Change managementFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Change management is an approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations to a desired future state. [1] In some project management contexts, change management refers to a project management process wherein changes to a project are formally introduced and approved.[2]

ContentsHistoryEverett Rogers wrote the book Diffusion of Innovations in 1962. There would be five editions of the book through 2003 - during which time the statistical study of how people adopt new ideas and technology would be documented over 5000 times. The scientific study of hybrid corn seed adoption led to the commonly known groupings of types of people: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards. In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote the book On Death and Dying, which addressed the various stages of grief. In 1974, Daryl Conner founded Conner Partners and in 1993, he wrote the book, Managing at the Speed of Change. In this seminal work, Conner penned the analogy "burning platform" based on the 1988 Piper off shore oil rig fire (North Sea off the coast of Scotland).[3] Conner Partners influenced the large Management Consulting firms over the 80s and 90s as firms needed to understand the human performance and adoption techniques to help ensure technology innovations were absorbed and adopted as best as possible.Linda Ackerman Anderson states in Beyond Change Management that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, top leaders, growing dissatisfied with the failures of creating and implementing changes in a top-down fashion, created the role of the change leader to take responsibility for the human side of the change.[4] The first "State of the Change Management Industry" report in the Consultants News was published in February 1995.[5]

McKinsey consultant Julien Phillips first published a change management model in 1982 in the journal Human Resource Management, though it took a decade for his change management peers to catch up with him.[6]

Marshak[7] credits the big 6 accounting firms and management consulting firms with creating the change management industry when they branded their reengineering services groups as change management services in the late 1980s.In 2010, based on her book "RIMER Managing Successful Change", Christina [8] Dean, Managing Director of Uniforte Pty Ltd, established Change Management as a formal vocation in Australia by writing the Australian National Competency Standards in Organisational and Community Change Management, which led to the developed of the first Australian Diploma of Organisational Change Management, and which is an internationally recognized qualification.

ApproachOrganizational change is a structured approach in an organization for ensuring that changes are smoothly and successfully implemented to achieve lasting benefits. In the modern business environment, organizations face rapid change like never before. Globalization and the constant innovation of technology result in a constantly evolving business environment. Phenomena such as social media and mobile adaptability have revolutionized business and the effect of this is an ever increasing need for change, and therefore change management. The growth in technology also

has a secondary effect of increasing the availability and therefore accountability of knowledge. Easily accessible information has resulted in unprecedented scrutiny from stockholders and the media. Prying eyes and listening ears raise the stakes for failed business endeavors and increase the pressure on struggling executives. With the business environment experiencing so much change, organizations must then learn to become comfortable with change as well. Therefore, the ability to manage and adapt to organizational change is an essential ability required in the workplace today.Due to the growth of technology, modern organizational change is largely motivated by exterior innovations rather than internal moves. When these developments occur, the organizations that adapt quickest create a competitive advantage for themselves, while the companies that refuse to change get left behind. This can result in drastic profit and/or market share losses.Organizational change directly affects all departments from the entry level employee to senior management. The entire company must learn how to handle changes to the organization.When determining which of the latest techniques or innovations to adopt, there are four major factors to be considered:

1. Levels, goals, and strategies2. Measurement system3. Sequence of steps4. Implementation and organizational change

Regardless of the many types of organizational change, the critical aspect is a company’s ability to win the buy-in of their organization’s employees on the change. Effectively managing organizational change is a four-step process:

1. recognizing the changes in the broader business environment.2. developing the necessary adjustments for their company’s needs.3. training their employees on the appropriate changes.4. winning the support of the employees with the persuasiveness of the

appropriate adjustments.As a multidisciplinary practice that has evolved as a result of scholarly research, organizational change management should begin with a systematic diagnosis of the current situation in order to determine both the need for change and the capability to change. The objectives, content, and process of change should all be specified as part of a Change Management plan.Change management processes may include creative marketing to enable communication between changing audiences, as well as deep social understanding about leadership’s styles and group dynamics. As a visible track on transformation projects, Organizational Change Management aligns groups’ expectations, communicates, integrates teams and manages people training. It makes use of performance metrics, such as financial results, operational efficiency, leadership commitment, communication effectiveness, and the perceived need for change to design appropriate strategies, in order to avoid change failures or resolve troubled change projects.Successful change management is more likely to occur if the following are included:[citation needed]

1. Benefits management and realization to define measurable stakeholder aims, create a business case for their achievement (which should be continuously updated), and monitor assumptions, risks, dependencies, costs, return on investment, dis-benefits and cultural issues affecting the progress of the associated work

2. Effective communications that informs various stakeholders of the reasons for the change (why?), the benefits of successful implementation (what is in it for us, and you) as well as the details of the change (when? where? who is involved? how much will it cost? etc.)

