Best Practices in Change Management

Best Practices in Change Management

Change is a constant process. Change management is a collective term to prepare, support and help individual, team and organization in change making and dealing with it. It is a systematic way of dealing with change. The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effective change and helping individuals to comfortably adapt to this change.

Some important Change Theories –

• Kurt Lewin’s change theory: Kurt Lewin gave the change model theory. It is called as three step model – unfreeze, change, refreeze. This means unfreeze the old action and behaviors, make change and then refreeze that practice in everyday action. Using these three steps provides people with the framework to work forward.

• Proski’s ADKAR model: This is a goal-based model which can be used to guide both individual as well as the organization. This model of change was introduced 1919’s for both successful as well as unsuccessful action. This model emphasizes that an organization should change. The acronym ADKAR stands for the 5 main components- Awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement.
• Kotter’s 8 step model of change: John Kotter, a Professor at Harvard Business School and world-renowned Change expert introduced his eight-step change process in his book ‘Leading Change’ published in 1995. The eight factors explained by him are –
  
  1. Create Urgency
  2. Form a powerful coalition
  3. Create a vision for change
  4. Remove obstacles
  5. Create short term wins
  6. Build on the change
  7. Anchor the change in corporate culture.

This is another important change model which helps in improvement and growth of an individual as well as organization towards growth and goal set.

Following are some of the practices for the Change Management –

• A good leader - For the change management process, it is always good to have a capable leader who can guide the team member and individuals to go through the change process. As a leader it is very important to have skill like collaboration, communication, problem solving and to work with different personalities. At the same time to be able to motivate and give proper guidance. So, it is very important to have a good leader at this change management process.
• Explain the change process – It is important to explain the change process to the individuals and team so as to have a smooth change process. It is very important to brief them about the consequences and effect of change, how it can be brought into action and how it is going to help the organization to achieve the goal set.
• Proper communication skills - It is very important to have proper communication between the team members. Employees mostly want to be heard from the CEO or the supervisors, so it is very important for the supervisors to have communication with all level of employees. This gives transparency in work as well as help build good relation with the employees. Change supervisor should be people’s person with all the relevant skills.
• Give time – When we change any practice or action, it is always good to give some time to the employees. Adapting to the transition process is not same for all, some individuals might take time to adapt and adjust the change process. In this case giving some time to the individuals to adjust themselves and guiding them through the process is important.
• Look for the depth before implementing the change process – Not all change can be used for long time, so it is very important for the supervisors to filter and look into the depth of the change before implementing them. Change that can serve long term benefits and meet organization’s goal can be brought into action.
• Appoint a Change Manager – It is important for the organization to have a potential Change Manager or Supervisor in order to assess the change process, its implementation and its effectiveness towards goal set. Proper training can be given to the potential and highly active member of the organization rather than recruiting another individual to perform this task.
• Always keep track and keep checking – It is important for the Change Managers and the team lead to keep track of their team member, help and guide them and also keep checking of their progress and achievement. Keeping track not only helps in assessment but also discussing problem and solving them together can be more effective. Employees also feel the seriousness of the change as they have time to time guidance by the team leaders and managers. Giving time to time feedbacks and guidance can help in achieving goal. A record can be maintained and can be easy to track the growth of an individual.

Thus, it is very important for the high authorities to think deeply, project the growth and consequences and also discuss with the other supervisors before implementing the change. Once it is finalized to implement the change, a proper and clear orientation needs to be given to the team members with all the goal set and risks involved in the change. After orientation, it is the responsibility of the supervisors to keep track, help and assess the change process.