Saturday, March 28, 2020

Change Management Steering Instruments and Methodologies

There is no panacea, no magic bullet with regards to change management. Steering Instrument Tools are capable of increasing speed and consistency of change. 

Change is the new normal with increasing pace. It is nevertheless true that change itself has become unpredictable and evolutionary. If you are not clear on why you are changing or If change is implemented with no clarity then you are doing a change just for change's sake.

Statistically, about 70% of change initiatives fail, rather, they fail to meet stakeholders’ expectations. Forward-looking organizations should have a set of changing steering instruments, systems, and structures in place prior to implementation in order to improve the change management success rate and build the differentiated business competencies.



The change profile-scan: Too many organizations are mechanistic, reactive, control and command hierarchies. Lack of change review, reflection, and recognition often make changes not sustainable. Successful organizations see changes coming and with pre-planning to overcome the resistance before it even manifests. Change profile-scan is one of the important instruments to help diagnose the root cause of problems, the psychology behind the change, or the technique needed for changes.

When employee morale is low and the business gets stagnant, trace down the “unfit” mindset, poor behaviors or lower-than-expected performances, understand the causes behind it, and get out fast or initiate change within. Dynamic and changing organizations cannot operate with unchanging people. Recognize and empower change agents, update change methodology and technology. Sometimes, it's not the change that needs management. It's management that has to change. Pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, etc, are the logical steps in managing change scenarios.

The architecture (business or solution, IT architecture, etc.) as a change steering instrument: Because organizational change becomes common practice within an organization, it turns to be one of the ongoing strategic capabilities which underpin successful execution and move an organization from “keeping the lights on” to strategic responsiveness. To actually facilitate change or movement in a company, you need a business steering instrument such as business architecture that gives you a holistic view (business steering) so that the business problem can be seen from every relevant perspective and every perspective has a whole world behind itself to be described (architecture). From the organizational capability perspective, organizational change management has a strong role in business transformation, benefits realization, and strategy execution.

Change Management should be an adequate, logical, and systematic effort to any environmental shift. Strategically, what you actually need is a business steering instrument such as architecture tool that starts from the top of an organization (mission, vision, goals, and strategy) and handles every new business problem from all the relevant perspectives (IT, Finance, HR, Operations, etc.). Methodologically, the alignment with organizational design, architecture, and functions is ultimately where you need to be to really make a difference. Change cannot be just another thing that needs to be accomplished, it has to be woven into the collective communication, mentality, process, and action of the organization to bring up business value continuously.

The well-designed scorecard as a change steering instrument: The balanced scorecard enables the management to accurately judge the coming curves and obstacles on the path of change management and drive changes proactively. Scorecards help greatly with prioritization, allowing you to focus on the most important things and tailor the needs of varying business stakeholders.

It is also important to provide a “balanced” view of tradeoff variables. The scorecard helps to understand results, setting metrics, fixing plans, and making decisions to improve change management effectiveness. Through a well-designed Executive Scoreboard, business leaders can capture both quantitative hard numbers about cost savings and qualitative perspective of Change Management health.

There is no panacea, no magic bullet with regards to change management. Steering Instrument Tools are capable of increasing speed and consistency of change. The high mature digital organizations are highly conscious about what’s happening in their environment, with the ability to adapt to change timely, grasp opportunities, and prevent risks effectively.





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