Prosci and the Change Management Learning Center are proud to
release this tutorial about the importance of the coaching plan in your overall change
management methodology. There are five critical change management plans, but the
coaching plan has the greatest impact on moving your organization successfully through the
ADKAR model. If you are unfamiliar with the ADKAR model read the ADKAR tutorial.
This tutorial will provide information on:
- what is a coaching plan
- why it is so important according to best practices research
- how to start developing your coaching plan
What is a coaching plan?
Your coaching plan defines how you will support managers and
supervisors during the change and how they will interact with front-line employees.
The objective is to fully enable these managers and supervisors to:
- sponsor the change
- support their employees during the change
- support their employees in the new, changed environment
Why is coaching so important?
Coaching is a vital part of successful change management. The 2005
Best Practices in Change Management Report identified employee and manager resistance
as the number one obstacle to success. The influence that a supervisor or manager
has on front-line employees is immeasurable.
Coaching during change management provides a venue for one-on-one
and group meetings between employees and the people they trust the most, their immediate
supervisors. This environment allows employees to ask questions and receive
clarification about the change and to comment on their specific worries and concerns about
change. It is also an opportunity to gather feedback from the front-line employees
about the change and the change management efforts.
The 2005 Best Practices in
Change Management Report provides data showing that employees are most impacted by
messages from the CEO/senior leadership (this is addressed in the sponsorship roadmap, one
of the 5 change management plans) and their immediate supervisor or manager.
Effective coaching can alleviate many of the reasons for resistance and build support for
the change throughout the organization.
What are the steps to developing a coaching plan?
- Enable supervisors and managers to be effective change management coaches
Prepare a change management program and deliver this program to supervisors. Several
key areas should be addressed with supervisors:
- Why is supervisor involvement important in change management?
- How do I talk with my employees about change?
- How do I coach my group through a change?
- How do I coach individual employees through change?
- What are the expectations for coaching in this project (frequency, timelines, agendas,
etc.)?
Low cost solutions for manager change management material can be
found by calling the Change Management Learning Center at 970-203-9332.
- Develop group coaching activities and timeline
Supervisors should prepare for and meet with their groups to discuss the change. Key
messages should be provided by the change management team.
Group coaching during a change is an effective medium for distributing information and
gathering feedback. It can help to build support for change and ease concern and
resistance. It is also an effective method for teaching employees about the ADKAR model
and how to use it as they go through change.
- Develop individual coaching activities and timeline
Individual coaching sessions are one-on-one opportunities for supervisors and managers
to work on change with specific employees. The face-to-face messages received are
important as employees work through the change and try to perform in the changed
environment.
The ADKAR model provides managers and supervisors with a tool to effectively coach and
manage individuals during change initiatives. The tool helps to determine:
At what stage in the change process is each employee?
How can I help my employees through the change process?
The ADKAR model can prevent you from focusing on the wrong things with employees at the
wrong time. Each individual will be in different stages in ADKAR. Individual coaching is
the process of assessing where each individual is in ADKAR and developing actions to help
the employee move through the change. For more information about ADKAR, read
the
ADKAR tutorial series.
For complete template and assessment tools on coaching see the
Change
Management Toolkit or the online version Change Management Pilot.
Summary
Increasing your change management impact is something every change
management team is looking to do. So often we, as change managers, overlook and
forget the importance of coaching in our overall change management plan. Coaching is
an effective means to create desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement in your
front-line employees. Having front-line employees that desire to participate and
support the change, have the knowledge on how to change, have the ability to implement
required skills and behaviors for the change, and receive the reinforcement to sustain the
change are invaluable to the success of a project.
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