From Pam Scott, Oasis Solutions Group Partner & Director of Client Services
WHAT IS CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change Management is an approach to shifting/transitioning individual, team, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organizational process aimed at helping change stakeholders to accept and embrace changes in their business environment.
This makes perfect sense to most of us until we get to the “accept and embrace changes.” How many of us, our employees, or co-worker’s “accept and embrace changes?”
Change Management is about setting expectations that lessen the pain of change.
People involved in change expect to go from A to B when they are actually going to C. Change Management is about getting them used to the idea that C is the real destination. It doesn't happen overnight. It is a process that requires on-going communication, planning, and it is truly a transformation effort.
Not addressing and properly preparing for change can quickly derail an idea, initiative or project. If staff members feel that the change is being forced on them and they have little ownership it can be costly. They will either sink it, or ensure it never reaches its potential. Either way, the organization will never get the return on investment that it imagined. On the other hand, properly preparing for change will facilitate acceptance of the initiative.
Effective Change Management can help if you find yourself dealing with any of the following situations:
- I’ve always done it this way and I’m not changing now.
- I’m too old to change.
- We’ve already tried that and it didn’t work.
- I don’t have time to learn something new.
- Remember what happened the last time someone wanted to improve our processes?
- What’s in it for me?
- Staff will need to change their focus from their own job, to the whole organization.
Gavin Wedell has a great video about Change Management that I've shared with several colleagues. View it here
“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
Albert Einstein
You can view the first part of Pam's series on change here