3. Devise an effective education, training and/or skills upgrading scheme for the organization

4. Counter resistance from the employees of companies and align them to overall strategic direction of the organization

5. Provide personal counseling (if required) to alleviate any change-related fears6. Monitoring of the implementation and fine-tuning as required

Change management - the systems and tools for managing change

Scope of change managementThis tutorial provides a summary of each of the main areas for change management based on Prosci's research with more than 900 organizations in the last 7 years.The purpose of defining these change management areas is to ensure that there is a common understanding among readers. Tools or components of change management include:

Change management process Readiness assessments Communication and communication planning Coaching and manager training for change management Training and employee training development Sponsor activities and sponsor roadmaps Resistance management Data collection, feedback analysis and corrective action Celebrating and recognizing success

Change management processThe change management process is the sequence of steps or activities that a change management team or project leader would follow to apply change management to a project or change. Based on Prosci's research of the most effective and commonly applied change, most change management processes contain the following three phases:Phase 1 - Preparing for change (Preparation, assessment and strategy development)Phase 2 - Managing change (Detailed planning and change management implementation)Phase 3 - Reinforcing change (Data gathering, corrective action and recognition)

It is important to note what change management is and what change management is not, as defined by the majority of research participants.Change management is not a stand-alone process for designing a business solution.Change management is the processes, tools and techniques for managing the people-side of change.Change management is not a process improvement method.Change management is a method for reducing and managing resistance to change when implementing process, technology or organizational change.Change management is not a stand-alone technique for improving organizational performance.Change management is a necessary component for any organizational performance improvement process to succeed, including programs like: Six Sigma, Business Process Reengineering, Total Quality Management, Organizational Development, Restructuring and continuous process improvement.Change management is about managing change to realize business results. 

Readiness assessmentsAssessments are tools used by a change management team or project leader to assess the organization's readiness to change. Readiness assessments can include organizational assessments, culture and history assessments, employee assessments, sponsor assessments and change assessments. Each tool provides the project team with insights into the challenges and opportunities they may face during the change process.

Assess the scope of the change, including: How big is this change? How many people are affected? Is it a gradual or radical change?

Assess the readiness of the organization impacted by the change, including: What is the value- system and background of the impacted groups? How much change is already going on? What type of resistance can be expected?

Assess the strengths of your change management team. Assess the change sponsors and take the first steps to enable them to effectively lead the

change process. Communication and communication planningMany managers assume that if they communicate clearly with their employees, their job is done. However, there are many reasons why employees may not hear or understand what their managers are saying the first time around. In fact, you may have heard that messages need to be repeated 6 to 7 times before they are cemented into the minds of employees. That is because each employee’s readiness to hear depends on many factors. Effective communicators carefully consider three components: the audience, what is said and when it is said. For example, the first step in managing change is building awareness around the need for change and creating a desire among employees. Therefore, initial communications are typically designed to create awareness around the business reasons for change and the risk of not changing. Likewise, at each step in the process, communications should be designed to share the right messages at the right time. Communication planning, therefore, begins with a careful analysis of the audiences, key messages and the timing for those messages. The change management team or project leaders must design a communication plan that addresses the needs of front-line employees, supervisors and executives. Each audience has particular needs for information based on their role in the implementation of the change.  Coaching and manager training for change managementSupervisors will play a key role in managing change. Ultimately, the direct supervisor has more influence over an employee’s motivation to change than any other person at work. Unfortunately, supervisors as a group can be the most difficult to convince of the need for change and can be a source of resistance. It is vital for the change management team and executive sponsors to gain the support of supervisors and to build change leadership. Individual change management activities should be used to help these supervisors through the change process. Once managers and supervisors are on board, the change management team must prepare a coaching strategy. They will need to provide training for supervisors including how to use individual change management tools with their employees.  Training and training developmentTraining is the cornerstone for building knowledge about the change and the required skills. Project team members will develop training requirements based on the skills, knowledge and behaviors necessary to implement the change. These training requirements will be the starting point for the training group or the project team to develop training programs.  Sponsor activities and sponsor roadmapsBusiness leaders and executives play a critical sponsor role in change management. The change management team must develop a plan for sponsor activities and help key business

leaders carry out these plans. Sponsorship should be viewed as the most important success factor. Avoid confusing the notion of sponsorship with support. The CEO of the company may support your project, but that is not the same as sponsoring your initiative. Sponsorship involves active and visible participation by senior business leaders throughout the process. Unfortunately many executives do not know what this sponsorship looks like. A change agent's or project leader's role includes helping senior executives do the right things to sponsor the project.  Resistance managementResistance from employees and managers is normal. Persistent resistance, however, can threaten a project. The change management team needs to identify, understand and manage resistance throughout the organization. Resistance management is the processes and tools used by managers and executives with the support of the project team to manage employee resistance. Data collection, feedback analysis and corrective actionEmployee involvement is a necessary and integral part of managing change. Managing change is not a one way street. Feedback from employees is a key element of the change management process. Analysis and corrective action based on this feedback provides a robust cycle for implementing change.  Celebrating and recognizing successEarly successes and long-term wins must be recognized and celebrated. Individual and group recognition is also a necessary component of change management in order to cement and reinforce the change in the organization. The final step in the change management process is the after-action review. It is at this point that you can stand back from the entire program, evaluate successes and failures, and identify process changes for the next project. This is part of the ongoing, continuous improvement of change management for your organization and ultimately leads to change competency. SummaryThese eight elements comprise the areas or components of a change management program. Along with the change management process, they create a system for managing change. Good project managers apply these components effectively to ensure project success, avoid the loss of valued employees, and minimize the negative impact of the change on productivity and a company's customers.