Change management is an essential step to successfully complete certain projects within your company. Successful change requires acceptance of the new structure, which is often essential to adapting to new challenges and market developments. When it comes to change, technical aspects take priority over human concerns. Transformation can sometimes give rise to difficulties and resistance, which need to be managed using appropriate methods and tools. This means setting up an effective change process. To help you, Lemon Learning presents five steps to successful organizational change.
Step 1: Diagnosis and preparation for change
The first step to successful organizational change is to carry out a diagnosis, followed by project planning. This means analyzing the reasons for and objectives of the change, and assessing the resources and skills required. You need to involve key stakeholders in your change management methodology to reduce the risk of resistance.
Ask yourself why you need to implement organizational change, and what difficulties this transformation will help your team overcome. You need to draw up a statement of requirements that will serve as a compass for the work ahead. Indicate the results that the new management tool or technologies will enable you to achieve.
Once you’ve analyzed your organization, including its culture, strategies and management approach, move on to assessing organizational performance. Studying the company’s context and environment is not enough to make a successful transition. You can use a change management and assessment tool such as the Kurt Lewin model to carry out your analysis. The actions you need to implement should be established and coordinated with employees to help them manage the challenges of change.
Step 2: Strategic planning for change
You need to define a clear vision of the organization’s future and draw up a detailed plan with specific objectives. You must also identify the success factors and monitoring indicators for your organizational change. Once you have considered the strengths and weaknesses of your approach and analyzed organizational performance, all that remains is to plan the relevant actions and interventions in your change project.
Using organizational change implementation tools such as McKinsey’s 7S model will help you create the necessary conditions for the project. Set up work processes specifically dedicated to organizational change within your structure, and a team capable of taking charge of the entire project. The organization must also ensure that high-level support is maintained throughout the process.
Step 3: Communication and awareness
To succeed, you need to communicate transparently about the organizational change and involve the company’s employees and stakeholders in the process. You need to raise awareness of the benefits and importance of change to get employee teams on board. You can call on a facilitator to guide your teams in formulating shared, credible scenarios for the future and conclusions on the analysis of the effects of change.
Not only that, but you need to communicate with each team throughout the change process to understand their needs and wishes. This enables you to build consensus and commitment among all teams and stakeholders towards the process ahead. Put them at the heart of the organizational change process, whether in terms of information gathering, model analysis or communication, so that they become familiar with it.
Step 4: Implement change
Once you’ve allocated the necessary resources for implementation, keep a close eye on the progress of the organizational change. This will ensure the effective management of obstacles and resistance to change. It’s also the best time for initiatives to be launched across the company in the most flexible way possible. These initiatives may seek to improve operational processes, develop the use of digital technology, or look at the culture of the organization.
As a general rule, organizations and companies that succeed in their change process hold collaborative meetings to help the various players and stakeholders understand every lever of the project. Organizational change is implemented on the basis of a pre-established plan. Make sure that tasks are completed on the agreed dates and within the agreed timescales, to avoid any impact on the budget.
Step 5: Evaluation and continuous adaptation
The final step in the organizational change process is to evaluate the results and effects of the project. You need to gather feedback from your employees and adapt the strategy as necessary to ensure continuous improvement. This means setting up a tracking system to monitor the progress of organizational change initiatives and identify any modifications that need to be made. You can also organize face-to-face or online workshops. Use them to set the priorities required to close the gap between the current situation and the defined vision.
Post-project review is a simple process used to learn from the successes and failures of past projects. It can be used to improve the performance of your organizational change. As with the previous phases, make sure you involve employees and stakeholders by informing them about the modifications made to the organizational change process. This is the best way to help them adapt.
Whatever the type of organizational change you are considering in your company (transformation, team, correction, etc.), Lemon Learning can help!
