10 MOST IMPORTANT CHANGE MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS
Peter Janssens
![Peter Janssens]()
Peter Janssens
Digital Tranformation Advisor | Program director | Business & Change Architect
- Wat's the goal of the change? and WHY? Pitfall: many companies don't have a 'simple & clear' goal in which everybody can find him/herself. The goal of the change should be christal clear and the answer on the 'why' should be'emotional connecting' for those people who are part of the change.
- What's the degree of Leadership Involvement and how much are they 'committed'? Pitfall: Many leaders think that they can delegate this change to their middle management, but this is not true. Without C-level involvement, there will be no important change in the company. Moreover, C-level people should 'demonstrate' commitment to this change and not only talk about it.
- What Change Management Method is used? There is no pitfall here. One of the most commonly used frameworks isAdkar (from Prosci) but there are others. So indeed, the method is important, but if too much attention goes to the method, mostly the emotional connection of the people in the change might be forgotten.
- What's the strategy to enroll the change project? Pitfall: there is no strategy. Depending on the reason and the expected impact of the change, different strategies could be applied. From starting small to big bang...
- What will be the measurements to call this change project a succes? Pitfall: there are no upfront commonly agreed KPI's, so succes cannot be measured. Ideally there are KPI's that are monitored to measure the change progress.
- What's the plan about people who are very reluctant to this change? Pitfall: These people mostly have their own reason to declare loudly that they don't believe in this change and that they certainly will not participate. The louder they are telling this, the lesser other people will try to go in discussion and try to involve him
- What is your feedback loop? Pitfall: Negative thoughts & rumors can ruine the change project, this means that when they occur, leadership should be informed directly and take the necessary actions. To ensure this, formal feedback communication channels should be implemented.
- What's the plan to get people on board on emotional level? Pitfall: People don't change because of logical arguments, there should always be an emotional argument. What's in it for me? is the question most people ask themselves...
- What's your change management organisation? Do you have change agents? Are they the biggest 'believers'? Pitfall: Many companies think that the person, responsible for the change will do the job. This is impossible. He of She needs to build a change organisation around him/her with real change 'agents' who are also the 'protagonists' of the change.
- What's your communication strategy and plan for the change? Pitfall: There is no strategy behind the communication. Communication is mostly done 'ad hoc' and when the need is there. Although a clear plan with different messages and channels (when are we communicating what and to who and via which channel?) is a must do in every change project.
Enterprise Architect @ Sopra Steria | Microsoft Certified Architect, Change Practitioner
4 年Nice checklist, Peter, thanks ;)