OCM - Phase 1: Planning the Change

Are you about to undertake a transformation or organizational change effort and are wondering how to manage the change? Inadequate planning can result in a poorly managed change effort. 

​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, and 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.
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For the People component, look at roles and 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 your stakeholders will 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.
• 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 with, how frequently, and what vehicles of communication are used. Newsletters, brown bag informational meetings, and visibly posted Dashboards of progress are common vehicles used during change.

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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?