A common definition of change management is: ‘the structured approach to moving a company
from its current state to a desired future state and ensuring that the company remains in the
desired state.’ The wider implication of change management must be considered, and the impact
the change itself has on the company and its employees. Regardless of the type of change, for it to
be successful it must be managed with a focus, not only on the overall project, but the people and
processes too.
It is often said the only thing constant in business is change. With multiple changes happening
consistently within a company, all pulling in opposite directions it is important to make a distinction
between constructive and detrimental change. This highlights the importance of managing change
within a company to ensure more constructive change, rather than detrimental occurs.
Managing Projects
A project involving change initiatives must be carefully managed to ensure that all areas are done
on time, in order and correctly so that a constant flow of change occurs throughout the project.
Managing People
As previously mentioned, change can have a huge impact on employees, especially if they are
directly impacted. Some pushback from employees can result in a resistance to change that is hard
to overcome. The best practice for this is trying to avoid the instigation of resistance to change by
including all employees and utilising open, direct communication from a management level about
the change.
Managing Processes
For the processes within an organisation, management is required throughout the change initiative
to ensure they still happen. This may include changes in the way that processes methodologies
work, requiring management to ensure that different methods are fully utilised.
Implementing a change initiative
You might embrace it. You might hate it. You recognise that is necessary. You just don’t know how
you going to go about it. Whatever your opinion of change might be, one thing is for sure – it has
got to happen.
Henry Ford famously said that, “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what
you’ve always got.” Using this philosophy enabled him to implement change as part of creating a
business empire that lives on to this day.
So, you know something must change. It might be your processes, it might be your people, it might
be both. Now, you’re faced with the task of deciding just how this change is going to be
implemented
U N P L A N N E D O R P L A N N E D C H A N G E ?
Planned change occurs when the business leaders recognise the need for a major change and
then organise a plan to accomplish that change. The implementation of the strategic plan, such
as reorganisation or a similar change of this magnitude, are all likely to be as a result of a wellplanned and thought-out change model.
The plan is likely to include cascading the changes across the workforce. Preparation and
timescales will be well thought out. It may be that a recognised change model has been
implemented with or without external support.
Every employee will be aware of the change and they’re part of the process. If you have a skilled,
experienced management team then the employees will be prepared for the change and
embrace it. At least, this is the ideal.
The reality can be very different and, even with a planned change, some parts of the process
may occur in a more chaotic and disruptive fashion than expected by the participants.
Unplanned change usually occurs because of a major sudden disruption to the organisation. This
can cause its members to respond in a highly reactive and disorganised fashion – for example,
the Chief Executive Officer suddenly leaves the organisation.
Unplanned change can present huge financial challenges and disruption to the business.
W H A T T Y P E O F C H A N G E I S T A K I N G P L A C E ?
You might have already made many small changes to the operation of the business as part of
the overall development programme. But now, a major change is required. For example, you
might be looking to improve your manufacturing processes to increase output. This might mean
replacing a whole production line.
Perhaps your business has reached the stage where you recognise the truth in Henry Ford’s
words. You cannot continue to run the business as it is otherwise you will “get what you’ve
always got”. It has been decided by the senior management team that what you have always got
is not enough to sustain the business in the future.
Stop for a moment and ask yourself – “how is the workforce going to react to the change?” Your
workforce has carried on performing for your business in the same way for quite some time. You
may even have implemented a bonus system so that employees feel rewarded for their efforts. If
a major change is going to occur, it is only natural that employees are going to become fearful
and unsettled. They may even question their own value and not understand the changes
necessary to survive.
If this is the case and it usually is, you must consider how you going to get everybody on board.
People and processes must work together if change is to be successful. So, exactly how you
going to implement major changes?
P E O P L E V S P R O C E S S
During any significant change the workforce are likely to undergo an internal change process. It
is not unusual for employees to voice comments such as “this will never happen, if we ignore
this long enough, it will just go away”. This is part of the natural cycle of progression towards
accepting change.
For some employees the acceptance of change will be intolerable. They will decide if they are
going to accept the change as a good thing or reject it as something bad. At this stage many
businesses find that employee turnover increases as people reject the change and seek stability
elsewhere.
The financial implications of losing some of the workforce, and downtime that results prior to
their replacement, is something that should be part of the change management model.
Some employees will decide to remain with the company and work through the process until
they gain a sense of commitment towards the changes. Some people might sway back and forth
from accepting change as a good thing to seeing change as an impediment.
One way in which employees can be assisted to accept and embrace change is to encourage
involvement.
This can commence at the planning stage with information on what is going to happen and why
the changes are necessary.
Invite reaction and comments from employees. Positively acknowledge objections and use this
as an opportunity to allay fears. Ask your workforce for support and involve as many people in
as many ways as possible.
Make sure that any commitments to the workforce given by the company at this stage are
followed through. It is important to maintain trust between management and employees.
Changing automated processes carried out by robots is unlikely to create the same reaction.
Conversely, changing processes can only be successful if the people involved in implementing
those processes are fully on board with the change.
I M P L E M E N T I N G A C H A N G E M O D E L
Implementation is undoubtedly the most difficult part of any change for everyone involved. You
could have the best idea ever and yet, if the implementation stage fails, then so will the changes.
Whatever change is being proposed, the end goal is likely to be the same. Every business has a
customer at the end of their process. If your business goal is to meet or exceed your customer’s
expectations, then using a recognised and proven change model is imperative.
Six Sigma is one such model. The three basic elements are – Process Improvement, Process
Design/Re-design and Process Management.
For more information on this topic, please visit our website www.fluere.co.uk or email us at
sales@fluere.co.uk.
