Concepts of Change

Most change management models in use today are processes—step-by-step instructions. But do these processes work? Or have the underlying principles and concepts gotten lost in translation, leaving just a list of how-tos? Way back when senior executives in large companies had a simple goal for themselves and their organizations: stability. Shareholders wanted little more than predictable earnings growth. Because so many markets were either closed or undeveloped, leaders could deliver on those expectations through annual exercises that offered only modest modifications to the strategic plan. Market transparency, labor mobility, global capital flows, and instantaneous communications have blown that comfortable scenario to smithereens. In most industries — and in almost all companies, from giants on down — heightened global competition has concentrated management’s collective mind on something that, in the past, it happily avoided: change. This presents most senior executives with an unfamiliar challenge. In major transformations of large enterprises, they and their advisors conventionally focus their attention on devising the best strategic and tactical plans. But to succeed, they also must have an intimate understanding of the human side of change management — the alignment of the company’s culture, values, people, and behaviors — to encourage the desired results.

Change management cannot be treated as a formula to blindly follow. Managing the people side of change involves one of the most unpredictable variables that you will ever encounter: people.

To be effective, you will need to customize and scale your change management efforts based on the unique characteristics of the change and the attributes of your organization. But to do this, you’ll need to understand why your change management process works and how it will interact with the reality of change at your organization. No single methodology fits every company, but there is a set of practices, tools, and techniques that can be adapted to a variety of situations. 

The seven change concepts by Prosci are:

1. Senders and Receivers
2. Resistance
3. Authority for Change 
4. Value Systems
5. Incremental vs. Radical Change
6. The Right Answer Is Not Enough
7. Change Is a Process

Senders and Receivers: Every change can be viewed from the perspective of a sender and a receiver. A sender is anyone providing information about the change. A receiver is anyone being given information about the change.

Resistance: Change creates anxiety and fear. The current state has tremendous holding power, and the uncertainty of success and fear of the unknown can block change and create resistance. These physical and emotional reactions are powerful enough by themselves to create resistance to change. But there is more to resistance than our emotional response. From a change management perspective, we must examine the other drivers that influence an employee’s resistance to change.

Authority for Change: Active and visible sponsorship has remained the top success factor for change management over the 20 years that Prosci has studied change management best practices. However, a large percentage of projects have a senior leader named as the project sponsor, but they lack the true sponsorship required for success. 

Executive sponsorship provides:

• Sufficient resources and funding for the project
• Established priorities between competing initiatives
• Consistent support of the project in every business division or group
• Understanding of why the change is happening and how the change aligns with the vision for the organization
• The proper channel for resistant managers to resolve their objections

Value Systems: Organizational value systems impact the way change happens. What is important to our organization? How are decisions made? Who is in charge? How do I relate to other employees and groups within our organization? What behaviors are rewarded and recognized? What is compensation based upon?

The answers to these questions vary from country to country, industry to industry, organization to organization, and department to department. It is critical for all change managers to understand the underlying values of their organizations because these factors directly influence the way change will be perceived and how much work will ultimately be required to ensure successful outcomes during a change. 

Incremental vs Radical Change: The magnitude of a given change will impact how employees react and how you should manage the change. Incremental change that does not cause employees to move too far from what they know will experience a different level of resistance than radical change that introduces dramatic change. The right approach and amount of change management required by a given project or initiative is unique and specific to that change. In addition, you must adjust your approach based on how the change uniquely affects each group of impacted employees.

The Right Answer Is Not Enough: Changes come to life through the work and behaviors of individuals in your organization. Simply coming up with the right solution is not enough to ensure that results are achieved. The right answer alone does not:

• Create buy-in
• Create commitment
• Mitigate resistance
• Eliminate fear
• Ensure compliance

To deliver value, a solution must be adopted and embraced by employees. Change management, at its core, is a structured approach for bridging the gap between a great idea and tangible value to the organization. If you are only focusing on developing the right answer, you will not be successful at implementing lasting change in your organization.

Change Is A Process: Change occurs as a process, not as an event. Organizational change does not happen instantaneously because there was an announcement, kickoff meeting, or even go-live date. Individuals do not change simply because they received an email or attended a training program. When we experience change, we move from what we had known and done through a period of transition to arrive at a desired new way of behaving and doing our job.

Although it is the last of the seven principles of change management presented, treating change as a process is a central component of successful change and successful change management.

Change is both an institutional journey and a very personal one. People spend many hours each week at work; many think of their colleagues as a second family. Individuals (or teams of individuals) need to know how their work will change, what is expected of them during and after the change program, how they will be measured, and what success or failure will mean for them and those around them. Team leaders should be as honest and explicit as possible. People will react to what they see and hear around them, and need to be involved in the change process. Highly visible rewards, such as promotion, recognition, and bonuses, should be provided as dramatic reinforcement for embracing change. Sanction or removal of people standing in the way of change will reinforce the institution’s commitment.

Most leaders contemplating change know that people matter. It is all too tempting, however, to dwell on the plans and processes, which don’t talk back and don’t respond emotionally, rather than face up to the more difficult and more critical human issues. But mastering the “soft” side of change management needn’t be a mystery.