Five questions and answers — every change management consultant will stand by

Read the article to understand the what, why, when, and how of change management!

In this post, I have attempted to answer a few key questions to understand change management and provided links to a few sources to learn more about the subject.

The information shared below will certainly benefit HR practitioners, HR business partners, Change managers, also professionals and students willing to explore a career in change management:

1.What is the meaning of change management?

Change management means managing the journey of going from point A to point B. Change can be the result of various internal/external factors. Some of the popular reasons are restructuring, mergers & acquisitions, change in operating model, setting up of an in-house shared service center, digital transformation, or technology adoption such as migration to different ERP, cloud adoption, among others

• All these situations affect numerous stakeholder groups within and outside the organization. Within: Board/senior management, employees, contractors; Outside: Vendors, clients, business partners, other government/legislative bodies among others
• Managing change starts with identifying stakeholders, evaluating if they are for or against the change, their understanding of what is changing, and assessing their influence & commitment levels. This is followed by assessments to gauge the readiness as well as impact levels and using this information to design personalized communications, training, and adoption strategy for each stakeholder group.

2. Is it a new concept? If not, then, why suddenly it has become popular?

The concept of change management is closely tied with the concept of general management. However, as we say change is the only thing that has remained constant for organizations in one form or the other; people have often assumed to rely on their common sense to take care of it.

• Much like “Human Resources”, which has always been there right from the start of management in forms such as industrial welfare, personnel management, etc.; change management has always been there as well. The recognition for this discipline solidified only around the early 2000s, with the realization to have a set of SMEs to work through the change with undivided focus. The objective was also to ensure that not only the ball is not dropped, but also that all stakeholders are able to visualize the change in the way it is intended and not be consumed by ideas spread by the rumor mill.
• The increased awareness has also been the result of several thought leadership articles which laid out the lack of appropriate change management efforts as the top reasons for the failure of varied transformation efforts.

3. Who is responsible for change management?

“Change manager”, “Change Lead”, “Change Process Owner” or “Change SME” is generally responsible for ensuring change is managed in an effective and efficient way. In terms of the organization structure, the role for the change manager sits in the:

1. “IT” function, for organizations going through multi-year tech transformation projects. These can be org. wide ERP changes, undergoing a digital transformation project, etc.
2. “Human Resources” function, sometimes as a dedicated team within the HR function, or as a responsibility of the HR Business Partner. This is common for organizations undergoing changes in their org-related processes/policies/systems such as performance system revamp, organization restructuring exercise, among others. Also, since HR Business Partners work closely as advisers for the business heads, they are logically being looked upon to manage the people side of change for any business/process-related changes.
3. Dedicated divisions such as “Change Management Office” or “Transformation Management Office” can also be seen in many organizations. Generally, this type of model has further sub pillars within the CMO/TMO teams, such that team members can be engaged in round-the-year organization improvement exercises and provide their undivided attention & expertise.

4. What are the best ways or methods to manage change?

• One can start managing change by deciphering and documenting the vision/reason for the change, aligning leaders on the “case for change”, setting expectations with them on their role throughout the change journey (making conditions for “leader-led change”), and enabling them to deliver on these expectations (through support such leadership action plans, etc.)
• Identifying the key stakeholders throughout the organization (or functions impacted), assessing them for their commitment to the change, the impact of the change on them, and their influence of driving change comes next. Regular and seamless stakeholder engagement is as important as stakeholder identification.
• Reaching out to the rest of the organization (employees/ end users) who will be impacted by the change to not only assess their readiness levels but also gauge probable risks. This is followed by understanding the employee preferences for the best way to communicate and upskill/train, enabling them to adopt the change.

The journey of change management always begins with the key goal. It can be the adoption of a new ERP system, or sustenance of new ways of working, or acceptance of new processes which becomes the North Star for the change manager(s) to drive their efforts and correct the approach at regular intervals, as required.

• Not enough emphasis can be laid on how important consistent, transparent, and audience-appropriate communication is throughout the journey. The communications are tailored for different audience groups to keep them informed of key milestones, progress, kill any rumors in the bud, with constant reminders of “What’s in it for me?” messaging and appropriate reward and recognition mechanisms. Also, one-way communication through emails, newsletters, circulars is not enough. They need to be paired with two-way communications through surveys, polls, Q&A sessions, town halls, one-on-one connects with HR/reporting managers/skip-level. This enables continuous feedback and course adjustment.

5. To learn more about change management:

• Many of us have learned important change management models during our graduations/post-graduations. Some of the most appreciated models are Kurt Lewin’s Three Stages Model (unfreeze, move, refreeze); Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, Kubler-Ross Five Stage Model (The Change Curve), Prosci ADKAR® Model among others.
• Prosci and AMPG International offer change management training and certification opportunities for various experience levels. Additionally, many good certifications also exist on MOOC platforms such as Coursera and Udemy.
• Furthermore, almost all the leading consulting organizations have developed their own framework basis empirical evidence and expertise, which are also readily available to refer and learn from.
• Beyond these, there are various thought leadership articles and points of view available by Forbes and HBR, which look at change management for specific transformation reason/industry type or scenario.

Learned something new? Click 👏 to say “thanks!”. If you would like to learn about a particular area, let me know in the comments and I will delve deeper in the next article.

This article first appeared on my LinkedIn profile!