In the planning phase, we identify the what, who and why for change.  In the making the change phase, we execute the communication, measure the key performance indicators (KPIs) and make continuous improvements based on the measurements.

The final phase of our organizational change management approach occurs when the majority of the change has occurred.  At this point you are making sure that the changes are reinforced and maintained, and become ingrained in the way the organization works.

Measuring

• Measurement and tracking of the change continues
• Ongoing measurement may indicate that some additional tweaks to the People, Process and Technology elements are necessary and need to be made.

Communication

• Continue communicating the change and about the success of the change.

 Celebrate

• Finally, don’t forget to celebrate and reward your champions and employees

Even the best planned and executed change efforts can fail, if the messages and behaviors are not reinforced.  How have you developed an OCM approach for your organization and what you did to reinforce the change?

Assuming a well-executed Planning Phase, you would have identified who will be affected, what will change, and how they will change.  Move forward with these steps, to make the change:

Communication

•  Communicating about the “Case for Change” and following the Stakeholder Engagement and Communications Plans,

Measurement

•  Tracking, Measuring & Communicating the progress of the change (using KPIs, gap analyses, Dashboards),

 Managing People/Skills Issues

•  Working with HR to make sure that job descriptions are updated, hiring plans are developed, and training is arranged.

 Continuous Improvement

•  And finally, it is critical to ensure that any feedback is funneled to the right individuals that can resolve issues or tweak the change effort…(an example of a tweak might be around training needs – more or less training than originally planned).

This phase is typically the longest and needs to be executed repetitively throughout the effort to ensure consistent communication, measurement and improvement.  Note that making the change is necessary but not sufficient, you will need to continue to reinforce the change to ensure adoption. 

What elements are most critical to you when your organization is in the throes of making a change?

Key IT projects fail more often then they succeed.  The top factors of project failure relate to leadership, project vision, organizational communication, distrust of change, and feelings of non-involvement.  In short, people issues.  Organizational Change Management (OCM) is a critical success factor for large enterprise-wide initiatives.  OCM is a framework to manage the effect and perception of changes brought about by the initiative to organizational roles and responsibilities.  In other words, OCM address the human side of change.
 
Organizational Change Management has to be managed as effectively as the project itself.  We prescribe a dedicated change team for critical projects that have high impact. The change team should ideally include the following roles:

• Change Leader – Act as the overall program manager of the change effort
• Change Manager(s) – Manage change for individual functional areas
• Change Analyst(s) – Prepare, schedule and distribute change communications
• Subject Matter Experts – Possess specific tool and framework expertise and help train employees

 
OCM for a project must be fully integrated into the overall project governance so that project managers can take appropriate action regardless of whether issues are related to the deployment of technology or to ensuring employees are aware of and supporting the change effort.
 
A dedicated change team:

• Increases the probability of project success
• Manages the people side of change
• Provides a single point of accountability & responsibility
• Complements project efforts

 
How do you perform the functions of OCM in your projects? 

Are you about to undertake a transformation or organizational change effort and are wondering how to manage the change? 

Here are some simple, yet critical, elements for any effective organizational change management approach, tailored to your organization.
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The initial phase of our framework is the PLANNING PHASE; it is the first and most important phase of your entire approach.Thorough planning is key to creating an effective change management framework that will work for your change effort.  During this phase you will ask yourself:  Who will be affected, what will change, and how will they change?

WHO: Identify your Stakeholders.

• Stakeholders are anyone affected or impacted by the anticipated change

WHAT: Understand what is changing and WHY? 

• Do you have a “Case for Change”?

Your Case for Change needs to clearly articulate to the stakeholders why the change is needed, how it will affect them, and what the expected benefits are?

• What will change for People, Processes & Technology?

Document the current state, document the expected future state and perform gap analyses: what is going to change?  This is the way you will track and report the progress of the change effort – from the current state to the future state.  Identify or develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), tailored to measure the unique changes you expect.
For the “People” component, look at: roles & responsibilities, skill sets, training needs, job category and salary changes.  For “Processes”, understand what will change and how – how will the new processes be documented, and how will your stakeholders be trained on the new processes? And, for “Technology” – look at any new or changed technology and understand how it will affect the processes and the people.

HOW: How will the change actually be made?

• Change Leaders (Champions of the change that have authority and the respect of employees), should be identified.
• A Governance Process, with a Steering Committee, can provide the clear escalation path for issue-resolution, and,
• A Methodology and standard Tools will be required to track and communicate the change.
• A Feedback Loop, (a process for receiving feedback from those being affected by the change), will allow for tweaks to the change that may be required throughout the effort.
• A Stakeholder Engagement Plan keeps the different stakeholders involved and informed so that there are no surprises.
• And finally, a Communication Plan – identifies who to communicate to, how frequently, and using what vehicles of communication.  Newsletters, brown bag informational meetings, and visibly posted Dashboards of progress are common vehicles used during change.

Ideally, the planning phase should occur before the actual change begins.  But, if you have already embarked on your change effort, you can still back up and make sure you have adequately covered all of the key elements listed above.

How does your organization plan for a change effort?  Do you have any additional suggestions?

When embarking on a business or technology transformation your organization will be facing changes, the proactive management of the change significantly adds to your chances of success.  

Managing change implies understanding the potential impact of a change before it occurs.   Managing change is critical to helping all those involved understand and accept the change.  Ideally, individuals and the organization work through the change by actively participating in the planning, operation and reinforcement of the change.    And, managing change helps ensure smooth and constructive adoption of the change, with as little disruption to the individuals and the organization.  So where do you start and how do you do it?

Our Organizational Change Management (OCM) Framework operates in three phases: 
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1. Planning for Change,
2. Making the Change, and,
3. Reinforcing the Change.  

​Our OCM Framework helps you identify and address all necessary success factors and manage them with our simple, customizable tools.  At each phase make sure you don’t forget or miss any critical element that could delay or hamper your progress so that you keep ahead of, and on top of, the common pitfalls.  

Does your company use a change management framework to plan, make and reinforce change?