RACHEL TERLAU
Your partner to success, providing unbiased guidance that delivers real-world results
PERSPECTIVES
MANAGING CHANGE
PERSPECTIVES
MANAGING CHANGE
In life, change is inevitable.
In business, change is vital.
The imperative to adapt, evolve, and transform is clear
Day-to-day business operations can be overwhelming, particularly when compounded by economic challenges like inflation, industry regulation and continuously evolving employee, customer and stakeholder expectations. With so many internal and external factors at play, it can be difficult for leaders to prioritize and resource broad-scale transformation.
Yet, the key to a thriving organizational future depends on the ability of leaders to understand, predict, navigate and strategically lead through the complexities of change and do so in a way that fosters transformational growth.
According to McKinsey & Company, organizational transformation efforts fail at an alarming 60-70%. More notably, even for transformation efforts deemed successful, organizations are still leaving money on the table as 20% of intended value is lost, post-implementation. Why?
At its core, transformation is about people. The likelihood of transformation success increases 3.2 times when the full organization is focused on the right priorities, including a thoughtful approach to challenging the status quo and creating a culture that is nimble, embraces cross-enterprise collaboration, and executes transformational change with speed.
CHANGE AGILITY AS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Majority of company executives claim that change agility and adaption is critical to competitive advantage and growth, yet two-thirds of those pursuing transformation claimed their organizations were treading water, taking no decisive action, and consequently achieving little or no business impact.
Customer and employee feedback, innovative technologies, metrics and analytics are essential capabilities required to deliver transformative customer growth - but it doesn’t stop there. The future success of every transformation effort means optimizing the full operating model across technology, processes, strategy, structures and most importantly, people. To do this requires a distinctive change management skill set and perhaps more significantly, change leadership.
I’ve observed that the ability to deliver value is distilled into four critical change leadership criteria, often dictating success or ultimately, failure:
1
Ability to influentially communicate, foster cross-functional consensus and effectively build a coalition of sponsorship with key leaders and organizational stakeholders
2
Ability to effectively lead through change impact, proactively address resistance across all organizational levels and remove both tangible and intangible barriers to successful value delivery
3
Ability to implement the necessary reinforcements, such as performance measurement and employee recognition, and formalize accountability in appropriate relation to leadership and team structures
4
Ability to recognize and willingly address in-fighting and conflict, particular at the executive level, that interrupts effective decision-making, impedes business performance and cascades across the organization, eroding morale and decreasing productivity
THE IMPACT OF CHANGE
The impact of organizational change can affect different groups within your organization, differently.
With increased change impact, the innate and natural human response is resistance.
And increased resistance increases risk.
NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURES & KPIs
ADDITItive OR CHANGED RESPONSIBILITIES
REDEFINED JOB ROLES & STAFFING needs
NEW technologies SYSTEMS & TOOLS
NEW PROCESSES & WORKFLOWS
new team structures & reporting hierarchies
modified COMPENSATION
FEW CHANGES
EVERYTHING IS CHANGING
Resistance and risk increase alongside change impact
ASK?
To deliver successful outcomes, do we require people to think and behave differently?
In all change, people are the common denominator for achieving intended outcomes!
THE NATURE OF RESISTANCE
Do not underestimate the power of ‘comfort’ with how things are today
Resistance is a natural reaction to change.
The goal is to mitigate, not eliminate all, resistance.
Resistance is not a surprise - expect and plan for it.
Change creates anxiety and fear. The current state has tremendous holding power, and the uncertainty of success and fear of the unknown can block change and create resistance.
WHAT IS
ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE
MANAGEMENT?
Change Management is the application of a structured process and set of tools for leading the people side of change to achieve a desired outcome.
There are multiple change management theories and while methodologies may differ slightly, one aspect all theories hold in common is the critical role of change leadership.
Leading change effectively requires a fundamental shift in culture and values, embedded into daily operations and routines and cannot be simply demonstrated in training or instructional materials.
Change Competency is an organization’s ability to respond to and manage change consistently over time. It's an enterprise-wide capability to apply change management practices successfully and routinely.
CLOSE THE GAP BETWEEN OUTPUTS VS. OUTCOMES
FORTIFY PROJECT EFFORTS & DELIVER SUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES
DRIVE CHANGE SUCCESS
Transformational initiatives with excellent change management practices meet or exceed desired objectives, stay on or ahead of schedule and are more likely to stay within or under budget.
INCREASE CHANGE CAPACITY
Given the accelerated pace of change and respective change impact across most organizations today, it is critical to foster change management efficiencies and consistencies, at scale, that continuously deliver change value.
REDUCE CHANGE FATIGUE
Fatigue occurs when an organization's capacity for change is outstripped by the disruptions caused by cumulative change, which often results in conflicting priorities, constrained resources and in-fighting over leadership mindshare. It’s critical that organizations not only foster effective prioritization capabilities but do so being mindful of current state barriers that will impede the full intended benefit of change investments.
MITIGATE COSTS OF POORLY MANAGED CHANGE
Many organizations have a legacy of poorly managed change, not only under delivering on intended outcomes but wasting time, money and energy, causing organizational stress, confusion and growing distrust in leadership. A consistent, effective and scaled change management discipline reduces silent risk and ensures successful, sustainable change impact.
Organizational initiatives implemented with embedded change management capabilities are...
6x
more likely to meet objectives
Prosci Research
5x
more likely to stay on
or ahead of schedule
Prosci Research
2x
more likely to stay on or under budget
Prosci Research
THE FRAMEWORK
THE 5 PILLARS
1
2
3
4
5
GOVERNANCE
Specific rules, practices, and processes that enable effective decision-making and by which participants are accountable for delivering desired outcomes and benefits.
EXECUTIVE SPONSORSHIP
Active and visible executive-level participation throughout the entirety of change efforts, building peer-level coalitions to drive buy-in and facilitating regular communication across the organization.
COMMUNICATION
A constructed plan and set of assets designed to foster awareness as well as an understanding of the value of change efforts.
TRAINING
A constructed plan and set of assets focused on developing the necessary knowledge and skills employees must apply in acting on change.
REINFORCEMENT
A plan that identifies specific tactics required to reinforce post-implementation change adoption across all organizational levels, including leadership.
RACHEL TERLAU
Your partner to success, providing unbiased guidance that delivers real-world results