Strategies for Managing Change

8 Key Pointers To Successful Implementation

When considering strategies for managing change, it is sobering to realise that so many change initiatives fail to realise the intended benefits - and many just simply fail!

As Machiavelli put it so succinctly in "The Prince":

"...there is nothing more difficult to arrange, more doubtful of success... than initiating a new order of things."

Strategic perspectives on strategies for managing change

Here are the specific resources on this site that are directly related to "change strategy":

Change management strategy - the key leadership issues

Change management strategy is about how to get from the output of your strategic review to a successful implementation. This is about how to take full account of the impacts on those people who are going to be most affected by the change

Strategic thinking and leadership - resources

This pages lists a cross section of material that I have found to be useful. Each of these have further references and links to additional useful material.

Strategic leadership questions

Here are some powerful questions to ask yourself during the planning process before you launch into your initiative.

Strategic vision and programme implementation

There is a big gap between these two things and bridging it is absolutely vital in order to realise the intended benefits of your change initiative. But so often this gap is not recognised.

So often I see organisations attempting to move straight from strategic vision exercises - mission statements and the setting of strategic objectives into the detail of a project level implementation.

Here is my own model for change that addresses the key hidden cultural aspects of an organisation - and in so doing links vision to implementation - by showing what needs to be addressed:

8 key strategies for managing change

(1) Drivers

- Assessing the drivers for change

(2) Business As Usual

- The “Business As Usual” test [step change or incremental change]

(3) Resources and Capabilities

- Determining resources and capabilities needed - especially in relation to:

- the size of your organisation
- the size, scope and priority of your change initiative
- the extent and scope of your knowledge base

(4) Leadership

- The style and quality of leadership that you provide

(5) Cultural Impacts

- Recognising and addressing the cultural change

(6) Preparation and Planning

- The thoroughness of your pre programme review and planning process

(7) Macro management

- Using a programme management based methodology that takes the wider view and addresses all of those areas that so often get overlooked and thus become a contributory cause of failure.

(8) Micro management

- Turning the vision and the strategy into the sequence of steps required to make it happen.

I have listed them above in summary form, now I will take each in turn and cross reference to the key related material on this site.

(1) Drivers

To build the business case for change you first need to be clear about the forces and influences that are impacting your organisation.

Force field analysis which is the creation of the American social psychologist Kurt Lewin, provides useful a practical tool for assessing the case for change.

(2) Business As Usual

The single biggest and most important early decision that you will make, is to decide whether the change can be handled within the context of business as usual or not.

The “Business As Usual” test - Incremental or Step Change?

(3) Resources and Capabilities

The size of your organisation (number of employees or people directly involved) together with your knowledge base will determine what resources to consider to implement your strategies for managing change.

Recommendations re options and uses of external third party change management resources

(4) Leadership

Leadership versus management - Is change just about the management or, does it involve leadership? If so, what's the difference?

Define leadership - How you define and exercise leadership in the present climate will be a significant determinant in your organisation's fortunes and is thus a key aspect of your strategies for managing change.

What are the leadership styles that are most effective in leading change and especially in the current environment?

How do you provide inspirational motivation to your people in hard times?

(5) Cultural Impacts

What are the effects of your business culture on change management?

Organisational culture - is more important than you may realise. It determines how your people will respond to a change initiative.

(6) Preparation and Planning

The amount of time allocated to the pre-programme review and planning process is variable - the size of the proposed change and how business critical it is, are useful guidelines.

(7) Macro management

Of all change management methodologies, at the macro level, the programme management based approach to change management is the one most likely to ensure a sucessful outcome.

A programme management based approach has as it goal, the achievement and realisation of the intended business benefits. In my view, this is a very big shift in emphasis from the usual project management approach which stops short with the delivery of the capability and does not address what has to happen for the benefits to materialise.

(8) Micro management

Managing change in the workplace is all about working out the detailed action steps and communicating and managing the process of implementing and integrating those steps as part of the new way of doing things.

Learn HOW to apply these strategies - 8 FREE Lessons - HERE

Proper preparation and planning

"Proper preparation and planning", leads to good results and the converse is equally true!

Accessing wider resources

You will find many Resources in this site - plus many Free downloads of all key strategies for managing change.

Also, throughout this site you will find that there are many external links to quality information re all aspects related to strategies for managing change, all of which I have checked out personally all of which I have checked out personally, and which I trust you will find beneficial.

Please do make use of the How to manage change in practise section to raise questions re change management tools, or to seek clarification or to add your own perspective or experience.

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