Organizational Change

Research data indicate that a combination of organizational and individual change management models is required for effective change to take place, and that most of the factors influencing the success of change efforts are related to the “soft” side of change rather than the “hard” issues.  The “soft” but critical factors that can compromise change projects include resistance to change, lack of clear leadership and commitment, lack of required implementation skills, lack of sufficient employee involvement, unrealistic expectations and lack of effective coordination.  There is a clear need to address the human side of change.

Therefore, when we facilitate the implementation of organizational change we use a change management framework designed to help the client organization:

• Identify the stakeholders and stakeholder issues for every element of the change.
• Determine the stakeholders’ commitment and roles in the transition.
• Develop a plan to address and manage all stakeholder issues.
• Train/brief/coach managers on how to help employees through the change.
• Train/brief/coach employees on how the change will affect them personally.
• Build and deploy strategies for mitigating challenges to or adverse impacts of the change.

Our change management framework incorporates government and industry best practices into a coherent approach for preparing organizations for and facilitating their transition through change.  We help organizations carry out the practices within this framework in the following sequence:

1. Conduct a Current State Analysis and Make the Business Case for Change. During this step, we help the client organization to make a determination of the current environment and rationale for change.  Historical information is collected on past change experiences to help define the characteristic reactions to change within the organization.  Information is also compiled at this time to document the business reasons for change.
2. Identify the Organization’s Future State. During this step, we help the client organization begin to conceptualize what will define a successful change effort, and to assess its readiness for change.  This includes crafting a vision and definition of successful change, defining the organization’s desired future operating environment, determining the key benefits of the contemplated change, and aligning the change initiative with the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.
3. Design the Basic Architecture for the Change. During this step, we help the client organization to set up the basic architecture for the change project.  This includes the development of a customized change management approach with a schedule, milestones and links to key implementation activities; the assembly of a leadership team or steering committee to guide the organization’s change management efforts; and the development of a risk management strategy with appropriate contingency plans.
4. Conduct an Organizational Assessment. During this step, we help the client organization to design and conduct both a leadership workshop and a change readiness survey to: analyze the impact of the change project on the organization’s processes, functions, activities, structure, staffing and interactions; assess the organizational leadership’s commitment to the change and begin to build executive-level buy-in; evaluate the ability and desire of the organization’s employees to undergo a major organizational change; identify the stakeholders and determine their commitment to the change effort; and determine possible project challenges, mitigation strategies and success-measuring methods.
5. Align the New Organizational Design and Performance Management Systems. During this step, we help the client organization to: align or revise the organization’s processes, functions, activities, structure, staffing and interactions in accord with the change project impact analysis; identify the performance metrics that need to be updated and align or revise the organization’s performance management system in accord with the stakeholder analysis; and develop workforce and organization transition strategies.
6. Align the Organizational Culture and the Desired Future State. During this step, we help the client organization to: conduct a cultural audit to identify current values and behaviors and compare them with the values and behaviors associated with the future state; design a cultural transition process that creates a “path” for the organization to travel along to these future state values and behaviors; and develop strategies for generating and maintaining leadership and employee commitment and support, and for mitigating resistance to the change  or adverse impacts from the change.
7. Develop and Deploy a Change Management Communication Plan. During this step, we help the client organization to: identify communication goals and objectives and how communication can mitigate areas of resistance to the change; validate the stakeholder or audience segments and the degree of required communication with each segment; identify the key information, messages, vehicles, media, timing or phases and potential communication mechanisms and content and align them with audience segments; determine the message development, input and delivery roles along with the timing or schedule and expectations; determine the leadership promotion and sponsorship roles and messages and conduct related leadership coaching sessions; develop measures for assessing communication effectiveness; develop and validate a strategy that helps to ensure that everyone involved in the change effort understands the future state and the definition of a successful change effort; and do whatever else may be necessary to develop, implement, review and update the change management communication strategy, plan, mechanisms and content as needed.
8. Prepare and Deploy an Employee Development and Learning Plan. During this step, we help the client organization to: conduct an employee learning and development needs assessment and analysis; formulate a learning and development strategy and plan tailored to match audience needs and specific both to the organization’s systems and to the change project that will prepare employees to transition into the “To-Be” positions; review and refine the learning and development objectives and prerequisites, design the curriculum, draft the course development and delivery schedule to coincide with implementation of the change project and plan the session evaluations; develop and validate instructional materials and guides, job aids and assessment mechanisms; market the learning and development plan and deliver the training; develop, administer and collect progress evaluations, compile and assess the results, identify improvement opportunities and make periodic revisions/updates to the learning and development plan.
9. Determine the Needed Ongoing Support Resources. During this step, we help the client organization to identify long-term, ongoing training and communication strategies and other resources needed to maintain the organization, help the organization maintain the new organizational culture and support employees in the new, post-implementation operating environment.
10. Develop and Implement a Continuous Evaluation Approach. During this step, we help the client organization to put in place the foundations for continuous improvement by identifying assessment measures and creating an evaluation system for implementation and for overall operations in the future state, including what measures should be used to evaluate successful implementation and to evaluate successful future state operations.

Our change management framework relies on timely assessments of organizational readiness so that the client can target high-impact areas of change management that are necessary to complete a successful implementation.  It includes periodic “pulse checks” to ensure that the desired transitional outcomes are explicitly stated, and that progress toward these outcomes is being made in an appropriate and timely manner as demonstrated by management and employee behaviors and actions.

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