Change management is a crucial process for organisations navigating transitions, but it’s often misunderstood. For those change leaders and practitioners who have been in the industry for some time, feel free to play along at home and shout "bingo" when you've collected the whole set of 8! You may need to take a tongue-in-cheek read of this post, as we debunk some common misconceptions about change management.
Change Management Is Only for Big Changes
Smooth transitions apply to big changes and small. The reality is that change management applies to both large-scale transformations and smaller adjustments. Even minor process changes benefit from thoughtful management.
In fact we know this to be true, because its a very common approach to break down large changes into smaller, more manageable chunks. We see this in the world of agile software development (and in many other common sense situations).
Change Management Is Just Communication
Communication is vital, but change management encompasses more. It involves planning, stakeholder engagement, training, and addressing resistance. Without some kind of assessment to start off with, there will be nothing to communicate. Change management is not public relations, and it is not an organisation's opportunity to promote unfounded claims about a vague future. Change communications need to build trust in the change audience. And to do this, they need to be authoritative, specific, empathetic and reflect knowledge of what the change audience is doing and how it's changing.
Change Management Slows Down Progress
Properly managed change ensures smoother transitions, minimising disruptions and accelerating progress in the long run. Carrying out any complicated mission or procedure well requires thoughtful planning. The industry of change management has been refining approaches to change for decades, based on close observation of how individuals and organisations respond to change.
Despite there being a phase of assessment, planning or analysis prior to outgoing change activities, change management processes when run well, accelerate the end result.
Imagine shooting practice in a forest in which you've placed a number of targets. With very little preparation, you can hand your change sponsor their paint-ball gun and send them in to hit as many targets as possible. This will create noise and will hit a few targets. Most importantly, it will feel like taking action.
On the other hand, you can slow down the sponsor's foray into the forest and plan a pathway through the trees lining up each target with more precision. You can enlist help so that all targets can be covered by a team-based approach, all moving carefully together and you have enough ammunition to last until the end. It won't feel like getting off the mark as quickly as the first option, but it will cover more targets in a more coordinated way, achieving a much faster result in the long run.
Change Management Is Linear
In reality change is non-linear. Adaptability and flexibility are essential as new information or unexpected challenges arise. We know that small, seemingly random changes in a system can significantly impact its long-term behaviour. These small changes happen all the time in business and in projects, and they can make it challenging to predict future outcomes. Therefore change management should lay down a broad plan, but keep revisiting the finer details until there is enough stability to deliver and implement.
Change Management is HR’s Responsibility
Because change management embraces the people side of working, some parts of the organisation view it as being the responsibility of the Human Resources department. In reality HR, or People and Culture, plays a valuable role as allies of making organisational change stick. But change management also involves project teams, leaders, managers, and employees at all levels.
In my experience, change management is more commonly driven by the project team and assistance from People and Culture teams (or HR teams) comes in when workplace redesign is required. HR teams do a brilliant job at stabilising the organisational structure by analysing roles in teams and designing (and implementing) the organisation to function they way they've been requested. This is an invaluable support in dealing with a major impact of the change, but it is not the entirety of the change.
Change Management is a One-Time Event all about the New System
Changes come in all shapes and sizes. Change management can support cultural change, process change, technology delivery, organisational restructures, business transformations and many other types of change besides.
In recent years, we seem to be reaching an understanding that change is continuous. We need to further build into our organisations a stable mechanism to not only deal with change events but also to improve the way the organisation itself deals with change.
Technology is a tool but change management focuses on people, processes, and culture holistically. Effective change management requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment.
Change Management is a soft skill for Convincing People
Change management is a business discipline and an organisational reality. It combines skills we may traditionally see as soft such as empathy and communication with skills such as project management and data analysis. Change management is not all about persuasion but rather about understanding the way people in a business work before seeking to change their world, and addressing their concerns along the way.
Going back to the forest, imagine you were to recommend a walking trail to your friend. You might say something like “Hey, there’s this great walking trail nearby. You should check it out!” Without any supporting information, your friend will probably lack motivation to take action. This approach has not been particularly convincing.
If, on the other hand, you were show your friend some photographs of the trail and to say something like, "I just walked this trail—it’s 5 kilometres long, has stunning views, and a magical waterfall at the end. Trust me, you’ll love it!” Now you’ve combined facts about the length of the trail and the views; with empathy being a positive experience. You've shown photographs and created a true picture of how enjoyable the trail would be for your friend to take up. This holistic approach is more persuasive than mere attempts to be convincing.
Change Management Guarantees Success
Success depends on various factors, including leadership commitment, alignment, and adaptability. The study and practice of change management works very hard to analyse approaches that are more successful than others, and to build better, stronger and more innovative capabilities to ensure organisational changes stick. While change management cannot guarantee success, if you're prepared to build a team approach around your change, resource it effectively, and put it in the hands of a capable change manager, you position it for as much success as possible.
Common Misconceptions about Change Management
Effective change management involves a holistic approach, considering people, processes, and organisational culture. It is no silver bullet but rather a combination of both art and science. For more, please see Mastery in Change Management: Part Art and part Science.
To understand more about Agencia Change and how we can help you with your change pain points, book a free introduction.