Free Clip from Managing IT: Organizational Change Management - Key Activities for Effective Change Management

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This course was published via Pluralsight.

Let's first talk about some problems caused by not implementing organizational change management. A lack of vision leads to confusion, since no one knows the end goal and/or why they are making the change. Without leadership alignment, you end up with division between your departments, since everyone is marching to different orders. If there are no incentives, you will face resistance. Don't forget, people want to know what is in it for them, and they don't want empty promises. If your team does not have the skills needed to implement the change, they will have anxiety. This will ultimately lead to turnover. Your team will think they are being set up to fail, and without an action plan, you'll have multiple false starts, as people will naturally revert back to their old way of doing things. Now let's talk about how we can avoid these problems with OCM.

The following need to be present for OCM to be successful. To get commitment from your team, you need to have clear and relevant objectives. Your team needs to understand the details of what is changing and why it is changing. You also need to ensure your objectives are based on what the customer determines is of value. Strong and committed leadership is a must. Leadership needs to set the example on commitment by showing frequent active support to those trying to implement the change. When the project manager or a team leader runs into a roadblock, they need to step in. Weak leaders will blame the project manager or team leader for not taking care of the problem. But the truth is, their hands are tied on certain issues, and they're going to need support from above. In order for any change to be successful in the long term, you need to have willing participants. This is a tricky one because not everyone will be on board. Some will disagree with what should be done or why it is being done, and some people just don't like any kind of change. Regardless of the reason, you need to get them on board. Over 50% of this course is based on this topic alone. Of course, even if everyone on your team is willing, they need to be able, and that means you need prepared participants. Most major changes require some sort of training. Later in this module, I'll share with you a training plan template for you to use to ensure your team is ready to hit the ground running when the time comes. Training is an investment which will show the resisters that you want to set them up for success. Finally, you'll need sustained improvement to keep people from reverting back to their old ways of doing things. People are going to run into speed bumps, and you'll need to continually reinforce and remind people of the value. No change is perfect.

You can obtain these five essentials for successful improvement through seven key activities. The first is to create a sense of urgency. This will help deliver clear and relevant objectives and willing participants. The next key activity is stakeholder management, which will help deliver strong and committed leadership. Sponsor management also helps to deliver strong committed leadership. Communication is the most important key activity, and it helps to deliver willing and prepared participants. Next, we have empowerment, which helps to deliver prepared participants as well. Managing resistance will help to deliver willing participants. And finally, reinforcement helps to deliver sustained improvement.

This course was published via Pluralsight.