What is change management?

Several reasons constitute a need for change management. Mergers and acquisitions, leadership adjustments and the implementation of new technology are common change management drivers. The organizational development needed to compete with rapid digital transformation across the industry leads companies to implement new products and new processes. However, these innovations often disrupt people and workflows, presenting a need for effective change management.

Successful transformational change management goes beyond a communication plan; it involves implementing change throughout the company culture. Using a change management strategy can help stakeholders adopt proposed changes more readily than not employing such a strategy. By activating employees as change agents by involving them in the workflow, business milestones can be achieved. Leaders can and should establish the benefits of change through developing a comprehensive change management plan.

Change management should be a thought-out, structured plan that remains adaptable to potential improvements. How change leaders choose to approach organizational change management varies in size, need and potential for employee buy-in.

For example, employees who lack experience in change efforts might need a more tailored approach. Employees who experience change on an organizational level, such as those who serve on the HR team, can serve as good candidates on the change management team. They can offer insightful support to leadership and fellow employees.

Successful change management is a cumulative result of all the key stakeholders’ success in understanding the change initiatives. This requires proactively engaging and supporting a positive employee experience—inviting employees to give constructive feedback and continuously communicating the business process or scope changes. Ultimately, it is innovative, creative and co-created human-centric enablement that leads to the most impactful change management stories.

Stakeholders can vary depending on the size of the organization and the nature of change. For example, if you are changing a process that directly impacts a product you offer your customers, then your customers are essential stakeholders. Whereas if you are changing an internal technology tool, your clients might not be critical stakeholders.

To determine the stakeholders necessary for your change management strategy, define the scope of change first. Next, determine who consistently uses and operates these current processes. Engage those stakeholders initially; as you progress, you might find that there are more key stakeholders to consider. As discussed, it is important to be flexible with adjusting your change management process. At various stages, the change management strategy might require involving more stakeholders.

Common stakeholders in change management are typically executives and leadership, middle managers, front-line employees, developers, project managers, subject matter experts (SMEs) and potentially, customers. To identify the stakeholders involved in change management, consider asking these questions:

• Who leads the business unit undergoing change?
• Who owns the process undergoing change?
• Who are the people sponsoring change?
• Who are the people running change?
• Who are the people most affected day-to-day by the change?

Psychologists and change leaders have developed several methods of organizational change management:

Developed by change consultant William Bridges, this framework focuses on people’s reactions to change. Critical stakeholders often compare their adjustment to change to the 3 stages of grief. However, Bridges’ model describes the process through 3 stages:

• Endings: The discontinuation of old processes.
• Neutral zone: The uncertainty and confusion as new roles are being identified.
• New beginnings: The acceptance of new ways.

Axelos, owned by a joint venture between Capita and the UK Cabinet Office, developed the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The framework uses a detailed guide to manage IT operations and infrastructure. The goal is to drive successful digital transformation through incident-free IT service implementation throughout the change management process.

Over the years, ITIL has enhanced and expanded to improve the change process. The ITIL framework has 4 versions, the latest being ITIL v4. This version prioritizes the implementation of proper DevOps, automation and other essential IT processes.¹ Created to aid in modern-day digital transformation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution prompted ITIL v4.

John Kotter, a Harvard professor, created his process for professionals assigned to leading change.² He collected the common success factors of numerous change leaders and used them to develop an 8-step process:

1. Creating a sense of urgency for change.
2. Building a guiding coalition.
3. Forming a strategic vision and initiatives.
4. Enlisting a volunteer army.
5. Enabling action by removing barriers.
6. Generating short-term wins.
7. Sustaining acceleration.
8. Instituting change.

Psychologist Kurt Lewin developed the "unfreeze-change-refreeze" framework during the 1940s.³ The metaphor implies that the shape of an ice block remains unaltered until it shatters. However, transforming an ice block without breaking it can be done by melting the ice, pouring the water into a new mold and freezing it in the new shape. Lewin drew this comparison for change management strategy, indicating that introducing change in stages can help an organization successfully attain employee buy-in and a smoother change process.

