3 Steps to Change Management

I know there is more to do about change management, but for today I want to keep it simple and easy to start off. Why Change Management? Any project you are managing, forget about it if you don't drive through a clear and well organized strategy for change management. So what's change management?
This definition is pretty complete: "Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level. A somewhat ambiguous term, change management has at least three different aspects, including: adapting to change, controlling change, and effecting change. A proactive approach to dealing with change is at the core of all three aspects. For an organization, change management means defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in the business environment and to profit from changing opportunities."
Ok, proactive and systematic approach! That's the key! Therefore, I propose the following 3 steps:
1. Create feeling of urgency
2. Include, include, include
3. Communicate steadily

1. Create feeling of urgency
If you want to implement or change something, people want to understand why. You must have a real purpose and objective, otherwise it would be a waste of time. Find the true reason for the project, define the external pressure and the internal needs to do something different. Human kind is reluctant to change and without real pressure, nobody is going to change anything about himself or the way he does something. Look for what the competitor is doing, find the problems people have and communicate your project as a solution to this. And that's why:

2. Include, include, include
To learn what you need to change and where you want to go, you must include all the people affected or involved into your project. Include them from the first day, let them know about your thinking. But first of all, try to understand what their needs are and what they would want to be changed. Make them part of the solution, listen actively and use the recommendations people make. Thank for the work and have them participate in as many steps as possible. Basically, make them owners of the solution. And therefore:

3. Communicate steadily
Have a plan. Send regularly e-mails to all stakeholders explaining the project advance. Schedule meetings with areas and explain status as well as next steps to the implementation of something new. If we are talking about huge organizations or huge changes with many people involved, Coffee Breaks are a great tool. Group them up shortly after lunch, give a 5-10 minute presentation about the project and listen actively to all doubts and comments. Respond to questions openly and just be there. You cannot close yourself into a project office and wait for the change to happen, you have to be out there where the change will happen! Use each and every opportunity to remind people of the need to make this project successful, get their feedback and involve them actively in the solution finding and implementation process.

In future posts more about building a key team, other communication tools and the fun of managing such a project. Are you involved in a change process? Where you affected by change? What did you learn? What were the problems? Please comment and let us know about it.
And don't forget to follow the interesting links proposed on the right side...there might be something more about change management...