Change Management

In a very broad level of change in an organization, the following types of changes tend to have a high impact:

Change of Mission and Focus:
Example: When an organization decides to do an image makeover or a cultural change and present a new look and a new logo etc.

Strategic and Structural Changes:
Example: Changing the Management Reporting Structure, Changing the Procurement Management system, moving to a new facility etc.

Technological Changes:
Example: Including adapting to a new business environment (like Audio tape to CD to DVD to Blu-ray etc.)

Process Changes:
Example: Introduction of an automation system to reduce the number of workers etc.

While Continuous Improvement Initiatives are largely data driven, based on past performances and future extrapolation based on available numbers; Change Management largely tends to be and needs to be people centric. A happy worker often makes for a good worker. And people who run the processes seldom like frequent changes. It is imperative that all the stakeholders are convinced about the need for the Organizational change and are made a part of it. While there are many journals and white papers on the intricacies of handling change; for effective management of change, the following factors need to be in place:

- Communications Planning: Before and during any roll-out of a strategic change, the key stakeholders need to be informed of the managements need and the efficacy with which the rollout is planned. Change affects everyone in the company across all levels and hence communication should be planned across all levels to include them as the change agents and change drivers inclusively. In primacy, most employees tend to think of change as dissociative and isolative, which needs to be nipped in the bud.

- Training Plan: As a part of the changing environment, all the key stakeholders must be educated about the areas of impact which are going to affect them. Cross-training of employees to handle multiple tasks when necessary is the need of the hour in an ever changing business environment.

- Business Continuity Planning: Through the change in organizational work environment, the end delivery to the customer should never be compromised or jeopardized.

- Back-up and Recovery: While backup and recovery rests largely with the technology teams, when it comes to data; the organizational blue print before the change, should remain intact with version controls and sign-offs. Many organizations falter here, especially when things go wrong. It is often that the change driver takes the blame for failure and / or has to leave the organization. In case of rare failures, a rollback mechanism needs to be in place, till such time a suitable alternate plan is arrived at.

- Financial Planning: It is needless to say that the cost of a change rollout would be of the highest priority. Apart from the evident costs, the hidden costs like employee turnover due to the change, and the subsequent costs of rehire and training needs to be factored in as a part of the cost of change.