Meet the Ninja : managing changes...

 Dear readers,

Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams and organisations from a current state to a desired future state. As one of the most exciting challenges leaders will face, Padraig Hyland explains how getting change management right is critical to leadership success.

In this program, you will find out:

* What the different kinds of change management transformations are

* Why change management is so critical

* How to manage change successfully


Enjoy !! Funny and very accurate ...

As ever, I am intererested in your comments !

Dear Readers,

Today, I will focus on the preparation of the communication activities.

Action 1. Perform a stakeholder analysis

First of all, your change team will have to prepare a stakeholder survey. It will help you to understand and manage stakeholder expectations, assess ownership and commitment to the change journey at various point of the project life cycle, influence attitudes as much as possible to maximise the chances of the success of the project, validate and check that ownership commitment levels are aligned with where the project is in the life cycle, manage the approved change initiatives and incentives at the project level.

Practically, you need to do the following:

• Create a questionnaire ( if you need examples, just ask me)
• Plan questionnaire administration cycles, tool to be used and population targeted
• Launch the questionnaire and analyse feedback. This will be your basic to go to next steps
• Organise workshops with the management to dicuss main result and identify corresponding action plan.

Dear readers,

In the coming post I will focus on Communication during Change project. As a matter of fact, during this period, it is very important to develop a specific communication.
As you may know, large-scale changes impact people in a different way... and create a drop in performance.

• The implementation of a new project often sees a drop in business and individual performance


• Depending on how you manage the change process, will determine how deep your organisation will dip into the "valley of despairs"


• It is possible to minimize the time it takes to navigate through the changes and return to productivity-but it requires a comprehensic change programme
  
• By successfully managing the changes you can accelerate the delivery of business benefits and optimize overall business performance

Change Management in 3 phases !

Managing Change follows a simple 3 step process. Here are the different you need to follow:

Phase 1: Preparing for Change
- Define your change Management strategy
- Set up your Change Management team
- Develop your sponsorship model

Phase 2 : Managing Change
- Develop Change Management Plan
- Take actions and implement Plan

Phase 3: Evaluating and reinforcing Change
- Collect and analyse feedback
- Analyse Gap
- Manage resistance
- Implement corrective action
- Celebrate success!

Do you think I have missed out any Phases? Is there a pre-step or a fourth step? I would be interested to here your thoughts on this.

Image: Flickr, Change, Gilad Benari

Are your managers able to become Change Agent ?

Managers are important allies in times of change. They have the proximity to and relationships with employees that are critical for building support and navigating resistance in times of change.

But many managers are not being provided the skills and tools they need to become change agent. As a matter of fact being a great manager and being a great change leader are two different things. Managers must first be on board with a change before they can lead their direct reports through the change.

Here are some tips to develop your manager as Change Agent:

1. Get them on board - managers have to go through their own change process before supporting their direct reports.
2. Explain them clearly what you expect from them.
3. Build competencies - "leading change" is a competency that can be developed
4. Provide tools - including change methodology, impact assessment template, roles description..
5. Provide support - help managers succeed at leading change

Image : Flickr Time for change, David Reece

Change resistance? Understand why …

Resistance is an inevitable response to any major change. Individuals naturally rush to defend the status quo if they feel their security or statuses are threatened.

Here are the major reasons why managers and employees resist change…

The top-reasons for managers’ resistance
- Lost of power
- Overload
- Lack awareness of need
- Unprepared to operate in the future state
- Fear of uncertainty

The top-reasons for employees’ resistance
- Lack awareness of need
- Fear of job loss
- Lack of the required skills or knowledge
- Comfort with Status quo
- Must do more with less

So, before any change action, think about why your people would resist to change.. and prepare your action plan!

Sources: Thanks to Isabelle & Guillaume

Image: Flickr, alshepmcr

Want some Change ? Be Disruptive !

Some managers believe there is no way to guide the innovation journey, because innovation is just random and unpredictable. If innovation is indeed a black box, the best company can do is let a thousand flowers bloom, in the hope that one of them sprouts into a substantial growth business. This is a bit like releasing thousands of monkeys into a room full of word processor end hoping they will produce Shakespeare….

Disruptive ideas provide management alternatives that, if spread, can completely transform the way the organisation works without the need for a massive ‘change management programme’. Each of them in its own right has the potential to create significant change, but the compound benefit of a few of them is a real engine of change and business transformation.

Disruptive Ideas:

• are simple
  
• have a total disproportion between their simplicity and the significant impact in the life of organizations


• can be implemented now


• have zero cost or are cheap to implement


• are most likely to be contrarian


• are most likely to be counterintuitive
  
• have a high risk of being trivialised or dismissed


• can spread virally very easily, as soon as some people implement them

As a conclusion, I would add the following principle : Good Enough can be Great ! Disruptors win by playing the innovation game differently. Disruption are all about trade-offs…. Think about it !

Sources :
- Leandro Herrero, 2008
- Innovator’s Guide to Growth, Putting Disruptive Innovation to work (ScottD. Anthony, Mark W. Jonhson, Josef V. Sinfield, Elisabeth J. Altman)

- Image Flickr, seretuaccidente