Getting Leaders Ready: One key to successful organizational change

Summer is almost over and already you can see early signs that fall is on its way. The days are getting shorter, there is an evening chill that lingers a little longer in the morning and maybe the surest sign – the stores have begun to advertise their back to school specials.

As fall approaches and you get back into a more regular routine you may be thinking about rebooting and re-initiating work that you put off to let staff enjoy the summer or because you weren’t ready to get started. If any of that work involves change—whether it’s a software implementation, a new product launch, business expansion, new business process or any other type of change—it’s never too early to ensure your leaders and managers have the knowledge and skills to implement and sustain the changes your organization needs to be successful. Read more

Are your employees ready for change?

Organizational Versus People Readiness Excerpt from DM Turner Launch Lead Live: The executive’s guide to preventing resistance and succeeding with organizational change  “We’re ready. All the hardware and software is installed and the employees have been trained.”  That was a comment from a manager who was implementing a large system change in his organization. It […]

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Change Management 101

Defining change management

What is change management? That was the question I was asked while introducing myself and answering the: “what do you do”, question. Although the person had heard the term he really didn’t understand what it was, or the value it can bring to an organization.

In broad terms, organizational change management is the process used to help people, in an organization, to let go of their current activities and behaviours, and adopt different behaviours, activities and interactions to enable a new work environment.

Three words you need to know for successful organizational change

Process – change is a process. Change management focuses more on facilitating the change process and less on managing the concrete dimension of the change. Unlike project management you don’t really manage change you support and enable the change process.

Turner Change ManagementPeople – organizations don’t change unless the people do. While new processes, strategies and cutting edge hardware and system changes may be critical to your organization’s success, none of these alone can carry your business over the finish line. They need people – your people – to bring them to life and make them work for your business.

Adopt – integrate the new behaviours or activities so people can live the change. It is only when people adopt the new behaviours as the normal way of working that your changes can be sustained.  Every organization can implement change. But only organizations that can sustain the new environment are able to use change as their competitive advantage. Change management focuses on building true commitment to the change initiative by fully engaging the individuals involved.

The role of change management

Change management’s role is not to manipulate people into doing something they don’t want to do. The role of change management is to help each person move through the changes the organization needs to make, as comfortably as possible.

This means helping them envision and prepare for the new work environment — doing new tasks, using new skills, or even sitting in a new seat. Once prepared and confident of their success in the new world, they can approach the change with less stress and anxiety.

Change Management good for businessChange management is good for business. It can help you achieve the true value of the change with less disruption to your daily operation. And when your change management efforts are directed toward readiness, resistance can be prevented. The effects of well-managed change are cumulative. Successfully managing one change builds both your organization’s and your team’s capacity for the next organizational change — and that’s just good business.

Regards,

Dawn-Marie

P.S. Check out Living and Leading Change —  one of the most comprehensive organizational change programs available. Learn the knowledge and skills you need to turn change into your competitive advantage.

Dr. Dawn-Marie Turner is an international researcher, speaker, writer and certified management consultant (CMC). She is president of Turner Change Management, a company that specializes in helping leaders navigate the complexities of organizational change.  She has a doctorate in applied management and decision science from Walden University.

This post was updated on August 23, 2017. It was originally published as “Three Words You Should Know When Managing Organizational Change”

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Rethinking Employee Involvement During Organizational Change

Employee involvement during organizational change is not optional It still surprises me when I hear a leader say, “the change is too large to involve everyone;” or, “we don’t have time to involve everyone.”   It surprises me because it is said as if employee involvement is an option. Your employees, the people you expect […]

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When it comes to communicating your message: Once is never enough

Communication takes more than an email

Today we can communicate with people easier and faster than ever before. Yet I consistently hear leaders and employees talking about feeling overwhelmed with information, but feel under informed about what is actually going on in their organization.

Most of the new communication tools are passive: they leave little opportunity for the conversations needed for change. A great example of this is email. Read more