Change Management

Change management is a systematic approach to move or rather change individuals, teams and organizations from their existing state to a new state or a different state of focus and different roles. It is a process which helps a company or a group of people accept and deal effectively with changes.

Examples of Organization Change

• Strategic Changes
• Technological Changes
• Structural Changes
• Changing the attitude and behaviors of personnel

Requirements for Change Management

• There needs to be an effective communication strategy to convey the changes so that others can understand the new roles and expectations. In addition, people need to know how to communicate with new people who they did not normally communicate with on a regular basis.
• There needs to be an effective skill upgrading system within the organization. This will help the members to do effective and purposeful work in the organization.
• There also needs to be a counseling service being offered to the members of the organization to help them to further understand and deal with any stress related to the changes.

Change first has to happen in the individual’s mind. If they do not see the need for change or appreciate change personally then all the attempts to effect change maybe challenging and create conflict.

Process of Change Management

• preparing for the change
• managing the change
• reinforcing the change

When you prepare for change, you must have a clear management strategy, in that people are assessed and placed at the right but different spots that suits them. You must also put in place who will educate the organization about the changes and who will enforce the changes. Finally, you must set up a model of what you would like to see change and how you would to see the change.

Managing changes simply means having a plan to effect these changes and putting things in place such as who should now take care of certain assignments and who will be the leaders or have certain designated roles. Finally, managing changes will include the implementation of the plans put in place

When you reinforce changes you need to get feedback from the members of the organization so that you will understand what is not working and what needs to be done differently. You must have an analytical eye to find out where there are gaps in the plan and develop means and ways to motivate the members of your organization to effect the changes that you would like to see happening.

For anything to be reinforce, it is always a good strategy to recognize, compliment and award successes. This will bring a positive atmosphere that people would like to repeat over and over just to experience the good effect. However, there needs to be corrective measures put in place to help people stay on target about what you would like to achieve.

Remember, changes are not always embraced but with the right plan, motivation, inspiration and recognition, people will learn to appreciate the changes.