
(such as program sponsor and steering committee), change implementers (such as
project managers), change enablers (such as supervisors) and change recipients
(such as operators). Ensure that everyone involved has the needed skills to
fulfill their responsibilities and implement training where skill gaps have been
identified.
Grow capability
To ensure success, build your organization’s systems and people capabilities
needed for thoroughly bedding in the change. Ensuring people capability means
everyone having the required skills and knowledge to implement the change and
then behaving as per the new way of working. Draw up a formal training plan
following a proper needs analysis and ensure that the training is practical and
focused on behaviors. Make sure that people are well supported back on the job.
On the systems side, ensure that supporting systems are up to the mark. These
systems may include information, human resource and financial systems. Plan for
the necessary systems procurements, implementations and upgrades as part of the
initial change program plan.
Entrench
changes
This final step is about institutionalizing the change to make it “the way we
do things around here”. To prevent backsliding to the old ways, align your
organization’s systems and culture to the new required behaviors. Encouraging
the new way of working may mean building in performance feedback and reward
systems, celebrating some “quick wins”, creating a new look environment,
ensuring managers “walk the talk” and updating recruitment and selection
criteria.
The above process steps have been found by experience to accompany successful
change initiatives. Leaving out one or more of these critical steps is a sure
road to failure. On the other hand, paying attention to all of these steps is no
guarantee of success. Much depends on the skill of the change leaders, the
innate capacity of the organization for change and the intrinsic merit of the
change idea itself. Also, the change steps as I have described them here are not
meant to be followed in an exact linear fashion. Change in organizations is
messy. So, you will sometimes find yourself backtracking to previous steps
before you can move forward again. I wish you well on your change journey as you
apply the CHANGE Approach process to your organization’s change
initiative.
©
Copyright Leslie Allan
About the Author
Leslie Allan is Managing Director of Business Performance Pty Ltd; a
management consulting firm specializing in people and process capability. He has
been assisting organizations for over 20 years, contributing in various roles as
project manager, process consultant and trainer for organizations large and
small.
He is also the author of five books on training and change management and
is the creator of various training tools and templates. Leslie is a member of
the Australian Institute of Management and the Quality Society of Australasia.
He is also a member of the Divisional Council of the Victorian Division of the
Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD). Leslie may be contacted
from his website at
www.businessperform.com
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Article Published/Sorted/Amended on Scopulus 2010-10-08 15:15:24 in Employee Articles
