Making any kind of alteration to the way an organization runs its affairs is a process that’s fraught with the potential for risks and complications. Not only may the proposed modifications not have the desired effect, they may also meet with resistance or outright opposition from the very people required to put them in place, or the stakeholders whom they will effect.
However, rather than going blindly into a new policy or process and simply hoping for the best, there are steps which administrators and managers may take to ensure that a transition goes smoothly, and that its after-effects are positively disruptive rather than simply disruptive. That’s where an effective system of change management comes into the picture.
What Is Change Management?
Change management, or Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the process of planning, implementing, and overseeing the adjustments in technology, infrastructure, business hierarchy, process handling, and personal behavior needed to implement proposed changes in the short term, and to sustain those changes into the future.
From its very definition, there are a number of aspects which change management involves – and to get the most out of the process, certain policies and best practices should be observed, for each of them.
Careful And Considered Planning
When planning for change, it’s necessary to consider both the best possible outcomes which are intended, and the potential glitches or “worst case scenarios” that may occur due to unforeseen circumstances and risks. With these in mind, it becomes easier to set out a strategy and timetable for what needs to be done, the best sequence in which implementation events should occur, and the personnel or resources best suited to making them happen.
Particularly in the IT sector, it’s often the case that a proposed change has had some similar precedents in the past. These may be called upon in developing a “change model” which standardizes certain procedures for implementing specific types of change. Using change models may also assist in streamlining the planned processes and reducing their associated risks.
Setting Up A Decision-making Framework
A framework of governance
is needed for making the decisions necessary to implement change, and determining the processes and resources required for that implementation to take place. This will typically involve the setting up of policies, and the establishment of roles and responsibilities at all levels of an organization, with the purpose of supporting the planned change and maintaining stakeholder support at all stages of its implementation.
For IT applications, this framework may involve setting up procedures for creating and handling change proposals. These outline the type of change being proposed, the level of importance of the proposal in terms of the organization’s overall priorities, and the consequences likely to occur if the proposed change isn’t made. Change proposals are routinely submitted to the person or persons with the power to authorize the change.
Ensuring Leadership
Change management requires change managers – and it’s essential to have people in administration and leadership roles at all levels of an organization, dedicated to keeping the change management process stable and ongoing. Typical roles in the leadership and management hierarchy would include:
· Change initiator: Someone who recognizes and identifies a need for change. Customer support services personnel or those having frequent interaction with installed systems and business processes might be included in this category.
· Change co-ordinator: Someone who receives and assesses requests for change, typically originating from release management, incident management, problem management, or continuity management streams of an enterprise.
· Change manager: A senior official, typically in medium-sized and large-scale enterprises, responsible for receiving and prioritizing change requests, evaluating their associated risk levels, managing change procedures, and recording the outcomes of each change.
· Change advisory board: A referral body which fields incidents of change requests submitted by a change manager who deems that those particular changes may carry heightened risks. The board acts collectively to assess those risks, and determine the wisdom or otherwise of proceeding with the proposed changes.
Getting Stakeholder Support
Feedback loops and avenues of communication need to be put in place to keep stakeholders of the organization (staff, consumers, supply chain partners, etc.) informed at each stage of the change management process.
It’s particularly important to communicate at the outset which changes are being made and why they’re necessary. As implementation proceeds, channels should be made available for stakeholders to ask questions, or to raise issues and concerns.
Research conducted on 288 commercial organizations revealed that employees most want to hear messages about change from their CEO (for broad strokes) and their immediate supervisor (for more detailed analysis of particular issues).
Implementing Methodically
The change management process seeks to bring about changes in the most efficient and cost-effective manner, while minimizing risks and disruption to customers and stakeholders of an organization. A systematic and logical process of implementation is the best way to achieve these goals.
There’s a wide range of change management process models, each with its own recommendations on how best to implement change – and the implementation method you adopt will also be influenced by the unique circumstances and working practices of your organization.
For change management in the tech industry, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a set of best practices for IT administrators and managers to prioritize and implement changes efficiently, without creating a negative impact on consumers or service levels.
Assessment And Review
Finally, it’s essential to monitor and document the change management process as it unfolds, and as its consequences and effects begin to be felt. The fundamental goals of assessment and review should be to quickly address any issues that arise, and to receive feedback once adjustments have been made, to ensure that the correcting measures are working as intended.
Keeping a record of the cost and time involved in rectifying issues also allows a comparison to be made between the actual remediation and the initial estimates made when a change or service request was submitted. Documentation of the change management process not only gives stakeholders a tangible record of what’s been done, but also provides a tool for the fine-tuning of future change management efforts.
Des Nnorchiri
Des Nnochiri has a Master’s Degree (MEng) in Civil Engineering with Architecture, and spent several years at the Architectural Association, in London. He views technology with a designer’s eye, and is very keen on software and solutions which put a new wrinkle on established ideas and practices. He now writes for markITwrite across the full spectrum of corporate tech and design. In previous lives, he has served as a Web designer, and an IT consultant to The Learning Paper, a UK-based charity extending educational resources to underprivileged youngsters in West Africa. A film buff and crime fiction aficionado, Des moonlights as a novelist and screenwriter. His short thriller, “Trick” was filmed in 2011 by Shooting Incident Productions, who do location work on “Emmerdale”.