By Leigh Ann Gowland, founder of Employee Driven Change
Imagine a sail boat, destined for a beautiful destination, equipped with state of the art navigation equipment, sleek design and immaculate engineering but never opening its sails to harness the energy of the wind. The scenario seems irrational. Why would an experienced Skipper embark on a remarkable journey without utilizing his most valuable resources?
Now think of the most difficult organisational change initiative you have experienced. Whether it was a system implementation, business process outsourcing or culture transformation, were all the right resources adequately deployed to support the success of this process? Analysis of the aftermath may show that all the checkboxes of good project management were completed yet the process was difficult. Research studies indicate that only one third of change programs are successful. To this your response may be that Change Management was applied on the project but was this the right change management?
What does Change Management mean to business leadership? Is it a team of extroverted people who deal with the softer people issues on the project? The team responsible for remembering birthdays, cupcakes and banners to celebrate milestones and rushing the end users through training just-in-time for “go-live”. After the project is completed the message to uneasy users is to accept the changes and make them work. Wouldn’t this be similar to opening the sails at the end of the journey?
Regardless of the nature of the change it is probable that it will be happening in the context of people who will contribute to the sustainability of the outcome. Managing change requires a thorough understanding of the environment, the people and how everyone can participate in enabling the change. A change initiative is unlikely to succeed if the staff feel that they do not have a stake in the new way of working. It is leadership’s responsibility to ensure their staff understands the real value of the change in their jobs and achievement of overall strategic objectives. A banner cannot replace the value of a meaningful conversation between management and their team on what this change means to them. Staff need to be engaged to embed change and make it sustainable.
Standardised processes and standardised systems should not produce standardised people. Despite adoption of best of breed practices, an organisation’s inability to integrate new ways of working creates fresh challenges. Effective change management should include alignment of project outcomes to the target operating model, organisational design, job design, performance metrics and people management practices. Only once an employee understands the fundamentals of their job can they explore integration across functions and their contribution to overall business performance. Leaders should not only substitute good management practices with standardised processes and metrics but partner with their employees to extract real value for the business. Processes and systems are only enabling mechanisms to thinking and acting differently and realising true value.
What to expect from a good change manager?
- Integrated change management: Someone who understands project management and business principles and integrates these into change management practices to achieve a common goal;
- Partnership: An individual who insists on leadership and management involvement in the change and supports them in using their strengths and improving their development areas to facilitate the change process;
- Mentor: A change manager passionate about the value of their profession, eager to share their knowledge and experience with everyone on the project and in business to build a critical mass of change champions;
- Flexible: Change Management practices should not be limited by specific methodology or approaches but adaptable to the needs of the environment;
- Endorses sustainability: All projects operate on tightly managed budgets based on defined project scope but when defining the scope for change management efforts required to embed change post go-live must be included in the project planning. Discuss these requirements with your change management resources during early stages of project planning.
It is important for project managers to be equipped with adequate knowledge of change management to hold change management professionals accountable for delivery of quality service.
Leigh Ann Gowland is an independent change management consultant and the founder of Employee Driven Change, and assists companies with large change initiatives while making change work for individuals. With fifteen years of experience in change management, human resources, and workforce transformation, she understands individual and business change across industries, projects and corporate cultures. Her approach to consulting and coaching styles is informed by Systems Theory and her passion for empowering others to understand and drive change and apply these skills. www.employeedrivenchange.co.za
Read more articles by Leigh Anne...