In the late 1970s, McKinsey consultants Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman wrote a book called In Search of Excellence.⁴ In that book, the authors introduced a framework to map out the interrelated factors that can influence an organization's ability to change. Around 30 years later, this framework became the McKinsey 7-S Framework. The intersection of the elements within the framework differs depending on the culture or institution. Listed in no hierarchical order, those seven elements are:

• Shared values
  
• Skills
• Staff
• Strategy
• Structure
• Style
• Systems

The Prosci methodology, developed by the firm Prosci, is based on various studies that examine how people react to change. The methodology comprises 3 main components: the Prosci Change Triangle (PCT), the ADKAR model and the Prosci 3-Phase Process.

Sponsorship, project management and change management drive the PCT Model framework. This model puts success at the center of these three elements and is used in the overall Prosci Methodology.

The ADKAR model addresses one of the most essential change management pieces: the stakeholders. The framework is an acronym that equips change leaders with the right strategies:

• Awareness of the need for change.
  
• Desire to participate and support the change.
• Knowledge of how to change.
• Ability to implement desired skills and behaviors.
• Reinforcement to sustain change.

A 3-phase process that has a structured but flexible framework. The three phases of the Prosci Methodology are to prepare an approach, manage change and sustain outcomes.⁵

With the eras of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation in full force, businesses must take a more modern approach to change management.

Design thinking inspires leaders and change agents to take a more empathetic approach to a major change. It allows for a more positive influence and stronger impact based on intention-driven actions.

With design thinking, the approach to change management and to the change itself is more engaging. Greater engagement in an inspiring environment allows for a higher level of buy-in and, thus, a fast pace of change.

Critical to the nature of design thinking is the concept of agility. Change is not a static event. The most successful organizational changes are agile and iterative. The people and the programs remain flexible enough to adjust and improve as new needs arise.

Today's effective digital change management strategy relies on 3 key enablers: personalized, amplified and measured.

Personalized: Use a persona-based change approach. Design thinking develops a clear picture of the best change journey for employees and optimizes employee engagement. Every action elevates employees and inspires them to drive performance as integral members of the change journey.

Amplified: Powered by behavioral science and business analytics, cocreation and collaboration elevate the employee voice. These help shape, plan, implement and realize a change transformation with greater buy-in and adoption. Done correctly, they help increase the pace and scale of the change journey.

Measured: The change's transformative impact must be understood to best conduct the business change transformation. Key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics allow for insights throughout the journey and provide a data-driven approach to highlighting the value of the change initiatives.

The 3 key enablers—personalized, amplified, measured—are cyclical. Each occurs in every step of the digital change management process outlined here:

Prepare: In this stage, stakeholders conduct extensive research, including interviews and historical data analysis, to define the scope of the change. They define the gaps, the needs and the personas involved.

Discover: During the discovery or exploration stage of planning, the team conducts a change impact assessment. This assessment clarifies the scope of the change and confirms the exact gaps and needs suggested in the preparation stage. From there, the change approach and accompanying strategies are defined, and the roadmap for the change is developed.

Deliver: The delivery stage is where change tactics are deployed, driven by the guiding principles and methodologies mentioned earlier. Delivery is a continuous process of deploying tactics or acting and assessing results. Once there is a level of satisfaction with the deployment, broader user training ensues.

Transition: Now that the changes are in use and employees are coming on board, there is a continuous process of onboarding, deploying, supporting and measuring. The agility of a design thinking approach allows for quick adjustments based on the adoption measurements and KPIs.

Realize and sustain: Transition should seamlessly lead to a realization of success for the transformation. If it was not successful, the change management team would move back to earlier stages of discovery and delivery to improve the transformation. If it is successful, the action is to sustain the change with ongoing enablement (for example, knowledge transfer for new employees) and measurement.

With the advent of rapid digital transformation and continual innovation, change management is a crucial tool for organizations to succeed. Among the various methodologies of change management are some general best practices to consider:

1. Clearly define the vision and make goals measurable.
2. Ensure employee buy-in is as important as executive sponsorship.
3. Be willing to adjust your process, especially if it is not driving the coveted outcomes.
4. Engage employees in decision-making when necessary.
5. Collaborate with functional and process leads on the useability and automation of processes.
6. Create your change management plan based on organizational risk tolerance.