Implementation Of Change Management

By M. Isi Eromosele

Change management entails thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation, and above all, consultation with and involvement of the people affected by the changes. If you force change on people normally, problems arise.

Change must be realistic, achievable and measurable. These aspects are especially relevant to managing personnel change. Before starting organizational change, ask yourself: What do we want to achieve with this change, why, and how will we know that the change has been achieved? Who is affected by this change, and how will they react to it? How much of this change can we achieve ourselves, and what parts of the change do we need help with?

Managing organizational change will be more successful if you apply the following simple principles.

• Do not sell change to people as a way of accelerating agreement and implementation. Selling change to people is not a sustainable strategy for success. Instead, change needs to be understood and managed in a way that people can cope effectively with. Change can be unsettling, so the manager logically needs to be a calming influence.

• Check that people affected by the change agree with, or at least understand the need for change and have a chance to decide how the change will be managed. Additionally, make sure they are involved in the planning and implementation of the change.

• Use face-to-face communications to handle sensitive aspects of organizational change management. Encourage your managers to communicate face-to-face with their people too if they are helping you manage an organizational change.

• If you think that you need to make a change quickly, probe the reasons - is the urgency real? Will the effects of agreeing to a more sensible time-frame really be more disastrous than presiding over a disastrous change? Quick change prevents proper consultation and involvement, which leads to difficulties that take time to resolve.

• For complex changes, use project management techniques and ensure that you augment this with consultative communications to agree and gain support for the reasons for the change. Involving and informing people also creates opportunities for others to participate in planning and implementing the changes, which lightens your burden, spreads the organizational load, and creates a sense of ownership and familiarity among the people affected.

• For organizational change that entails new actions, objectives and processes for a group or team of people, use workshops to achieve understanding, involvement, plans, measurable aims, actions and commitment. Encourage your management team to use workshops with their people too if they are helping you to manage the change.

You should even apply these principles to very tough change like making people redundant, closures and integrating merged or acquired organizations. Bad news needs even more careful management than routine change. Hiding behind memos and middle managers will make matters worse. Consulting with people, and helping them to understand does not weaken your position - it strengthens it. Leaders who fail to consult and involve their people in managing bad news are perceived as weak and lacking in integrity. Treat people with humanity and respect and they will reciprocate.

M. Isi Eromosele is the President | Chief Executive Officer | Executive Creative Director of Oseme Group - Oseme Creative | Oseme Consulting | Oseme Finance

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