What is Change Management?
Management ‘gurus’ make a fortune teaching manager how to deal with change. “To change one’s organization, one must change one’s inner being.”, selling countless books and costly implementation systems. “Your platform is burning! 8 steps to escape it alive”. But ultimately, it comes down to this. In our globalized and interconnected economy, organizations deal with continually shifting:
Market conditions
Customer demands
Technologies
Input costs
Competition
Organizations must adapt… or die. They must continually re-evaluate their business model, and ask questions about the appropriateness of the strategy and tactics they are employing to reach their long term goals. “Change Management” is thoughtfully and carefully re-aligning the organization based on the answers.
But… the problem with change is that people who have been doing things a certain way for a long time, don’t like to suddenly be told “you have to do things differently!”. Change is usually accompanied by:
Uncertainty
Poor communication
Power-plays
Chaos
But there are ways to manage change successfully! If you are managing a change, ensure you:
Communicate the threat of not changing.
Involve your team in decision making (when possible)
Minimize uncertainty.
Celebrate successes in moving towards the goal.
Keep explaining the reasons to change.
When there’s an information vacuum, people often assume their managers are plotting terrible things. So be as transparent as possible. And finally, remember that change is less scary when you’re driving it. Consider your passengers.