Change management

Change Management
By: Asmita Deshpande

“To fear change is to fear being
challenged.
To fear being challenged is to fear
growth and new possibilities
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Three Levels of Change Management
1. Individual Change Management:
◦ While it is the natural psychological and physiological reaction of humans to resist
change, we are actually quite resilient creatures. When supported through times of
change, we can be wonderfully adaptive and successful.
◦ Individual change management requires understanding how people experience change
and what they need to change successfully. It also requires knowing what will help
people make a successful transition, what messages do people need to hear when and
from whom, when the optimal time to teach someone a new skill is, how to coach people
to demonstrate new behaviors, and what makes changes “stick” in someone’s work.
◦ Individual change management draws on disciplines like psychology and neuroscience to
apply actionable frameworks to individual change.
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2. Organizational/Initiative Change Management :
◦ Organizational change management involves first identifying the groups and people who
will need to change as the result of the project, and in what ways they will need to change.
◦ Organizational change management then involves creating a customized plan for ensuring
impacted employees receive the awareness, leadership, coaching, and training they need in
order to change successfully. Driving successful individual transitions should be the central
focus of the activities in organizational change management.
◦ Organizational change management is complementary to your project management. Project
management ensures your project’s solution is designed, developed and delivered, while
change management ensures your project’s solution is effectively embraced, adopted and
used.
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3. Enterprise Change Management Capability:
• Enterprise change management is an organizational core competency that provides competitive
differentiation and the ability to effectively adapt to the ever-changing world.
• An enterprise change management capability means effective change management is
embedded into your organization’s roles, structures, processes, projects and leadership
competencies. Change management processes are consistently and effectively applied to
initiatives, leaders have the skills to guide their teams through change, and employees know
what to ask for in order to be successful.
• The end result of an enterprise change management capability is that individuals embrace
change more quickly and effectively, and organizations are able to respond quickly to market
changes, embrace strategic initiatives, and adopt new technology more quickly and with less
productivity impact. This capability does not happen by chance, however, and requires a
strategic approach to embed change management across an organization.
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1.Address the “human side” systematically:
• Any significant transformation creates “people issues.” New leaders will be asked to step up,
jobs will be changed, new skills and capabilities must be developed, and employees will be
uncertain and resistant.
• Dealing with these issues on a reactive, case-by-case basis puts speed, morale, and results at
risk. A formal approach for managing change - beginning with the leadership team and then
engaging key stakeholders and leaders - should be developed early, and adapted often as
change moves through the organization.
• This demands as much data collection and analysis, planning, and implementation discipline
as does a redesign of strategy, systems, or processes. The change-management approach
should be fully integrated into program design and decision making, both informing and
enabling strategic direction. It should be based on a realistic assessment of the organization’s
history, readiness, and capacity to change.
Principles of Change Management

2. Start at the top:
• Because change is inherently unsettling for people at all levels of an organization, when it is on
the horizon, all eyes will turn to the CEO and the leadership team for strength, support, and
direction.
• The leaders themselves must embrace the new approaches first, both to challenge and to
motivate the rest of the institution. They must speak with one voice and model the desired
behaviors. The executive team also needs to understand that, although its public face may be
one of unity, it, too, is composed of individuals who are going through stressful times and need
to be supported.
• At one large transportation company, the senior team rolled out an initiative to improve the
efficiency and performance of its corporate and field staff before addressing change issues at
the officer level. The initiative realized initial cost savings but stalled as employees began to
question the leadership team’s vision and commitment. Only after the leadership team went
through the process of aligning and committing to the change initiative was the work force able
to deliver downstream results.
Principles of Change Management contd..

3. Involve every layer:
• As transformation programs progress from defining strategy and setting targets to design and
implementation, they affect different levels of the organization. Change efforts must include plans
for identifying leaders throughout the company and pushing responsibility for design and
implementation down, so that change “cascades” through the organization.
• At each layer of the organization, the leaders who are identified and trained must be aligned to the
company’s vision, equipped to execute their specific mission, and motivated to make change
happen.
• A major multiline insurer with consistently flat earnings decided to change performance and
behavior in preparation for going public. The company followed this “cascading leadership”
methodology, training and supporting teams at each stage. First, 10 officers set the strategy, vision,
and targets. Next, more than 60 senior executives and managers designed the core of the change
initiative. Then 500 leaders from the field drove implementation. The structure remained in place
throughout the change program, which doubled the company’s earnings far ahead of schedule. This
approach is also a superb way for a company to identify its next generation of leadership.

4. Assess the cultural landscape:
• Successful change programs pick up speed and intensity as they cascade down, making it
critically important that leaders understand and account for culture and behaviors at each level
of the organization.
• Companies often make the mistake of assessing culture either too late or not at all. Thorough
cultural diagnostics can assess organizational readiness to change, bring major problems to the
surface, identify conflicts, and define factors that can recognize and influence sources of
leadership and resistance.
• These diagnostics identify the core values, beliefs, behaviors, and perceptions that must be
taken into account for successful change to occur. They serve as the common baseline for
designing essential change elements, such as the new corporate vision, and building the
infrastructure and programs needed to drive change.

