Why Change Management?
Hint: Do it for your people!
“Can’t we just manage our own change? Why do we need consultants for this?”
“Why isn’t the project team doing it?”
We hear these great questions directly from leaders and, more frequently, from employees as they pass their leaders’ positioning on to us.
The answer to the first question is: Yes, you can manage your own change.
Let’s consider that answer a bit more extensively:
At a minimum, managing organizational change requires a level of expertise and dedication for the duration of the initiative to ensure optimal outcomes are achieved.
Now, let’s turn a lens onto your organization and how it operates today:
The typical Leader has her plate full with running day-to-day operations and is accountable for making decisions that affect the organization – the people.
The majority of employees we know are stretched pretty thin. (i.e., minimal extraneous bandwidth)
The project team is – and should be – keenly focused on the technology, process or policy delivery.
Change consultants:
Help leaders identify potential problems and create solutions for them.
Provide guidance on how to best implement the change while proactively addressing potential conflicts or concerns.
Prepare each person in each role with the right information and tools to be successful once the change occurs.
Measure where each person is at with the change throughout the initiative.
Provide insight into measuring the success of the initiative, giving leaders the opportunity to make any necessary adjustments.
A knowledgeable, experienced organizational change consultant can be the best means of ensuring that the tremendous time and monetary investments of a transformational effort will lead to the anticipated returns, i.e., success!
Many organizations come from a time where change did not occur at the accelerated pace at which it is occurring today. As change consultants, we consistently focus on the holistic organizational and operational health of a company undergoing transformational change because we know this is a key factor in sustaining a competitive edge.