How to Manage Change Effectively

MML's approach to change management is set out diagrammatically below.

Our objective is to help clients achieve the transition from the current state to the desired state through their management and staff, by helping the people within the organisation to make the change themselves. We identify eight critical elements, without which it is not possible to bring about the change successfully, i.e. to deliver measurable business improvement. These are described briefly below.

All change requires at least one sponsor. Their job is to decide what changes will happen, decide on the relative priorities and ensure resources are available. It is also their task to assess the likely impact of the change, both positive and negative and to actively encourage and support the change to create the right environment, so the change happens on time and to budget.

Sponsors may need to exist at many different levels in the organisation, depending on its structure and depth. However, without a senior sponsor at an executive level most major change initiatives will fail.

Defining the role of the sponsor at different levels in the organisation provides leadership by example, overcomes managerial resistance, often the most difficult area, and creates a open culture of well understood goals and objectives.

Undertaking major change is a difficult, often painful process for most organisations, regardless of whether the change is in response to a current problem or a new opportunity. Organisations that manage change effectively, that successfully make the transition, tend to be driven to make the change by an urgent and powerful force, either the cost of leaving a problem unresolved or the cost of missing that opportunity. If the cost of either is not sufficient, the chances are the change initiative will be overtaken by more important events.

In our approach to change management we have developed techniques to help the executive team to identify and quantify the drivers of the business imperative. Once clearly defined it can then be communicated to the whole organisation, because unless the imperative is well understood by everyone, the initiative may not succeed.

To have any chance of success those affected by the change need to be part of it. It needs to be something that they are involved in and not something that is being done to them from outside.

We employ a number of techniques to involve staff at different levels in the organisation, particularly those outside the main project team. Engagement is built through the communication of the overall objectives and imperatives as well as project progress, through soliciting their input to the design of the new process, by listening to their concerns and providing reassurance right from the start of the project and by providing the knowledge and understanding they will need to put the change into operation.

Introducing change invariably means that staff will need to acquire new competencies. It may involve changing working methods they have developed and refined over many years. As performance usually dips until new skills are established they must be acquired rapidly.

We have a powerful approach to learning that enables us to transfer skills and understanding quickly and effectively. We are able to tailor courses for in-house delivery, making the content more relevant and familiar to the delegates. The practical "learning by doing" element of our programmes gives staff the opportunity to try out their new knowledge without risk and builds their confidence to apply it in the workplace.

Moreover, all our consultants have solid experience as managers in industry. It means they understand and appreciate the pressures a change initiative puts on managers and staff. Combined with a thorough grasp of the underlying concepts and principles of best practice and good teaching and consulting skills, it means we can act as coach, mentor, devil's advocate and catalyst to the team. Our knowledge of other sectors and companies means we are able to challenge established patterns of behaviour and provide alternative models based on reality as well as theory.

It is equally important for this to cover those working outside the main project team as for those within it. Similarly, the definition must ensure there is a properly defined process for resource provision, priority setting, conflict resolution and the identification and tracking of issues, as well as the routine management of the tasks and activities.

Over the course of the last four years we have refined and enhanced our project organisation and management methodology to provide a proven framework for the project structure with templates for the associated roles and responsibilities.

As the business imperative describes the driving force behind the need to change, so the targets describe the desired new state in terms of altered outcomes, such as lower cost, higher quality, shorter lead times or increased capacity. Unless these can be identified at the outset, debated and accepted by the organisation as both desirable and achievable, they may never be delivered. Change programmes almost always run into difficulty where there is no measurable, quantified business objective. If the aim is simply to introduce the change, without any real understanding of whether it will make things better or worse, it begs the question "why are we doing this?"

Our approach to developing the imperative includes a structured approach to identifying the business objectives that the change must deliver. Together with the imperative, the high level design concept and the operating policies, they define the scope of the change and form the framework for developing the detailed changes that must be introduced.

Moreover, if the project team can explain how the proposed changes will deliver the target improvements, they probably understand how to make it happen. Demonstrating this understanding to others builds confidence in their leadership and helps to increase enrolment, by lowering levels of anxiety and weakening areas of resistance. Post implementation target tracking monitors success and identifies any areas needing further attention.

Changing the way business is delivered often imposes change on the structure of the organisation. The new organisation needs to be supportive of the new processes and ways of working. Accountabilities need to be aligned to responsibilities and job descriptions and procedures brought into line. Companies that are successful at introducing change define the new working practices first and then define the structure and organisation in a way that sustains and reinforces the changes being made.

Our approach to developing new working practices, using Role Activity Diagrams (RADs), ensures that the organisational responsibilities are defined by the process change. It does not assume process change through the introduction of organisational change. The nature of the RADs means they define the organisational structure required to make the new process work properly.

They allow checks to be made for completeness and sub-process integration, providing a valuable validation of the overall design. Moreover, the functional or departmental activities defined by the RADs provide a skeleton procedure for the new process as well as an outline for testing and training.

Keeping the general workforce informed of what is happening and why, how it will affect them and what will be expected is essential if conflict is to be minimised and blockers neutralised. A careful balance must be struck between too much communication, which leads to "communication fatigue", and too little, which leads to dissociation. The communication needs therefore must be regularly re-evaluated.

Our approach enables us to tailor the communication to each level in the organisation and timetable it appropriately. It ensures that the underlying imperatives and objectives are openly presented to the complete organisation. It provides for the transfer of skills and teaching of new techniques at the right point in the project and, by early engagement, seeks to address concerns and provide reassurance before issues develop into conflicts.