By Pris Nelson
Change seems be quite the “norm” these days as organizations struggle to find a way to be more competitive and rise to the challenge of increasing regulations. Having just returned from India where I facilitated a program for Harvard Business School on the subject, I can definitely say that it’s not at all different in India.There are a lot of change management programs available to meet your needs these days, including off-the-shelf, custom-designed or something in between. Your selection should be driven by a number of variables:
Think Navigation! Whether your change is on an incremental level or system-wide, you’ll want to put a plan in place to help you and the organization’s leaders chart a course for success. This is not about working through a series of steps with people. Rather, the people are an integral part of the steps. The very word “change” can throw people in to an incredibly crippling heap of emotions. Addressing how you will enlist, communicate, educate and reward employees during this process is critical to success.
Change Management starts with the end in mind. Examine your expected outcomes and work backward. What will the change look and feel like after it is successfully incorporated? For that matter, first you should define and agree upon what successfully incorporated looks like. All too often we go through the steps, even meticulously, and forget that in the end we have to actually “live” this outcome. It must be built into our orientation programs, processes and structures and even our performance evaluation systems in order to measure if what we said we were going to do is in fact what we are doing.
There are a lot of decisions to make when you are considering change management. Careful choices before you begin, evaluation during and dedicated implementation are all essential ingredients for making it work.
Need a little helpful advice, or a full-on implementation? Get in touch with us for a complimentary discussion of your needs.
Priscilla D. Nelson, MA, MS, MCEC, BCC, CPT
President & CEO
