Change Management is the people side of any organisational change - whether you’re fixing problems, responding to market trends, or taking advantage of new opportunities. It focuses on ensuring that your whole team embraces your new direction or adopts and learns to use your new systems and processes.
When your organisation undertakes projects or initiatives to improve performance, seize opportunities or address critical issues, they often require changes; changes to processes, job roles, organisational structures and types and uses of technology.
However, it is actually your organisation's employees who have to ultimately change their behaviour and mindset.
If these individuals are unsuccessful in their personal transitions, the initiative will fail if they don't embrace and learn a new way of working. If employees embrace and adopt the initiative's changes, it will deliver the expected results.
Check out these foundational articles to learn the what and why of Change Management
Today’s organizations are likely to be exposed to several cross-functional changes over a very short period of time. You may even have grown familiar with this type of situation. But just how much do you know about Change Management in action?
There are many existing approaches to dealing with change. Each stresses on a different aspect of the art of managing in uncertain times, usually overemphasizing one level of change (either individual or project-level activities) over another. PROSCI’s method comprehensively connects the dots by “leveraging change management activities to drive individual transitions”. It is not just an emergency kit in the face of urgent changes but a fully structured method that allows for skills transfers across projects and situations. User-friendly and holistic, PROSCI offers a complete set of processes, tools and research-based assessments that project leaders and business managers can apply to specific projects while diffusing internal CM skills.
Written by
Luc De Jaeger
Organizations do not change, people do. Change cannot be prescribed on the basis of a new organigram, a new digital strategy or the acquisition of a company. Likewise, no change will ever happen just because it is scheduled for completion at a certain date. Change is not an event. It is a multiphase and multilevel process. Simply put, it requires actions specifically tailored to a given audience at a given time.
Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians, among others, have long understood what Change Management is. In these countries, a career path in CM leading to the position of Change Management Officer or member of the Executive Committee is entirely possible. Anyone who needs convincing of this has only to take a quick look at LinkedIn. Latin cultures such as ours in Belgium, France, Spain, are clearly lagging behind. In these cultures, Project Management and Change Management have been conflated. And in the best case scenario, CM is conceived of as a mix of communication and training. It certainly includes these aspects, but it is much more than that. CM is a structured and holistic approach that seeks to equip people and the organization as a whole with change management skills, thereby turning organizations into more agile and resilient structures capable of absorbing many complex changes at once. Any efficient framework for managing the change should significantly increase the number of people engaged in the transformation – the so-called critical mass – and accelerate the adoption speed of the new business model as well as the new working routines. It should finally improve team productivity within the new organization by stimulating mindset shifts and expected behaviors (Graph Copyright © Prosci).
Written by
Vincent Halluent
Like it or not, we live in a very fast-changing world. Factors driving organizational changes can be either external or internal. High volatility and rapid fluctuation are powerful market trends in a context of digitalization and uberization. Organizations are striving not only to adapt but also to improve performance and maximize customer value. Doing more with less has been the motto for the last years, one that comes with substantial challenges as it puts additional strain on collaborators.
Stepping into the unknown and getting everyone on board is not an easy task. Uncertainty breeds anxiety and resistance. Left unanswered, this issue translates into even more risks and costs. Resistance is often cited as one of the top obstacles to project success. A compelling message clearly stating the reasons why the organization has to change may pave the way to success. Storytelling is part of the journey.
Crafting a compelling message.
Of course, not one situation is exactly the same as the other. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for a given organization to become more responsive and maintain its competitive edge in an ever-changing landscape. But whatever the drivers for change and the unique characteristics of the transformational challenges at stake – that is to say, your “why” –, a good communication plan is a key element of the transition.
Written by
Luc De Jaeger