Change Management and Global Teams
Executives, often assume that everyone impacted will find the business case so compelling they
will automatically accept the new way of operating. But most people resist change or are
unpredictable. This creates several difficulties for the change management team :
◦ Cultural differences can make it more difficult: Cultural norms are different around the
globe. The change management effort needs to be aware of local customs even with a global
system intended to standardize enterprise operations. Care needs to be taken to be sensitive
to these and other cultural norms.
◦ Communications style: Denmark, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, and U.S. are very direct.
India, Japan, Pakistan, and the Philippines tend to be indirect and believe it is very important
for both parties to save face. In these cultures, individuals avoid saying no, and frequently
mean, “I understand” rather than “I agree” when they say “yes.”
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Change Management and Global Teams contd..
◦ Time orientation: Meetings in Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. start and end when
scheduled. Little time is dedicated to introductions, even when some attendees are meeting
each other for the first time. Spain, Thailand, Brazil, and the Caribbean are less concerned
about time. Things can wait until later in the day or even tomorrow. In such countries it is
impolite to rush into a business discussion; only after the host and the visitor have shared
refreshments and pleasantries can business begin.
◦ Egalitarianism. Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, U.S. have little hierarchy with
almost everyone on a first-name basis. Conversely, hierarchy is very important in India, Iran,
Japan, Saudi Arabia and other countries. Junior staff in these countries invariably defer to the
senior person.
◦ Violating cultural norms can cause great resentment. The best change management teams are
very sensitive to local cultural norms even when the people at headquarters demand a
standard project rollout and standard change management program globally.
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1. Lewin’s change management model :
• Unfreeze your process and perceptions: Upon realizing that your company needs to change, the
first step is to “unfreeze” your current process and take a look at how things are done. Everyone
needs to know what’s wrong with the current process, why it needs to change, what changes are
being suggested, and what benefits those changes will bring.
• Make your changes: Communication, support, and education are vital, as you want to limit any
difficulties in the transition and address problems as soon as they arise. Next, you need to make
sure that everyone has a place or person they can go to for support on the topic.
• Refreeze the new status quo: Once your changes have been deployed, measured, and tweaked
according to feedback, you need to “refreeze” your new status quo. This is vital to any change
management model – everything you’ve done is pointless if old habits resurface. Regular reviews
need to be carried out to check that the new methods are being followed. Rewards should also be
given to those who consistently keep to the new method, and those who make a large effort to
support and uphold the changes.
Change Management Models

Analyze the following seven aspects of your company and how they affect each other:
• Strategy: when assessing your strategy you need to answer questions such as:
 What are your objectives?
 What is your strategy to achieve them?
 How are you staying competitive?
 How can your strategy adapt to the current (and future) situation?
• Structure: Unless your information is accurate for how your company is actually structured, you’re
only neutering the effectiveness of your changes.
Ask yourself:
 How is your company structured (departments, teams, etc.)?
 What is your hierarchy?
 How are your departments organized and managed?
 How do your individual team members organize themselves?
 Who makes the decisions?
 How are they carried out/passed down?
 How does everyone communicate?
 How often does communication occur?
2. The McKinsey’s 7-S model:

• Systems: Here you need to assess your business systems, including official processes, unofficial
shortcuts, rules, and how everything is tracked.
Ask yourself:
 What are the core systems in your business (HR, finance, document management, team
management/meetings, etc.)?
 How are these systems and/or processes stored and used?
 How are they updated (and are they up to date)?
 Are these systems accurate (are they being used word-for-word)?
 How do you track and assess the results of these processes?
 Who has access to these systems?
• Shared values: Linking your values and culture to the changes you make will make them more
agreeable to your work force, who will, in turn, adapt them more readily.
Take a look at:
 What are your core company values?
 What is your company culture?
 What are your teams’ cultures? Are they at odds with the company culture?
 How could you strengthen them in practice?
The McKinsey’s 7-S model contd..

• Style: This stage is all about assessing the management and leadership style used in your
business.
The questions you need to be asking are:
 How are your departments and teams managed?
 How active is this management/leadership?
 Is this style effective, and to what extent?
 Do you inspire competition or collaboration?
• Staff: Take a look at your staff list and assess whether you have the required positions filled,
what gaps you have, and so on.
Take a look at your staff list, their job description, common tasks, and skill set in general to answer:
 What positions do you have to fill?
 What skills do they bring to your company?
 Are you lacking a particular skill set?
• Skills: Finally, it’s time to look at the skills your staff currently have.
Remember: Every element of this model needs to support the others
The McKinsey’s 7-S model contd..

3. The ADKAR model:
• The ADKAR change management model is a bottom-up method which focuses on the
individuals behind the change.
• By focusing on achieving the following five goals, the ADKAR model can be used to
effectively plan out change on both an individual and organizational level:
o Awareness (of the need to change)
o Desire (to participate and support the change)
o Knowledge (on how to change)
o Ability (to implement required skills and behaviors)
o Reinforcement (to sustain the change)

Change management

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