What Is Change Management

1.0 WHAT IS CHANGE MANAGEMENT

It is a popular statement - that change is inevitable; the only certainty that exists is that change is a part of everyday life with no exception to professional life and organisations. It is therefore critical for organisations to manage change effectively in order to survive in today’s fast paced and fast changing environment. A classic example of this would be RIMs Blackberry who quickly found themselves in trouble as a result of “lack of fundamental change”, “We believe that investors may be disappointed at the implied lack of fundamental change in the company’s approach or in a re-appraisal of its future strategy,” said Stuart Jeffrey, analyst at Nomura Equity Research.

Change management within organisations can be defined as a structured approach in an organisation for ensuring that changes are smoothly and successfully implemented, and that the lasting benefits of change are achieved.

There are two sides to organizational change, the Technical side and the Human Side. The technical side takes into consideration financial arrangements, business systems, physical arrangements etc. The human side however requires getting people on board and participating in the change, it is the degree to which they change their behaviors and work processes that will determine if the change has been successful or not. Therefore there must be a structured approach to managing the people side of change.

2.0 REASONS FOR ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

Organisational change is often stimulated by a major external force which can range anywhere from “revenue growth, improved customer satisfaction, reduced costs, better product or service quality, reduced risk exposure, to improved quality of life and so on. Projects and initiatives are undertaken because there is an opportunity to capture or a problem to solve. Most importantly, there is a chance to improve performance in a meaningful way. A fundamental assumption of change is that something different is possible. This gives us our anchor point and the first tenet for change management”.

When implementing change in the organization, one must take into consideration that change is difficult and is often met with some level of resistance. According to kotterinternational.com “Thirty years of research by leadership guru Dr. John Kotter have proven that 70% of all major change efforts in organizations fail”.

To mitigate against this risk, organizational change must be carefully planned with a focus on specific, achievable goals that will take the organization into a brighter future than where it currently stands. Over time, many models for guiding and managing organization change have been developed, each with their own advantages and disadvantages which are explored here.

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