Every project is a heavy burden for a manager. How justified will a decision be, what consequences will it have, how will it affect the status quo, will it bring a profit or, on the contrary, turn into an unforeseen expense, will it change the time needed to deliver or implement the project…? There are always more questions than answers. The availability of a test environment or specialised tools, such as split testing in Internet marketing, which allow comparisons to be made, makes the situation easier.
But in most commercial organisations and project teams there is no real-time testing capability. In such cases you have to rely on the manager’s considerable experience and ability to use management tools such as planning. Everything can be planned: risks (through risk management), time (through planning project duration), expectations (through planning stakeholder expectations), resources (through human resource management principles), dealing with problems and requests/concerns, future changes.
This article is about planning and managing change in projects.
What is Change Management?
The bigger and more important the innovation, the more serious the consequences of making the wrong decisions.
Change management is a controlled and well-structured business process in which a team, project or other organisation moves from one (current) state to another (future, planned) state.
In order to achieve such a transition, you need to:
- Assess, analyse, describe and document the current state.
- Decide on the transition and set specific objectives.
- Form and authorise a team to manage the change.
- Draw up a plan for the change.
- Carry out preparatory work.
- Initiate the change.
- Monitor the transition process and respond to incidents in a timely manner.
- Consolidate the results.
- Where possible, analyse and document the results for future innovation.
As you can see, this process is similar to the duties of any manager: planning, providing, tasking, controlling, analysing and so on.
Nothing fundamentally new has been invented in the management process. Change management is just a type of business process with some peculiarities and nuances. But it does not cease to be a management process itself, so it has all the relevant attributes.
What is the purpose of the change management process?
As can be seen in living nature, all organisms adapt to constantly changing external conditions. If this does not happen, the entire species will face extinction.
In business, the same principle applies — adapt or die. If you don’t change your company and its business processes, if you don’t look for better suppliers, if you don’t use new technologies and tools, if you don’t train and up-skill your people, you will quickly find yourself out of business. All your customers will go to your competitors and you will go out of business.
The purpose of any change is to adapt and survive, to improve efficiency. The goal of change management is to avoid chaos during the implementation phase, so that uncontrollable negative consequences do not occur during this period: for example, a drop in revenue and efficiency, production stoppages, destruction of supply chains, so that the goal of the change is achieved.
The most obvious examples of change in an organisation are restructuring and downsizing.
Why do you need to manage change?
All management is about control. Change management is necessary for management to maintain full (or as much as possible) control over the change situation.
Normally, not all changes need to be controlled. For example, if the activities are minor or cannot potentially lead to serious consequences, control is not necessary.
As mentioned above, change management as a business process only arises in the case of large, complex and responsible changes. If such processes are not controlled, their outcome can be extremely unfavourable. This is where control is essential.
Is growth management also change management?
Yes, the growth of a company that is successful at the beginning or at a certain stage of its life cycle also needs to be adjusted. Inappropriate use of resources, or even just poor allocation of resources, can lead to serious mistakes that are almost impossible to correct.
When growth is rapid, management is even more necessary because the manager’s actions alone may not be enough — he simply does not have the time to keep track of everything. That’s why you need to be prepared: build a team in advance to help you expand your sphere of influence, enter new markets, train new employees and more.
Only serious preparation will ensure maximum efficiency and predictable results.
The main change management models
Models are ready-made approaches to organising work. This does not mean that you or your organisation should necessarily use one of them. On the contrary, you can choose not to use them and find a way that works better for you and your team.
But at the same time, studying such models can suggest interesting schemes and variations of how it has worked for others, and provide the necessary theoretical basis. It is clear that it will be extremely problematic to gather real feedback in your niche, as such information is close to a trade secret. That’s why, in the absence of experience, the best way out is to familiarise yourself with typical models.
What models are used for change management?
- Kotter’s theory — suggests that human resources are at the heart of all radical change within an organisation. It shows the stages that need to be passed through to achieve the required results (8 main stages in total).
- ADKAR-Prosci — suggests that change should start in the minds of employees, for which there are 5 main stages: Awareness, Helping Others to Awareness, Gaining the Necessary Knowledge, Implementation, Consolidation of Success.
- Nudge — direct directives and instructions should be replaced by recommendations and nudges in the right direction.
- 7C McKinsey is a systematic approach that takes many factors into account. The model was developed by the consulting firm of the same name.
- Kurt Lewin’s theory — a sequential model of change with preparation, practical implementation and freezing (fixing) of changes.
- PDCA cycle (Deming’s model) — works similarly to Kurt Lewin’s theory, but instead of 3 main phases it uses four: planning, action, checking, documenting.
- Bridges’ model — describes three phases of change that follow each other with a certain cyclicity: loss/release, neutral zone and new phase (direct transformation).
These are just some of the more popular models.
How do you plan for change?
Planning can have different scales and levels of detail. If we are talking about major changes, the scale should be appropriate. This kind of planning is usually called strategic planning. But no one is stopping you from going beyond the practice of these outlines and making the plan as detailed as possible: to include possible risks and measures to respond to them, to allocate and calculate resources, to provide a reserve in case of problems, etc.
It is ideal if there is an opportunity for pre-testing. For example, in a large organisation, changes can be implemented in a separate division or branch. All errors are taken into account, everything is documented and then rolled out to the whole organisation.
To reduce risks and ensure that nothing is forgotten, it is logical to use specialised software and services such as Projecto for planning and project management. For more details on proper planning, see our separate article ‘How to create the perfect project plan‘.
