Change Management

Preparing and developing a change-ready culture

Whilst change is inevitable, it must be managed proactively to ensure a smooth transition to a new system or solution.
There is a lot more to Change Management than organisations initially think, and often this is realised part-way through a project.

There are many aspects to consider to help your business adopt and develop a change-ready culture when a new system or solution is in play:

Change Management Process Review
Readiness Assessments
Communication and Communication Planning
Coaching and Manager Training
Training and Development
Sponsor Activities and Roadmaps
Resistance Management
Data collection, feedback analysis and corrective action
Celebrating and recognising success

Change Management Process

First of all, it’s important to determine what change management is and what it is not.
To establish this, it’s essential to review the below statements:

Change Management is...

The processes, tools, and techniques for managing the people-side of change.
A method for reducing and managing resistance to change when implementing process, technology, or organisational change.
A necessary component for any organisational performance improvement process to succeed, including programs like: Six Sigma, Business Process Re-engineering, Total Quality Management, Organisational Development, Restructuring and continuous process improvement.
About managing change to realise business results.

Change Management is not...

A stand-alone process for designing a business solution.
A process improvement method.
A stand-alone technique for improving organisational performance.

Readiness Assessments

The key to getting started is to carry out an organisational Readiness Assessment, this determines how big the change is and what the impact of that change will be. This assessment will then help determine which of the following items are required.

It will also give the opportunity to develop a change-ready culture by identifying change champions and allowing them to take the first steps to enable them to effectively lead the change.

Communication and Communication Planning

Creating a communication plan for the business.
Reviewing the target audience and discussing different types of communication channels.
Executing the communication plan as per agreed timelines and channels.

Coaching and Manager Training

Identifying change champions
Preparing a coaching strategy
Providing training for change champions
Helping change champions promote the business changes

Training and Development

Identifying a training needs analysis
The creation of training material and courses
Training the project team and any other colleagues

Sponsor Activities and Roadmaps

Business leaders and executives play a critical sponsor role in change management.

We help you create a plan for sponsor activities and help business members to 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.

Many executives do not know what this sponsorship should look like. A change agent or project leader’s role includes helping senior executives do the right things to sponsor the project.

Resistance Management

We help identify resistance from employees and managers and help you put in place a way to manage and hopefully remove this resistance.

Data Collection, Feedback Analysis and Corrective System

Employee involvement is a necessary part of managing change and 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. We can help create feedback questionnaires or feedback sessions and provide analysis as required.

Celebrating and Recognising Success

We help provide feedback on short-term and long-term wins.

The final step in the change management process is the after-action review. It is when you should stand back, 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 organisation.