If you are seeking transformational change, you will need a change management methodology that unifies the organization with one approach, one vocabulary, and one set of tools. While leaders may resist the need to invest, you just can't overcome the cultural barriers to transformational change that most organizations face:
- a history of operating in vertical silos where power and authority
have been reinforced - a culture of risk-aversion that must be overcome
- too many priorities causing enormous stress on too few resources
- sponsors that lack the knowledge and skills to provide the new reinforcements with their direct reports that will drive the transformational change
have been reinforced Time and again in our change management consulting work we have confronted leadership teams that want to fundamentally change the organization without fundamentally addressing the cultural barriers to doing so. No matter how beautifully designed the strategy may be, nor how powerful the new technology, nor how sound the new processes are-- these planned innovations will not be successfully implemented to full value realization unless the cultural and organizational barriers can be overcome.
That's why a change management methodology like the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM) is so valuable in transformational change. It provides a roadmap for overcoming these barriers in a logical, practical, and systemic way. Otherwise you will find yourself with program(s) and even hundreds of work streams with no process in place for addressing the cultural elements of the change!
Virtually every organization understands that project management is an essential component for implementing transformational change. Everyone knows the value of having processes in place for managing time, budget, and deliverables.
Yet there is still some resistance to making that same investment on the human elements of the transformation, despite the data that continues to show that at least 70% of these changes fail to achieve anticipated benefits, on time, on budget, and to spec.
If your organization is looking to implement transformational change in 2013, you will need some way to address the cultural barriers. If your organization has had past failed implementations, you will need to put even more resources in place to overcome your past history.
So let's talk about the benefits to a methodology that provides "project management for people."
1. Reduced risk of having the disruption of transformational change (and it is inherently highly disruptive) cause lower productivity, reduced quality, lower customer/patient satisfaction and poorer customer/patient outcomes
2. Higher likelihood of meeting all the measures of implementation success-- on time, on budget, all business, technical, and human objectives met
3. Ability to get the changes implemented at greater speed when you have capable change agents that have the requisite skills, knowledge and tools to address the cultural barriers.
4. Sponsors who are spending their valuable time doing on those activities that will drive the change instead of maintaining the status quo.
We all have likely experienced situations in our academic, personal, or professional lives where we have seen the power of a unifying focus. If you are going to invest in transformational change, it makes sense to have a process for driving the behavioral component of the change just as you need a process for driving the technical aspects of the change.
Your organization may choose to ignore the need for a methodology to address the human elements of the change, but know that there will be a price to be paid. It is a lot less expensive to align around a common definition of the transformation, build readiness, develop sponsorship, create reinforcements, build communications, and address cultural barriers prospectively rather than trying to fix problems later on.
How does your organization plan to manage transformational change?
