Thoughts on Change Management

Being into process management, and often responsible for implementing change, I can vouch for the fact that implementing change is difficult. While some change management initiatives succeed, most of them fail – because people often see change as a threat which will pull them out of their comfort zone and make them vulnerable. Yet, change is inevitable.

Some ideas on change management, via Harvard Business Review’s brief on “Change through Persuasion” –

“Conduct a four-stage persuasion campaign:

1) Prepare your organization’s cultural “soil” months before setting your turnaround plan in concrete—by convincing employees that your company can survive only through radical change.

 2) Present your plan—explaining in detail its purpose and expected impact.

3) After executing the plan, manage employees’ emotions by acknowledging the pain of change—while keeping people focused on the hard work ahead.

4) As the turnaround starts generating results, reinforce desired behavioral changes to prevent backsliding.”

Change management has to be done painstakingly – and with a little more care and persuasion, the resistance to change can be controlled.

As Mike Kanazawa says “People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them.”

(Thanks to Rajesh Shetty for pointing to Mike’s ChangeThis Manifesto).