By Eric Appleyard
Change can be difficult. Having a Change Management Model can help ensure a leader or organization takes the necessary actions to make changes successful.
In today’s business environment organizations and their employees are dealing with change at an increasingly rapid pace. Company leaders and their employees are constantly being advised that they need to be open to change in order to be successful. Change management has become such a common business topic that a simple web search will provide hundreds if not thousands of research articles, programs, and vendors that will help organizations and their employees adapt to change. This plethora of information can be overwhelming for any business leader and have them wondering where to begin.
A good place to start is to understand what change management is. Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state, to fulfill or implement a vision and strategy1. There are various models a leader or organization can use for change management. Below is an example of a Change Management Model that explains the ideal steps required to help implement a change successfully.
Sample Change Management Model
1. Define the Change
- Have a vision – identify the ideal future state
- Determine what needs to change and why the change is needed to reach the ideal future state
2. Plan
- Conduct impact and stakeholder assessments – identify what and who is going to be impacted by the change
- Identify key individuals whose support is needed to make the change happen, and plan how to engage them
- Establish project timelines for when the required changes will be completed
- Identify risks and create risk-mitigation plans for addressing them
- Create communication plans to ensure everyone understands the changes that are coming, why the changes are needed, and what is in it for them
- Develop training that will support the implementation of the required changes
- Create success measures to highlight what effective implementation of the change will look like
3. Implement the Change
- Initiate the change plans and enable key stakeholders to lead the required initiatives
- Launch the communication plans and training efforts
- Monitor plans, identify those individuals or processes that are struggling with the changes, and provide additional support as needed to help embedded the changes
- Deploy risk mitigation plans if needed
4. Embed the Change
- Monitor if the changes are being adopted
- Reinforce the behaviours by leaders and employees that support the changes
- Measure the impact of the overall change and adjust plans if necessary to meet established goals
Summary
Change can be difficult. Having a Change Management Model can help ensure a leader or organization takes the necessary actions to make changes successful.
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1 “Change Management Leadership Guide” Ryerson University, 2011, https://www.ryerson.ca/content/dam/hr/manager-resources/docs/change-management-leadership-guide.pdf Accessed 5 November 2020.
