Every Human Resources Leader is a Change Manager.

How many new organizational initiatives have you facilitated as an HR Leader?

My work in human resources for the past 35 years involved managing numerous reorganizations due to change in corporate strategy, company expansion, business process reengineering, and other changes in work structures. The most challenging reorganizations were those that involved retrenchment and redundancy programs.

Change initiatives in my previous companies also included facilitating visioning sessions and the corresponding implementation of the new Vision & Values cascades, also known as a culture change process. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications implementation have also been my cup of tea since 1998 (yes, more than 25 years ago, while many HR practitioners might be implementing it the first time only now).

Consider also the numerous new HR technology systems I had to implement: Online Performance Management System, Online Learning Management System, HRIS, etc. HR leadership also mean various other HR projects like a wellness program, a job evaluation program that results into a change of compensation structures, various types of leadership programs that bring employees’ competencies to higher levels, a new talent acquisition or assessment approach to reduce turnover, improve quality of hires, or support a new corporate strategy.

One of my most fulfilling projects in consulting included helping two companies in their implementation of self-directed work teams which involved organizational delayering from nine to three layers.

As an HR leader, I also had to supervise the implementation of various programs on productivity and quality improvement: TQM, QCs, TPM, Six Sigma, 5S, etc. More recently, I needed to train and supervise more than a dozen agile teams in the scrum method and the human-centered design approach.

My experience is not unique. Almost all the HR leaders I know have implemented several change programs one after another. An HR leader’s life is one change management journey. Yet very few HR leaders receive competency skills training in change management.

Change management involves not only trying to capture the employees’ hearts and minds, or providing knowledge and competency training (I have labelled it as the 3H approach).

It also involves “Creating the Conditions for Change” (3Cs). This means designing the choice architecture among the change participants so that actions are nudged towards the results you aim for. It involves removing the situational friction that make it difficult for change participants to engage in new behaviors. This also means aligning the organizational systems, policies and procedures that will not only reinforce and sustain the change efforts but also allow the change participants to celebrate the change they have been a part of.

What change management projects have you been involved in as an HR Leader?

"I really liked the practicality?of the 3H+3Cs framework. The practical approach works?for simple to complex change management plans. The program is very helpful for change management practitioners to validate existing practices, benchmark and get to learn from experiences of long-time change management practitioners. Bobby is a very experienced change management?practitioner with a wealth of experience and generous in sharing it to the participants. He is very open as well to feedback." - Mina Ortigas, Change Lead, Security Bank