What if you could easily move a team forward?
If you are skilled in change management you can do anything: solve problems, change mindsets, create new businesses, and launch new technologies. You can make sure that the organization and its people are following the market closely. It almost seems like magic, but of course it’s not. It’s just plain hard work and knowing what to do and what not.
Behavioral change
A change starts with a problem. For example, you have noticed that a product is no longer selling well or that the competitor is introducing an important improvement or that a team is not as successful as it used to be. The current situation is no longer applicable.
You have to search for an answer to this problem. You will search for new technologies, develop a new design for the organization or formulate a new policy. It seems like you have already accomplished a lot with this answer, but the real change is yet to come. The most difficult part in this process is to translate this change into a concrete change in behavior of your team members. Each organizational change will always lead to a change in behavior, often of large groups of individuals. The question for the leaders who are responsible for the change is: how can we accomplish this change of behavior?
Science in practice
You might have seen books by Edgar Schein, Kurt Lewin, Peter Senge or Chris Argyris about change management, organizational development and management consulting. You might have also noticed that two versions are published of these books. First a rather abstract, theoretical book is published which is based on solid scientific research. One or two years later, the second book is published ‘the workbook’. This is the translation of academic theory into practical procedures and working methods. ‘The workbook’ is considered less valuable in the scientific world, but commercially it is often a success because it contains concrete tips for the design of a course of change, as well as how to practically handle different activities in this course.
Acceptance & implementation
Managing organizational change demands careful planning for employee contacts and great communication skills. Make sure you organize activities which offer employees some help to grasp the ideas. Activities which allow employees to contribute to the development of these ideas are even better. If you, as a change manager, can really engage in a discussion with groups of employees about the planned change, you will be surprised to notice how quickly trust is created, which is the number one condition for change. Of course not every individual can take part in every discussion and it is necessary to manage this process very well. Consider what you really want, who you want to talk to about what, how much space you are able to provide for influence and how exactly you want to tackle these discussions. There are many interesting articles on change management and best management practices. Use them, reflect on them and learn from them. You might be able to write your own book, your ‘workbook’, on change management.
