Lean Change Management
- Innovative Management-
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” -Peter Drucker
¨Pazani, A.¨
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the word transformation? Maybe it’s change, fear, resistance, innovation, strategy, or uncertainty. This usually happens because people are not biologically adapted to change. Our brain is a primitive entity that merely aims to survive. That’s why people show resistance, precaution and even fear when faced with significant change, and even more so with a transformation that involves adapting to a new context.
In view of the uncertainty of change, the Satir change model or Satir Curve was designed to help us focus on people and the different stages of the status quo during a transformation:
The stages of the Satir change model are based on the idea that you can always improve by means of a new integration of that which you seek to change. These types of models allow people to understand that transformation is not an end, but a dynamic process in continuous evolution. I would even compare it to a living being that needs to adapt depending on its ecosystem.
Now, in general, we will come across the stages and behaviour involved in this process in most teams, which is why it is important to know about Lean Change Management. So, what is Lean Change Management?
Lean Change Management (LCM) is a feedback-driven framework for managing change, and it is made up of the best elements of Agile, Lean Startup, Change Management and Design Thinking. It is mostly based on feedback, and it promotes co‑creation to achieve continuous improvement through experimentation and learning, with new findings and a strong focus on people, so as to create value in a 360° environment. It reaches all levels of an organization in order to bring about change, no matter how big or small, from a digital or organizational transformation to a transformation towards agility.
It all starts with a small idea and leads to a big change.
Lean Change Management is usually used in complex environments where people want to undergo a digital or cultural transformation. And the implementation of this framework, which is very experimental and allows for iterative change, is based on a series of pillars:
- Generating a vision and understanding the purpose of change: This is very important throughout the entire transformation process, as it is a guiding compass.
- Co-creation and intrinsic motivation: The people involved must be committed and motivated to collaborate to achieve change.
- Alignment and impact metrics: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”- Peter Drucker. It is always important to measure progress to know what is getting better and what we can do without.
Using the LCM cycle: The Lean Change Management cycle consists mainly of continuous experimentation based on findings to achieve small improvements.
So, when we are dealing with a situation so complex that being experts in organizational culture no longer guarantees a successful transformation (largely because of the huge amount of work involved in going from “A” to “B” in an organization), it is more practical to think of small, continuous steps to achieve our goal. That is why adopting a framework such as LCM is key when TRANSFORMING an organization.
Regardless of the type of transformation we seek, LCM provides useful tools to achieve the desired goals.
If you want to learn more about this topic, we invite you to take a look at the following link:
