Nearly 50 percent of organizations that had change management efforts have failed.
– Gartner
Today’s competitive business environment forces organizations to evolve faster and become more agile. Moreover, companies are obliged to focus on the customer experience. That, inevitably, calls for digital transformation.
Yet, most of the digital transformation efforts fail badly. Instead, they become an organizational headache, creating a substantial negative return.
As seasoned change management professionals, we see the problem clearly: Organizations focus exclusively on implementing technologies and systems at the expense of people and process aspects. Most digital transformation efforts cannot achieve their ultimate goal, given that they turn a blind eye to processes and people.
Organizations focus exclusively on implementing technologies and systems at the expense of people and process aspects.
For transformation efforts to work, careful attention should be paid to implementation and operationalization. The people and process aspects of change management play a crucial role. Organizational change management (OCM) directly interacts with people and processes to mitigate potential interruptions while fostering operationalization.
Eventually, every organization must change to remain viable with the current unpredictable business environment. Adaptation and agility are the key characteristics of future-proof organizations. Here, the OCM approach helps organizations integrate their employee, processes, technology, culture, and strategy.
WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT?
OCM drives the successful adoption and usage of change within the business. It allows people to understand and commit to the shift and work effectively during the implementation of OCM.
OCM is a well-established approach for creating a mindset, motivation, and momentum. Hence, people can accept and internalize the new ways of working in the future business environment.
- Mindset: “I understand what the change is, and I know what’s in it for me.”
- Motivation: “I understand my role in the organizational change management effort, and I am excited to be part of the change management effort.”
- Momentum: “I understand how the change will impact my job, and I know all the tools and processes that will enable me to achieve my future work objectives.”
WHAT CAUSES ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT?
Various reasons trigger organizations to initiate OCM endeavours. Here are some of the most common reasons that we face:
- External demands
- The implementation of a new technology
- The implementation of new business models
- Internal demands
- Assignment of the new leadership team that results in to change organizations’ direction
- Change mandate in organizational structure
TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
There might be various ways of classifying the OCM endeavour. Yet, we would classify it in three (3) ways:
On-going Changes
Organizations need on-going changes to enhance current business processes that help them satisfy internal and external business needs. We can consider on-going changes as a prescribed enhancement of the old state.
Transitional Changes
When organizations need to have straightforward change management that impacts most corporate bodies, transitional changes happen. It requires a straightforward design and implementation plan to achieve the desired new states.
Transformational Changes
Transformational changes need a drastic shift in organizational direction, culture, processes, digital infrastructure, and people. Instability and uncertainty along the way are inevitable. In most cases, the target state is now well-known.
HOW TO DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT OCM?
We suggest to develop a comprehensive OCM Methodology in three (3) stream approach:
OCM Discovery and Planning
- Develop a Plan for Change: When organizations are ready to initiate OCM, executives must develop a plan for bringing it about. A plan needs to entail the following: Strategic goals, KPIs, scope, stakeholders and team, potential roadblocks, and mitigation strategies
- Set-up OCM Team: A Change Management Team then is created to ensure the smooth design and implementation of the change management activities within organizations
- Stakeholder Identification Analysis: Key stakeholders who will be affected by the OCM are identified from the organization structure and grouped according to similar criteria
- Communication Concept Development: A communication concept is developed based on previous practices, available channels, and identified communication needs
- Learning Concept Development: As part of the learning concept within the change management initiative, the OCM Implementation team develop training programs based on meetings and guiding questions with key stakeholders
- Effective Measurement Concept Development: The effectiveness measurement concept is developed to define the appropriate mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of the digital transformation and organizational change management activities
OCM Design
- Change Impact Analysis: The purpose of the change impact analysis process is to define the level of impact the changes associated with the OCM Implementation and to determine appropriate change management measures to support the transition to the new ways of working
- Change Leaders Identification: During this phase, the OCM team plan, identify, nominate, and enlist change leaders that will support the digital transformation/implementation
- Stakeholder Engagement Plan Development: According to the classified stakeholder groups, a stakeholder engagement plan is developed for each stakeholder, including engagement activities to meet the desired influence and impact
- Communication Plan Development: Based on the communication concept that was previously developed, a communication plan is set by the project team to satisfy the stakeholder engagement plan
- Learning Plan Development: The learning plan is set by the OCM team based on the learning concept previously developed as well as other activities that the team will work on
- Plan Effectiveness Measurement: Aligned to major OCM milestones, the OCM effectiveness plan is developed to measure communication effectiveness, stakeholder engagement effectiveness, learning effectiveness, etc.
OCM Execution
- Change Leaders Mobilization: After change leaders are identified, they are mobilized through a four (4) step process: Kick-Off, Enablement, Capability Handover, and Motivation
- Stakeholder Engagement: A current state assessment compares desired and current engagement levels for the identified stakeholders. Accordingly, mitigation activities are developed to cope with the engagement activities previously set in the engagement plan
- Communication Delivery: The previously set communication plan are implemented, and different types of communication channels are made available
- Learning Content Delivery: After the development of the learning plan, different learning contents are developed and shared with the various stakeholders within the organization
- Effectiveness Measurements: Initiate effectiveness measurement activities to improve and control digital transformation criteria such as organizational readiness, people adoption, and satisfaction as well as overall project performance.
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