Change Toolkit Change Management Principles of Change: Reality of Change
Changes are made to organisations to adapt, improve and prepare the organisation for the future. An organisation is has management and methods to deliver outcomes:
To make enduring and effective change an organisation must make integrated change to:
- Processes
- Systems & Tools
- Organisation structure
- People
Change Management focuses on the ‘people’ aspect of making changes to organisations. In truth people do not really change, but they can become more aware of themselves, their behaviours, motivators, beliefs and impact on others.
Organisations
Organisations deliver outcomes through integrated and cohesive processes, systems and people
Any changes to process, systems, organisation and people must be structured, visible and balanced. There is no point rushing to implement systems if the processes are not improved, no point rushing to change processes if systems cannot support the processes.
Equally there is no point changing the processes, systems and organisation structure if the people are not prepared to accept and maximise the change.
To successfully change an organisation, the changes to process, systems, organisation and people must be balanced to ensure the overall change is successful.
This means that breadth, timing and approach to making change must accommodate the current environment of the organisation. This relies on an honest, clear and agreed assessment of what changes can be made to the organisation, by when and at what risk.
And as we all know, too often changes to organisations fail due to a lack of appreciation what the people can really achieve.
Changing People
An organisation relies on people; people working together and thinking together as a single cohesive team and practicing effective group thinking. The larger the organisation the more difficult it is to ensure people think and communicate as a team. Generally, the larger the organisation, the more governance, process and systems controls that are in place to accommodate this lack of shared thinking.
Achieving effective group thinking is difficult. It relies on the maturity and self awareness of the people. The less self aware, the more likely there will be personality, communications and behavioural issues between people.
With poor group thinking, the objectives and purpose of the change can be compromised to such an extent that the change ceases to be useful through delays, changes to scope and poor design.To create effective group thinking an organisation need to apply tactics that will improve each individuals self awareness.
At the core of Change Management is helping people understand themselves so they can work effectively with one another on behalf of the organisation.
Change Management is not really a project or programme based requirement, in reality, we need to prepare and support our people to manage themselves and their relationships better as part of ‘business as usual’. However, although we often state this as part of the business strategy, it's rarely funded and, even if it is, we don't really understand how to achieve it so the money is often poorly spent with little visible or measurable return.