How can you help leaders identify and manage risks associated with change?

Start with not only accepting the change, but rather be convinced for the need of this change in order to be a protagonist of change. If you have even only mild doubts, it will be very cumbersome to convince others. Any doubts should be cleared by the management team prior to the decision to determine the change path, fully and honestly supported by a large majority. Easy in theory, more difficult in practice since leaders are not necessarily those who make the decisions for change. Change leaders should come from the own organization, as they probably have a higher credibility.

One realisation I have in managing change is that we often times underestimate the implication of the change to individuals. We focus our efforts on broad strategies affecting processes, acquisition of new capabilities, communication to wide audiences, but don’t spend enough time to sincerely talk to individuals affected by the change. By listening to them, we can get insights on how to best manage the change, what will work or not work for them. At the end of the day, they are the ones who drive the change. Systems, processes and technologies are enablers, but actual shift or adaption to the change can only happen through the people involved in the change.

I do not think it is difficult to identify the risks associated by change, because all those impacted by the new ways of working will want to raise their concerns. This is the natural response to the uncertainty, anxiety and fear of change. It can lead to a high volume of "things that might not work in the future" and "disruption that the change will cause". We need a simple, repeatable risk management approach so that every risk is treated the same, and we do not fall into the trap of treating risks raised by senior or influential people more seriously than we treat risks raised by junior or less experienced staff.

In addition to the already said it is in my view key essential to align with stakeholders and get buy-in (and support) before you start changes. Make sure that everyone is on board. Inspire with your vision and passion for the change.

The only constant is change, so every leader must embrace change and work towards effective change management. I personally employ P-D-C-A methodology to manage change. It's simple yet effective. The 1st step in any change should be planning, which starts with documenting: - Current Status or situation benchmark - Identifying the End goal or the objective - Identifying milestones in between and the metrics of successful change - Identifying the stakeholders, resources, constrains, potential challenges, timelines and controllable or uncontrollable factors that might influence the change. Remember "a problem well-stated is a problem half-solved"

It's important that you don't try to identify impacts and risks from an ivory tower (e.g. only on your own). Just like co-design leads to better engagement and change outcomes, get your key stakeholders involved in the assessment, and play back to your leaders for validation and any additional thoughts. Ensure there are mitigation/ action items and owners. And the biggest thing for me? change is not linear, so any impact or risk assessment should not be a one time activity. It is "living" throughout the change design, delivery......and beyond (if you are focusing on successful embedment of change vs simply installation).

Leadership, at its core, is about vision, direction, and navigating challenges. In the face of change, effective risk management becomes a cornerstone of successful leadership. By systematically identifying, addressing, and communicating about risks, leaders not only steer organizations through change effectively but also build resilience for future shifts. The dynamic nature of today's business world demands leaders who are not just reactive but proactive risk strategists, ensuring organizational agility and robustness.

I played a pivotal role in enhancing vendor onboarding by identifying critical gaps in our agreements with key partners. Collaborating with internal teams and vendors, I negotiated and established legally binding agreements. This proactive approach not only mitigated legal and financial risks but also streamlined onboarding, boosting efficiency and compliance. My commitment to process management and risk mitigation significantly improved our operations and relationships with key partners, saving valuable company resources.

The key change management stages involved provide a good opportunity to identify risks. For example change strategy, change impact assessment, change readiness assessment, stakeholder analysis, communication strategy, resistance management, training needs analysis, and etc. Work done at all these stages enables a change manager to identify potential risks to the change. Based on which the change manager develops and updates change plans/ interventions to mitigate the identified risks. I also visit the project/ program's risk register to see if any of the risks could potentially be a change risk.

It's crucial to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to understand the potential impacts of the proposed changes on various aspects of the organization, including operations, finances, and reputation. This assessment should involve gathering input from stakeholders at all levels to ensure a holistic view of potential risks.

If you have done an Organisation Readiness Assessment you will have been able to identify a lot of risks throughout that process, however, not many organisations undertake those so so they have no clue and becomes more of a guessing game. Anyway, it is arguable that you can manage change risk closely given that it is normally of such a diverse nature. I certainly think you have a problem trying to identify a risk upfront so I would suggest you identify your risk via your impact analysis because the bigger the impact there will be invariably more risk. Change Managers need to be on the ball and really need to keep their eyes peeled and look out for all those curve balls during the change because there will be many.

Once risks are identified, leaders should prioritize them based on their likelihood and potential impact, focusing on those with the highest severity. Strategies for risk mitigation can then be developed, which may include implementing safeguards, contingency plans, or allocating resources to address potential issues. Additionally, leaders should communicate openly with employees about the risks associated with change, fostering a culture of transparency and accountability.

When analyzing risks, it's beneficial to employ scenario analysis beyond the traditional likelihood-impact matrix. Encourage your team to explore multiple "what-if" scenarios to gain a more nuanced understanding of potential outcomes. This approach allows for better risk quantification and helps in developing robust risk mitigation strategies. Also, involve subject matter experts and cross-functional teams in risk analysis to ensure a comprehensive view of potential consequences.

Pratap, you have brought up a great point for discussion. In my opinion, we need to clearly understand why a change is required and how it is aligned to overall short/medium/long term goal(s) of the organizations. Such evaluation will start with few subjective points/discussions. Then comes the most difficult part how we can translate such subjective points to more objective discussion for a business case evaluation. From my experience, I can share that such objectivity clearly brings risk of doing vs not-doing assessment and helps in getting full agreement of all important stakeholders during a change management process, which we would have not aligned initially.

I agree, a change readiness assessment is critical to assess, manage risks. More importantly to assess the impact of the change on our people. ??

