Change Management Liveblogged and Distilled

Written by: Derek Yale

Rather then opting for an event or notes based liveblog style which is more apt for conferences or barcamps, I am going to go for a more educational, informative and experiential liveblog format that is more conducive to the formal training setting.  Basically, I am going to distill the high volume of the material I am encountering down into an easy to read blog post that tells you what you need to know (a birds-eye view of change). We will see how this live blogging experiment goes!

What is Change Management?

Change management is a structured process and a set of tools to effectively managing the people side of change. – Prosci Critical Change Facts:
  1. Employee resistance and ineffective management of the people side of change is the #1 obstacle to successful change projects
  2. You can have the best vision, the best training and communications that exist, but if you cannot get your people (the organization) to adopt that change, the initiative or project will FAIL.
Interesting Change Quotes:
“We do this (change management) everyday!  No matter if we are aware of it or not, it (change) is part of every project that we work on.” – Melissa Dutmers (Change Manager @ RiverFork Consulting)
“People react to change in a very similar way to the stages of death” – Butch Alligood (Senior Change Management Instructor)
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy
“Research says that most change management initiatives fail.” – Butch Alligood
“Resistance to change is a natural human reaction.” – Prosci
“Never underestimate the power of the current state.” – Butch Alligood
“We see things not as they are, but as we are.” – Anais Nin
“Organizations do not change, people do.” – unknown
“You can never change unless you know what you want and how you are going to get it” – Butch Alligood
Terms:
  • CM = Change Management
  • ADKAR = Awareness Desire Knowledge Ability Reinforcement (Prosci Model)
  • FUO = Fear of Uncertainty and Doubt
  • WIIFM = What’s In It For Me

Why Change Management?

Here is a conglomerate of reasons why change management is important to organizations, businesses & clients:
  1. Because your business, products, markets, people, clients and tools will change over time weather you like it or not. To not have a change plan is to invite disaster and failure into the org.
  2. CM can improve the success and delivery of projects (internally & externally)
  3. CM processes can facilitate better team cohesion and organizational moral.
  4. CM can unite people around achieving common goals that mutually benefit everyone in the org.

States (No I’m not talking about Texas)

With any enterprise level transformation or change campaign there are different states.  How things are now is referred to as the current state, how things are after  changes are in the process of being implemented is a transition state, how things will be when a change is completed and your vision becomes actualized is the future state (how things will be).  These notions of state do not just apply to change management initiatives, they are also popular in Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) and Organizational Design (OD).

pv_country_guitarist

Understanding states is important so that you can figure out where you are, what you need to do, and how that will get you to where you want to be. Seems simple right? Well try assessing just your current state when you have 10-20 disparate and/or overlapping changes going on in and you can quickly become immersed in fog!  To put it another way, it’s like trying to play to play multiple songs and instruments at the same time.

Individual Change ≠ Organizational Change

Though they have similar change attributes and processes, what is required to change an organization is not the same as what is needed to change an individual. The differences lay in the strategies, tactics, scope, resources, time, training, communications, leadership, sponsorship, planning and project management. A change that effects one individual in an organization (say for example a compliance officer being effected by regulatory changes) is vastly different then implementing a new computer Operating System (say for example an enterprise wide switch from Windows XP Pro to Windows 7) in a medium sized company with 750 employees.

100% Change is a Myth

(Don’t Confuse Icarus With Reality) What did that old Greek tale of Icarus teach? Fly too close to the sun and you will get burned (set realistic goals, heed knowledge, lessons learned and advise).  No change will ever be executed and 100% adopted in a organization.  Know up front that you will deal with resistance on may different levels (bottom, middle, top) in a variety of ways (active/passive, direct/indirect).  Prepare yourself for it and have a thick skin.  Remember to keep your enthusiasm for change in perspective, and set reasonable achievable goals.

pv_mountains_2

Also, remember to keep the individual perspective in context because organizations are composed of individuals, and every person will ultimately make their own decision weather or not to support/adopt the change, thus having a tangible impact on the overall change.  Not everyone will get on board with change (for a variety of reasons) and know that some people may actually not be capable of change (depends on what type of change it is).

Many Models for Change

(Do not Worship a Single CM Model) Change management is a large and growing field.  Several models have been developed to explain change and to give structure to approaching that change in organizations.  From what I have encountered Prosci & Kotter are the two most popular that I have seen in organizations, but that is just my perspective.

pv_cathedral_2

There are other models for change out there and I think that the field has some emergent areas which are still untapped.  One of the things that is really important is to know the different models, the difference between them, and which one is the best fit for your organization or client.

Perspectives on Change Will Vary

(No Two Change Projects or Vantage Points are the Same) One of the central takeaways from everything I have learned over this knowledge crammed week is that no two change initiatives are the same so virtually everyone is written from scratch and adapted to individual organization, it’s unique attributes.  No matter what the change is in the organization everyone has a different perspective or vantage point of that change.  Not all of the stakeholders or team members are effected the same by the change.  So it goes without saying that when you do managing change you must keep in mind individual perspectives and that each person has a unique perspective on the impending change.  Effects on projects, services, will vary

Perspective 1 (Direct/You are looking straight at it)

cloud_perspective_1

Perspective 2 (Indirect / It’s right in front of you but you don’t always see it)

cloud_perspective_2

Same clouds and vista but completely different ways of looking, seeing and interpreting them.  Change is the same exact way and using cloud as a metaphor for change can carry many parallels.   Clouds look a certain way then you move or they move and the way they look can completely change from moment to moment.  They are dynamic, like your people, you business, the demands on your business, and the markets you work in.  Just like there are many different types of clouds (cirrus, stratus, etc) there are many types of organizations (government, non-profit, NGO etc) The more you understand about change and how to manage it, the more agile, adaptive and responsive your organization can be in any situation. Last Updated: 6/25/2008 4:55PM Posted on June 24th, 2009 in Community, Our Culture, Technology, Tips & Tricks.