In my 40+ years of Change Management Consulting, I’ve seen a lot of resistance to change. In fact, I’d be surprised if someone could come up with an example of resistance I haven’t experienced! To many of my clients, resistance is one of the most frustrating aspects of implementing a business change. But, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be.
We all know a culture of innovation can make a company wildly successful. But the growing challenge innovative organizations face is how to ensure enough attention is being paid to how to implement all the fabulous ideas they come up with!
I recently did a quick google search on the words “Change Management Training” and was shocked to see the number of options that came up. The marketplace is, in fact, filled with countless choices. There were even sites that filtered the options for you. Find the right change management training now!
When most people think about change management, they automatically assume preparing targets is the most important activity a Change Agent should be doing. But we all know you should never assume (and we all know why, too!) The fact is, having visible and active Sponsors at all levels of the organization who are actively demonstrating their commitment to a change, both publicly and privately, is the most important factor in a fast and successful implementation.
Between Healthcare and Business Transformation, the amount of money currently being spent on organizational change is staggering. Unfortunately, as the amount of money being spent on transformation continues to rise so do the number of unsuccessful implementations. Recent studies confirm only 25-30% of all business changes achieve full benefit realization. Yes, you read that correctly.
Have you recently undergone a major, organizational change? Maybe it was a new technology, a new innovation or a continuous improvement initiative, or perhaps it was a shared services implementation. No matter the type of change, chances are a lot of time and money were put into the project. But, after the “go-live” date has passed, I challenge you to look around your organization. Are employees actually using the new processes? Or are they busy creating work arounds? I’m guessing more of the latter, yes?
It’s easy to understand why so many organizations are turning to Agile. Being able to quickly adapt to new technology, innovation and continuous improvement is what keeps organizations one step ahead of their competition. But, “going Agile” isn’t as easy as it sounds. This change in mindset not only requires people to think in a whole new way, it requires the entire organization to do different things, in different ways.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. Your organization is getting ready for a major change. The “go-live” date is drawing near, and someone says, “Oh wait! We need to do change management!” Someone else says, “Don’t worry, we’ve got that covered. A mass email is going out next week, the website will go live right after that and there will be several social media posts as well.” Excellent. They definitely have that covered. I’m sure this change will be very successful (insert eye roll here).
The digital transformation race is on! Everywhere I look organizations are working at double speed to find the most innovative ways to use technology to transform their organization. Digital transformation is not only changing the way business gets done, in some cases, it’s transforming entire industries! In short, digital transformation is a real game changer.
Change is hard. Enterprise-wide, transformational change is geometrically more complex. While big changes such as Agile, Mergers & Acquisitions and Shared Services may make strategic sense for an organization, there is no doubt they can be time consuming and incredibly challenging.
