Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes.
CHANGES IN YOUR WORKPLACE
Gone are the days of one large change every 36 months. Organizations are facing faster, more complex, more interdependent and more cross-functional change than ever before. Change is happening in your organization. Every day, new initiatives and projects are launched to improve performance, increase profits, and enhance your competitive advantage. You could be implementing technology to enable a more mobile workforce, reengineering a process to ensure regulatory compliance or pursuing an enterprise-wide transformation around customer experience.
There is a common denominator for achieving the intended outcomes of your initiative: people. Your initiatives impact how individual people do their work: their processes, job roles, workflows, reporting structures, behaviors and even their identity within the organization.
THE PEOPLE SIDE OF CHANGE
Project teams often ignore the people side of change as they focus on the technical aspects of their solutions - the people side would somehow adjust - or so the seems the assumption. If the people impacted by a project do not support and engage in the change, then the particulars of that change, including new processes, systems or job roles, would not be realised and the project/business objectives are not met.
"Implementing an excellent business change without employee engagement is like building a great ship and having no crew. You might stay afloat for a while but you may never leave port"
Change management is the approach to driving adoption and usage so initiatives deliver expected results and outcomes.
THE PROSCI ADKAR MODEL
Organization done change, people change, one person at a time. The ADKAR Model presents a framework for understanding and effective change at an individual level. The model is then extended to the organization to show how the business can increase the likelihood of implementing their change successfully.
-
AWARENESS - of the need for the change
-
DESIRE - to support and participate in the change
-
KNOWLEDGE - of how to change
-
ABILITY - to implement required skills and behaviors
-
REINFORCEMENT - to sustain the changes
THE TOOLS
While some people might view change management as just communication or training, Prosci’s research has shown that change management is most effective when it is a holistic set of tools aimed at supporting individuals through change. In Prosci’s change management methodology, that set of tools is called the five levers:
-
Communication Plan
-
Sponsorship Roadmap
-
Coaching Plan
-
Training Plan
-
Resistance Management Plan