Organisational change

Introduction

If you would like to learn more about organisational change and earn an accredited change management qualification, make sure to check out these change management courses.

Understanding organisational change

Organisational change comes in many shapes and forms. It might be a new software system or a new way of doing business in response to legal changes. When you introduce any change to an organisation, you will ultimately impact one or more of the following:

• Processes
• Systems
• Organisation hierarchy
• Job roles

Change managers and certification

To successfully manage a change programme, organisations employ educated, certified change managers to offer support via their leadership and development plans.

Change management training and certification help those involved manage their teams over the process of organisational change to ensure a successful outcome.

Project management

Project management is a related discipline that addresses the management of activities required for a business to deliver products, create valuable outputs, and realize benefits.

Getting staff to use these outputs and products (these may be new systems or new processes) and influencing long-term behaviours within an organisation is the job of change managers.

Organisational change process

Effective change management requires change managers to implement effective planning and scheduling and address more human issues.

An effective organisational change process involves applying best practice approaches and strategies. By doing so, you can become an effective agent of change within your organisation. Some of these best practice approaches are described below.

1. Readiness assessments

Change management teams use a wide array of assessments to determine an organisation’s willingness to change.

These might include organisational assessments, culture assessments, employee assessments, or change assessments.

Each provides insight into the challenges and opportunities change managers may face during the change process.

2. Communication and communication planning

The first step in managing change is building awareness and creating a desire for change among employees.

Initial communications are designed to build awareness about the reasons for change and the risk of not changing.

Communication planning begins with a careful analysis of audiences and key information. The change management team must design a communication plan that addresses the needs of frontline employees, supervisors, and executives.

Each audience will need specific information based on their role in the process of change. Change managers will also need to think about the best way of communicating this information.

3. Change management training

Training is key to building the required skills needed to succeed in the future state of business processes. Ensuring that those most affected by change receive the training they need at the right time is a primary role of change management.

Change managers will need to develop training schemes based on the skills and knowledge needed to facilitate the change.

4. Resistance management

Resistance from employees and managers is normal and should be proactively addressed. Change managers need to identify, understand, and help manage resistance.

Resistance management is the process and tools used by change managers to accommodate change in those areas of business most resistant to change.

Resistance can come in many shapes and forms. Most commonly, it can be found in individuals accustomed to the current way of doing things.

Occasionally, change managers may encounter institutional resistance in the form of decision-making hierarchies and existing power structures. These can be a little trickier to navigate, but still possible should change managers follow the principles and procedures outlined in many common change management frameworks.

5. Feedback and corrective action

Employee involvement is an integral part of change management. Change managers must analyse feedback and implement actions based on this feedback to ensure the smooth integration of changes.

6. Post-project review

The final step in the change management process is to review the effects of change, both positive and negative.

Change managers must learn how to adapt their techniques for use in the next change project. This is part of the ongoing, continuous improvement of organisational change management.

Good change managers analyse each component of organisational change to ensure future project success, avoid the loss of productivity and minimize the negative impact of the change.

Organisational change principles

• Active leadership – Change managers must lead by example and exhibit the behaviours and attitudes they expect employees to adopt.
• Structured approaches – Change managers use structured organisational change management processes and models wherever possible.
• Detailed plans – Every change project begins with plans that detail the desired outcomes of organisational change and how best to achieve these.
• Assessment – Change managers must continuously assess how ongoing organisational changes affect the business and adjust their strategy from moment to moment.
• Team involvement – Change managers must strive to involve every layer of business from executives to middle managers and their teams to ensure organisational change initiatives have the required support.
• Open communication – Change managers must consult with staff and ensure each member knows their role in the organisational change initiative.
• Managing resistance – Change managers must identify and overcome common barriers to organisational change.
• Evaluation – Change managers must identify what works and what does not, then use this information to improve organisational change management practices for future projects.

In following these principles, change managers can quickly adjust their approach according to the fluctuating and uncertain nature of organisational change.