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Secret of Effectively Managing CHANGE

Statistically, nearly 80% of  major transformation programs, either technical or strategic, fail to generate the desired benefit, reportedly, due to  failure to manage the change.  This is both myth and fact.

Myth: The implementation team failed to manage the desired change effectively thereby the entire ERP, CRM, Merger, etc. failed to meet its intended goals.

Fact: In most cases the project team failed to manage their own health and internal processes, causing unintended consequences to ensue.

Transformations fail to achieve their goals because the implementation team falls prey to themselves. 

Typical stumble points include:

  1. Ignoring how the change initiative or new strategy is honestly perceived by stakeholders
  2. Communicating not only the “new way”  to get work done but also “what to stop doing” the old way
  3. Establishing clear metrics to guide the change forward

A key responsibility of the change leader in any major transformation effort is to care for the project team by listening, observing and intervening when destructive conflicts, miscommunications, poor decision making, breakdowns in accountability, weak leadership and overall fatigue within the team surfaces. 

Effective change depends on effective change agents.  A change practitioner’s goal is  to keep the team in their forward view and be aware of challenges to meeting the ultimate goal.  If the change agent’s are dysfunctional, the change will fail. 

Keeping the team together is more than organizing a few fun events.  This select group of highly talented folks are the core of your change agent force. 

Maintain team health by:

  1. Consistently reinforcing the future state vision and goals – when the goals are clear, the road to success will also be clear.
  2. Ensuring the project team remains integrated with business stakeholders – isolation will breed stakeholder resistance.
  3. Quickly intervening when signs of dysfunction appear; confront issues head-on within the team – negative perceptions within the team will leech into the stakeholder group and stiffen resistance to change.

Effective change leaders work with both internal team dynamics and business stakeholders equally. SSHH….This is the dirty little secret!

April 27, 2011 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment