Five Keys to a Successful Change Management

http://www.changefactory.com.au/our-thinking/thoughts-on-the-line/change-management-nutshell/

The ultimate goal of change management is to drive organizational results and outcomes by engaging employees and inspiring their adoption of a new way of working. Whether it is a process, system, job role or organizational structure change (or all of the above), a project is only successful if individual employees change their daily behaviors and start doing their jobs in a new way. This is the essence of change management.

Giving employees a significant part to play in the transition process facilitates new beginnings in five ways:

1. It gives employees new insight into the real problems being faced by the organization as it comes out of past and redefines itself. When employees understand the problems, they are in the business for solutions.
2. By sharing these problems, you align yourself and your employees on one side and the problems on the other. The polarity is not between you and them; you are allies, not adversaries. If relationships has been frayed by change, this is a chance to rebuild them.
3. Giving employees a part brings their firsthand knowledge to bear on solving problems. Joint decisions are not necessarily better than unilateral ones, but including employees makes their knowledge available to the decision maker, whoever that may be.
4. The knowledge thus provided is more than the facts about the problem – it also includes facts about the self-interest of the various parties in the situation. Outcomes work bet if they serve the self-interest of those involved. Without that knowledge, the results are likely to be solutions that, however technically or economically satisfactory, run afoul of human respect.
5. Finally, everyone who plays a part is implicitly implicated in the outcome. That is, after all, how democracy works: you vote, and your vote is an implicit promise to abide by the results. Although actual votes are rare in organizations, this essential strength of democracy is still attainable and advantageous. As in the political arena, it is more important that people accept the solution, whatever it is, than that it is the ideal solution. In most cases, excellence is about seven parts commitment and three parts strategy.

Plans are immensely reassuring to most people, not just because they contain information but because they exist. The existence of the plan sends a message: somebody is looking after s, taking our needs seriously, and watching out so we don’t get lost along the way.

But even the best-laid plans leave a troubling doubt in the minds of some people. You need to give people a role in dealing effectively with the change process itself. The easiest way to do this is to be sure that everyone has a part on planning, problem solving, and implementing the change.