Change management may sound like a routine process, but it is a widely underestimated challenge for almost all companies. The effort, complexity and resistance are often significantly underestimated.
The trigger or triggers for change come from many directions - and usually have the same effect as a stone thrown into the water: the first effect is the impact - but then the waves expand until the energy is dissipated.
Water functions according to clear physical principles. This is not necessarily the case with organizations and people.
Change management in slow motion
Change in organizations usually takes place in a frightening ultra-slow motion. This is because the path from the basic idea to the accepted introduction of change usually goes through many stages of evolution.
An agile organization as an ideal image of the ability to change is a desirable target image of a sustainable and long-term perspective - and it is worth taking the first step NOW. The journey is long enough to never start too early.
In every phase of evolution, it is important to have transparency about the goals, intended changes and affected areas and players in the next stage. It helps immensely to use a model derived from agile methods such as SAFe known backlog and to view each stage or section as a sprint. Similarly, leadership with the OKR method facilitate integration into milestones.
Creating a stakeholder map also helps - in this case, it is not just about project sponsors, but in particular about the employees, customers, suppliers or influencers affected by changes. Suitable communication measures should be developed for the identified personas or individuals and established in the project.
As change takes place in parallel with the real world and requires a lot of time, changes lead to additional work, higher workloads and, of course, personal sensitivities until they are introduced. These dimensions need to be recognized and managed.
Practical tips
Those who have to lead change rarely have it easy - and are rarely loved by everyone. There are always winners and losers in the change process and it is helpful to know all the positions involved and how they are perceived.
Here are a few tips
- Start 3 times earlier than you had previously planned.
- Create a transparent picture of the target state and the motivating factors for change from the company's perspective
- Identify and refute placebo arguments against change and identify and prevent Micro-policy
- Accept the fact that change does not work democratically and create a comprehensible, data- and fact-based decision-making culture
Obtain external advice so that critical or sensitive issues do not have to be dealt with by internal employees.