In the dynamic landscape of IT project management, I have found, effective risk mitigation is the linchpin to achieving success. Risk mitigation is not a one-and-done deal. Continual team vigilance is the heartbeat of success. Engage your project team to identify emerging risks. Update your risk register as needed, and maintain transparent communication with stakeholders. In the fast-paced IT world, adaptation is your ally.

In planning responses to identified risks, emphasize the importance of agility and adaptability. Change leaders should promote a proactive stance toward risk management. Encourage the team to develop contingency plans that can be activated swiftly if a high-impact risk materializes. Consider integrating risk management into the change initiative itself by designating a team responsible for ongoing risk assessment and mitigation. This way, risk management becomes an integral part of the change process, not just an afterthought.

One thing I found helpful was the involvement of stakeholders and managing the risk of the projects by SWOT analysis Make it transparent ?? Brainstorm Mitigate learn from mistakes avoid big ones by past examples ( as looking forward is great but looking at past is learning ) Risk profile is must whether it's a people change or a system .

It is important that TECOP framework, company risk assessment matrix, and impact of the risk, are communicated to right stakeholders who are responsible to bring and hold the change. If this is not done carefully, the reasons for change is not understood by stakeholders and change can be very temporary or superfluous. Plan must be having actions owners, timeline, review frequency, and assigned budget values.

Work with leaders to develop proactive strategies for addressing identified risks. This involves creating risk response plans that outline specific actions to mitigate, transfer, accept, or avoid each risk. Encourage leaders to consider a range of response options and ensure that contingency plans are in place for unforeseen challenges.

As innovation facilitator of 100+ projects I like to share how you can MITIGATE PROJECT RISKS in 10 WAYS 1. Market Research: Understand your target audience and their needs. 2. Prototyping: Build and test prototypes to identify flaws. 3. Cross-functional Teams: Bring together experts from various disciplines. 4. Iterative Development: Break the process into phases. 5. User Feedback: Involve users to gather insights and validate. 6. Risk Analysis: Identify potential risks and their impact. 7. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Launch an MVP. 8. Agile Method: Embrace agile practices to adapt. 9. Quality Assurance: Implement robust testing procedures to catch bugs. 10. Communication: Maintain clear communication within your team.

Communication is the key.. Establish not only formal but most importantly informal communication channels to mitigate the risk. It's humans!

Monitoring and controlling risks should be an ongoing and iterative process. Implement real-time tracking mechanisms and automated alerts to detect early warning signs of potential risks. Create a culture of continuous improvement by conducting regular post-implementation reviews to assess how effectively risks were managed and to capture lessons learned. Communicate these findings transparently to all stakeholders to enhance organizational learning and future risk management.

Monitoring and controlling each risk will be done by a regular review of the Risk Management Program by the Risk Manager. Each risk will have a designated mitigation with a date by which the mitigation is to be completed or the risk has either happened or expired.

I would add that it is also important to be aware of unintended consequences. Even with the best stakeholder engagement in identifying risks, there’s always the possibility of something being overlooked. It could be helpful to review corporate dashboards of operational, financial and key performance indicators to identify if any outliers could be attributed to the change action taken and then incorporate that risk going forward,

There are many types of risk associated with a Change. The risk of not changing, the risk of poor Change management, the risk of lack of leader of sponsor support during Change and potentially new risks introduced after the Change happens. Leaders should have the support of a risk and compliance partner who specialises in risk identification and management. They should be trained in incident and event management, raising, monitoring and escalating risks. There will be processed they must follow. Having worked as a Change Manager in the risk team I would say it’s not the Change Managers job to help leaders manage risks. Identify impacts and collaborate on processes, communication and training, which may mitigate some risks.

I hardly ever meet leaders who do any of these things themselves. They either don't know how, don't prioritize it or outsource it to people like me. I can help with #1 and #3 most times. For me it comes down to telling them what they NEED to hear and not what they WANT to hear once I've completed the analysis. It often involves redefining the scope/ expectations of what can realistically be achieved by humans with emotions and lives. And managing their frustrations with people effectively lying to them for some reason (sometimes it's their behaviors, often it's not). Most changes come with standard risks you can get off the web. Then add your value by offering up realistic mitigations and for goodness sake, plan to capacity, no more!

Change Communication and Feedback Loop Create a clear communication plan that outlines the objectives, benefits, and potential challenges of the transformation. Ensure the entire organization understands the rationale behind the change. Establish a feedback mechanism that encourages employees to voice their concerns and ideas. Actively listen to feedback, and be willing to make adjustments to the change plan based on valid concerns or insights. Transparency and regular communication build trust and reduce the likelihood of resistance or misunderstandings that can amplify risks. A well structured risk assessment, coupled with transparent communication and a responsive feedback loop, empowers leaders to navigate change with confidence.

A lot of the times, the common areas that are assessed for change impacts and risk, are: customer, operations, people, process, and technology. When it comes to the people component, consider including assessing for psychosocial hazards, which if not mitigated, could become risks if there is the severity, frequency and duration. This is even more so important, of course - because it is the right thing to do, but also because organizational change has been called out as a key hazard, in the realm of psychosocial risk. Not forgetting to mention the global ISO WHS / OH & S standard has now been updated with ISO45003 (2021), with strengthened guidance in this space, and strengthened laws if you live in most states in Australia.

Another approach for this is using the PDCA approach in managing the risks of change impact could help in more tactical efforts to bridge from the strategy: 1. P (Plan) : Understanding, categorized and grouping the risks involved 2. D (Do) : Identify and mapped the risks after Change Impact Analysis and build heatmap prioritization around it. 3. C (Check) : Aligned and confirm the analyzed risks with related stakeholders 4. A (Action) : Adjust accordingly for any revisions and follow-up results to be executed for mitigations in timely manner