Organisational change management

Introduction

What is organisational change management?

Organisational change management (OCM) is concerned with implementing change management at an organisational level. Whenever change occurs within an organisation it impacts the individuals within it.

Organisational change management is a body of professional best practice which focuses on change projects. These projects can include changing roles, structures, culture and the business as a whole. Within organisational change management, teams are coached to align the transitions of their projects to the organisation.

Professional change managers often equip themselves with an understanding of these change management best practices by gaining professional change management certification, often by attending one of these change management courses.

Organisational change management frameworks

The best frameworks, or models for organisational change management are:

1. Lewin’s model
2. Kotter’s model
3. Senge’s model

Organisational change management strategies

Leadership engagement

You need to start from the top of the organisation and frequently engage with its leaders. You can follow these steps to engage with leaders:

• Make a list of responsibilities for each leader;
• Ask for an initial meeting;
• Prepare a vision statement and strategy for discussion;
• Create a leadership committee for the OCM project;
• Set up periodic meetings with the committee to report the progress;

Governance enforcement

Organisational change management needs effective governance. Governance rules ensure that the change initiative is backed up from the project sponsor. If effective governance doesn’t apply for OCM, other priorities will compete against the change plan. You don’t want the OCM team taking the back seat!

Project team coordination

The OCM team must coordinate with the project manager and the project team. Aligning activities and managing processes with theirs is important to gain the support you need.

Communication

Communicating plans early is one of the core strategies of OCM in companies. You need to ask yourself:

• Who needs to know?
• When do they need to know?
• What form, format, and quantity can they best receive the information?

Awareness and participation

One of the OCM team’s task is to spread awareness about the change. It helps to gain a sense of ownership from employees and leaders and hence, more participation. Planning a workshop or training session will help spread the message.

An understanding of change impacts

Change will face resistance. So, it’s crucial to understand the nature of the forces you are suggesting. Because it allows you to make proper decisions to help people adapt to them. In addition, you can guide individuals about how to cope with the changes.

Knowledge transfer

For change to be successful, you need to create a knowledge transfer plan. Types of knowledge transfer plans can include:

• Interactive FAQs;
• Templates;
• Desktop procedures;
• Process maps;
• Coaching;
• Training classes.

Feedback encouragement

You need to actively seek out the resistance. Also, approach people to ask for feedback. In this way, you can work to understand the source of concern. Positive or negative feedback helps to enhance the OCM plan.

Reward system creation

Create an incentive structure for staff who choose to participate in the change initiative. People then contribute successfully at a much greater level. Recognising individuals across the organisation by itself is a reward.

Success measurement and failure evaluation

Install mechanisms and tools that can measure success and report on them at an agreed-upon frequency. You can deal with, learn from, and react to a failure that has been measured. Success stories become best practices for the enterprise.