Duncan Pattinson Business Transformation
Duncan Pattinson Business Transformation

 

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Change Management

Change Management

If you force change on people, this is normally when problems arise. You can easily avoid these problems.

DP Business Transformation encourages SME’s to support their Management team through change by hiring a top-level Interim Manager. Successful Change Management requires thoughtful planning, effective consultation with and involvement of all stakeholders together with an implementation which is sensitive to all concerned.

Successful Change Management entails

Change must be realistic, achievable and measurable

Before instituting any organisational change, ask yourself these questions:

  • What makes us think that change is required or necessary?
  • What do we want to achieve with this change, and why?
  • Who is affected by this change, and how will they react to it?
  • How much of this change can we achieve ourselves?
  • What parts of the change do we need help with?
  • How will we know that the change has been achieved?
Help people to cope with change

Change needs to be understood and managed in a way so that people can cope effectively with it. Change can be unsettling unless the benefits are understood by all.

Use communication effectively

Check that people affected by the change agree with the need for change, and have a chance to decide how the change will be managed, and to be involved in the planning and implementation of the change.

Use face-to-face communications to handle sensitive aspects of organisational change management and encourage your managers to do the same.

Caution — email and written notices are a poor tool for this process because they are extremely weak at conveying ideas and developing understanding.

I want it done now! — Really?

If you think that you need to make a change quickly, probe for the reasons. Is the urgency real? Will the effects of agreeing a more sensible time-frame achieve buy-in and understanding from all people involved and be less disruptive.

For complex changes, please refer to our Project Management section.

Involving and informing people also creates opportunities for others to participate in planning and implementing the changes. This can lighten your burden, spread the organisational load, and create a sense of ownership and familiarity among the people affected. You may have over looked something — all great teams cooperate and participate fully and the journey of change for all can be rewarding.

Change is a cooperative process

Use workshops and training sessions for organisational change that entails new procedures, objectives or processes for all individuals, groups or teams of people who are involved. Encourage your management teams to follow suit.

Change management principles
  • At all times involve and agree support from people within the organisation
  • Understand where your organisation is at the moment
  • Understand where your organisation needs to be, and when, why, and what the measures will be for getting there
  • Plan development towards where you want your organisation to be in appropriate achievable measurable stages
  • Communicate, involve, enable and facilitate involvement from people as early, as openly and as fully as is possible

Consulting with people, and helping them to understand does not weaken your position — it strengthens it. Leaders who fail to consult and involve their people in managing news are perceived as weak and lacking in integrity. That’s why, when you are short handed or you want change to be welcomed, it’s worth setting the plan first.

Ask yourself — do you really want to do this on your own? Probably not.

Blaise Pascal said...

Kind words do not cost much — yet they accomplish much.

Blaise Pascal, born 19 June 1623, was a French mathematician, physicist, writer, philosopher and inventor of the mechanical calculating machine.