What is Change Management? How to implement it

Introduction 

When a company launches a project in order to exploit an opportunity, improve its performance, or address some issues, then it demands a change in terms of usage of technology, organizational structure, job roles, and processes. Today, we’ll discuss what is change management; its three levels, and how to implement change. 

Ultimately, the responsibility of change falls on the shoulder of employees in terms of how they perform their roles and tasks. If they couldn’t go through the transition phase because of their inability to learn new things or accept them, then the whole initiative of the project would fall. If they adapt or accept the changes brought by the new initiative, then it would generate desired results. 

What is Change Management? 

Change management is a well-structured process of applying a set of tools and other resources towards change in order to achieve desired results. All types of change and people are unique in their own ways. Anyways, change management offers a structured approach for assisting people in order to move forward from the existing state to the desired state. 

It comprises preparing employees, supporting them during the process, taking essential steps for the transition, and evaluating the performance before and after the implementation. 

It’s a very challenging process to bring organizational change. Often, it needs the involvement and cooperation of various autonomous units within the large corporation. In such a case, it’s critical to develop a structured approach to ensure a smooth transition and reduce the potential disruption. 

Having an effective line of communication is the most significant element for the effective implementation of change management. Therefore, it’s important that every person involved in the process should comprehend the process of change and be aware of various steps. 

Level of Change Management 

The process of change management comprises of three levels, and they’re as follows; 

Individual Change Management 

When it comes to change, human beings are highly resilient creatures, and their resisting response towards transition and change is normal. If you offer them support, then they have a remarkable ability to adapt to the change. 

Change at the individual or unit level needs how people are observing it and what things they require in order to apply it successfully. You should know that how you can help them to make it happen. Where they should come from and what type of message they want to hear. When they can learn the new skill and who is going to be their coach 

ADKAR Model by Prosci is very effective for the change at the individual level, and many people use it across the world. ADKAR is the acronym of five elements; Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. A person has to apply these five elements in order to make the transition successful. 

Organizational/Initiative Based Changed Management 

Usually, change starts at the individual level, but it’s nearly impossible to change every person on a big project team. The change at the organizational level offers actionable steps and applies it at the initial level in order to support hundreds of thousands of people influenced by the project. 

The first step of organizational change is to point out those people that need to change because they would bring change. It comprises of developing a plan in order to offer awareness, leadership, coaching, and training to the employees impacted the change so that they could implement it successfully. The main focus of organizational change is to make the transition happen successfully at the individual level. 

Organizational change and project management complement the efforts of each others’ programs. Project management makes sure the designing, development, and delivery of the project solution. However, change management makes sure that the people are using, adopting, and engaging the project solution effectively. 

When you’re dealing with change at the project initiative or organizational level, then the process develops a bridge between individual and organizational transition management. 

Enterprise Change Management Capability 

Enterprise change management is at the core of organizational competency that offers to differentiate competitive advantage and capability to adapt to transition in the fast-evolving world. It means managing the changes effectively that are embedded in your company’s leadership, project, processes, structure, and roles. Most importantly, it is applied to people’s managers, leaders, and initiatives. It’s because they have the skill and expertise to effectively convey the transitional features to their team in terms of what to do. 

People and teams in enterprise change management have the capability to accept changes in terms of various shapes and sizes. In today’s fast-evolving business world, companies are very agile, they quickly respond, accept, and adapt towards the market changes and trends. It’s important to keep in mind that change doesn’t happen by accident. Developing enterprise change capabilities is a process and investment that need a strategic approach in order to implement change across the company. 

How to Implement Change Management 

It’s to discuss some of the main steps in how to implement change management as follows; 

• Defining the meaning of change
• Choosing the team members of change management 
• Recognizing sponsorship management and securing a commitment from them 
• Creating an implementation plan along with evaluation metrics
• Apply the changes in steps 
• Gather and study data to know your progress 
• Point out gaps and resisting factors
• Update the plan to implement it again for improvement 

Conclusion: What is Change Management? How to implement it 

After an in-depth study of what is change management; its three-level processes, and how to implement change; we’ve realized that applying changes is a process and happens in steps. If you want to keep up with the changes of the fast-evolving business world, then you should develop a plan and process at a different level.