Chapter 1 - Why manage change?
 page 1: As editors of the Change Management Learning Center, we have analyzed
research data from more than 1,000 companies involved in large-scale changes. We talk
daily with project leaders and managers. We write weekly articles and tutorials on
managing the people side of change. We review new books in this field of study. What we
observe more than anything else is the need for easy-to-apply concepts and practical
guidelines for managing change. Yet, up to now, a straightforward introduction to change
management has not been available.
When finished with this book, you will have a basic context for change
management, know why it is important and understand how it is used. As a business manager,
you will be more effective as a change leader and sponsor of change. Specifically, you
will be able to prevent and manage resistance to change, minimize productivity loss, avoid
unnecessary turnover and increase the probability that your business changes produce the
desired results.
page 3: In a general study of
companies implementing major business changes, 327 project leaders,
consultants and managers answered the following question about their
project overall: "If you had the chance to do it again, what would you do
differently?" The most common response was: "Utilize an effective
and planned change management program."
Surprisingly, these study participants did
not emphasize design or technology issues. They did not say
they lacked vision or an understanding of the marketplace.
The most common barrier to success was a lack of change
management. They fell short when managing the people side of
change and encountered:
- Managers who were unwilling to assign the needed resources to the project or would
not allow their representative adequate time to participate
- Managers who filtered out important messages or started negative conversations about
the change
- Employees who became distracted
and lost interest in their current work responsibilities
thereby impacting overall productivity and customers
- Valued employees who left the
organization
- More people taking sick leave or
not showing up for work
- Unforeseen obstacles to the change
that seemingly appeared from nowhere
- A lack of funding for the change
In other words, things did not go exactly as planned. The unexpected happened. Not
managing the people side of change impacted their success and introduced risk into their
projects.
Change management can not only mitigate these business risks, but in many cases avoid
them entirely. Business leaders have the potential to not only manage resistance once it
appears, but to prevent it in the first place. Unfortunately, many business leaders and
project teams do not appreciate their role in managing the people side of change until
after resistance impacts the success of their change.
page 11: The purpose of this book is to bring the real
meaning of change management into focus. Written for project managers, business leaders,
change management practitioners and consultants, this book will provide you with a solid
understanding of the principles and processes around managing change in today’s
competitive environment. The overarching goal is to help you begin the journey of
developing competence in managing change. With change management competence comes success
in business change. One important message we strive to convey with this book is that
change management does not need to be difficult or complicated. In fact the core
principles are common sense and easy to understand.
Chapter 2 - Theories and principles
page 14: Understanding the why makes you better at doing the how. Change management
is not a matter of simply following steps. Since no two changes are exactly alike,
following a recipe for change management is not enough. The right approach will be
situation specific. If you do not understand the why, changes can fail even when standard
processes are followed. Research with hundreds of project teams has shown that a "one
size fits all" approach is not sufficient. To be effective at leading change, you
will need to customize and scale your change management efforts based on the unique
characteristics of the change.
To accomplish this customization, an
understanding of the psychology of change and guiding principles is vital. You will then
be able to work with many change management methodologies and adjust your approach
according to the size of the change, ultimately making your change a success.
The overview of concepts and ideas presented here is not intended to be an
in-depth psychological analysis of change principles. Rather the focus will be on the key
insights from these principles that impact effective application of change management.
Case studies are included including how one million dollars in cash served as a change
management tool.
page 40: Summary
of change principles
- Change agents must be conscious of both a sender’s meaning and a
receiver’s interpretation.
- Employee resistance is the norm, not the exception. Expect some employees to never
support the change.
- Visible and active sponsorship is not only desirable but necessary for success.
- Value systems and the culture of the organization have a direct impact on how
employees react to change.
- The size and type of the change determines how much and what kind of change
management is needed. Just because a change is small does not mean that change management
is not required.
- The "right" answer is not enough to successfully implement change.
- Employees go through the change process in stages and go through these stages as
individuals.
To put these principles into practice, two change management
approaches are necessary as introduced in Chapter 1: the employees’
perspective and the managers’ perspective. Managing change from the
employees’ perspective is called individual change management.
Managing change from the managers’ perspective is called
organizational change management.
The most powerful change management strategies combine organizational
change management techniques with individual change management tools to
create a robust, closed-loop process. Chapter 3 introduces the process
and tools for individual change management. Chapter 4 integrates these
tools with organizational change management techniques resulting in an
overall process for managing change.
Chapter 3 - Individual change management
page 45: Individual change management is the process of providing tools and
training to employees to enable them to manage their personal transition through change.
This includes training for managers and supervisors to equip them with the tools they need
to assist their employees through the change process.
In this chapter, a model for individual change management called ADKAR is
presented. You will have the opportunity to create an ADKAR profile for someone close to
you and find out how a graduating daughter unlocked the door to change for her father.
The chapter will be dedicated to four change
management objectives that can be achieved using this individual change management model:
- Manage personal transitions. Employees can assess where they are in the
change process and identify their own personal barriers to change.
- Focus conversations. Communications with employees about the change can
be separated into the stages of a change model to enable productive and focused
conversations centered around their area of interest or conflict.
- Diagnose gaps. Collective input from employees provides a diagnosis of
why a change may be failing or is not as effective as planned.
- Identify corrective action. The model provides a framework for
identifying corrective actions during the change process.
Chapter 4 - Organizational change management
page 61: Businesses tend to have more managers who believe they have the right
answers to business problems than managers who can effectively implement good ideas. As a
leadership competency, change management is often lacking. The political environment
combined with employee resistance stops many managers from being true leaders of change.
Organizational change management is the
application of a systematic process for managing change across an organization. It is the
top-down, manager’s approach to taking an organization through the transition from
today to a new future state.
In this chapter we will provide an overview of a
comprehensive, research-based change management process. We will discuss how individual
change management tools and organization-wide tools are combined to effectively manage the
change. We will also show how damage control can end up being the focus of the day if
change management is started too late.
Chapter 5 - Change competency
page 83: Throughout this book, the term change management has been used in relation
to managing change with one or more business initiatives. But what happens when change
becomes the norm? Current economic conditions have placed a premium on an
organization’s ability to be flexible, quick to market, scalable and responsive to
unique customer demands.
An organization that faces constant demands to
change and uses effective change management over and over with each new initiative may
experience a fundamental shift in its operations and the behavior of its employees.
Sponsors begin to repeat activities that made the last change successful. Managers develop
skills to support employees through the change. Employees see part of their job as
navigating these new changes. Each level in the organization will have internalized its
role in change and developed the skills and knowledge necessary to react to constant
change. The organization has become ready and able to embrace change; it has developed
change competency.
Chapter 6 - Conclusion
page 91: Change Management: the People Side of Change presents the foundation
needed to effectively manage change.
The book began by creating Awareness of the need for change management and
Desire to use change management techniques to avoid project failures or business
disruptions. Change management is used for one reason – to ensure business success.
Many changes do fail in organizations that do not appreciate and manage the people side of
change. We presented research results that showed change management as the most critical
and important activity for business improvement projects. We discussed the many forms of
employee and management resistance and showed how this resistance can severely impair or
stop a change project. Project teams that introduce change but do not use change
management run the risk of missed project objectives, productivity losses, and sometimes
complete failure.
One of your key responsibilities as a change agent it to be the champion
of change management in your organization. You must demonstrate the importance of actively
managing change and build support within your peers, leaders and reports. You must provide
guidance to senior executives and managers and supervisors. You must help the organization
embrace and thrive during change.
Jeff Hiatt, President and founder of
Prosci
Tim Creasey, Director of Research and Development
Change
Management: the people side of change
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