Houston we have a problem, now What?

Change Management- Why you can’t afford not to invest!!

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It would be fair to say that an area most organisations fail to invest in or invest in sufficiently is Change Management. This is despite the fact that Change Management, in various guises has been around since the 1950’s.

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Which ponders the question, Why is it so?

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Affordability- for some organisations it will relate to an affordability issue, in that they simply cannot afford the investment. Notice I am deliberately referring to Change Management as an investment rather than a cost. For Change Management done well is not only a cost to be borne today to get individuals and organisations through the latest project or change initiative, but in a world that is ever changing, is an investment in building capability to enable future projects to run smoothly.

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Lack of understanding- for many people they understand ‘conceptually’ and by definition what change management is but scratch below the surface and their understanding quickly falls away. For change management isn’t simply about ‘telling’ people they will be impacted by an upcoming initiative. It is about managing both the Why of the change and more importantly How. How individuals will be impacted, how they feel about it and how we can move forward. From experience the greatest complexity in projects isn’t necessarily what is being implemented. It is the complexity of the collective views, opinions and feelings of the people regarding the change that will determine success or otherwise.

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Lack of capacity – there will be those organisations who have invested in change management and have a change management function, but have they invested sufficiently? Again, linked to a lack of understanding and perceived lack of value, organisations establish a ‘change’ function, but underinvest to the point where those involved in assisting or managing the change are stretched far too thin across a number of initiatives. The result is insufficient focus or activity across all initiatives.

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Perceived lack of value- in many organisations, if there is a lack of understanding of what change management is and does, it can lead to an associated perceived lack of value. That is if I don’t understand what change management is or does, then I cannot reconcile what value it actually delivers. Therefore, the challenge is to educate individuals not only about the benefit good change management provides, but also the impacts poor change management have on results, which will be covered later in this article.

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Too late - another reason relates to Change Management not being considered until it is too late. Ask any Change Manager or person working in change when they want to be included in ‘the project or initiative’ and they will tell you as early as possible. If change are involved in the ‘planning’ phases of any project or transformation initiative they are able to shape things including training and communications as well as the mediums through which they will be delivered. Instead, what tends to happen is like a guest left off a party invitation list, change is invited to the table too late and then is required to ‘retro fit’ the change plan.

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Focus failure- the organisation is so focussed on the delivery of the technology, system, procedure, process or policy changes that will deliver the benefit, that they forget about the people. One thing that is in common with all of the above, is that they are generally fixed at a particular point in time. If you introduce a piece of technology, in the main it will do what it is designed to do. But as people we are all different and how we feel, think and engage with the new technology, will be different and result in variables. ?And when you have variables in a project space, complexity follows.

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Inadequate Change Management Skills- in many cases if the organisation makes the decision to include change management as part of the project initiative, it can be that either the individual or individuals do not have the requisite level of change management experience, capability or expertise to add value. This can include things like challenging and ensuring the people aspects are appropriately considered. Inefficiency equates to additional cost.

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Lack of Change Leadership capability- similar to leadership capability, and having the same identifiable gaps, there is a significant lack of change leadership capability within organisations. This can include either not fully understanding their role as a leader in change or not accepting responsibility or accountability for which they are charged. Additionally this can include an inability to act, communicate or in many cases even know what to say, to whom and when. This then results in the leaders being ‘managed’ to be able to lead, which again adds additional cost to what is being delivered.

?But what is the cost?

?In almost all cases an organisation will be introducing some form of initiative that has change impacts, because they believe there will be benefits. In some instances however the organisation may not have a choice. Be it the end of technology or system life, version upgrades, compliance or regulatory requirements, it may mean the organisation has little choice but to comply. Additionally with the benefit of hindsight, post implementation review or feedback, there will be times when benefits are not realised or in fact the future state is no better and in fact is worse than the current state or past state.

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If we generally accept that there are positives associated with most initiatives, it is logical to think that the intent is to realise these benefits as soon as possible.

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And this is why Change Management is so important.

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In most cases the benefits of system, policy, procedure or technology changes being implemented has already been outlined in a business case, which provided the rationale for why implementing this was a good idea in the first place.

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And sure, there will be times when the benefits have been overstated or the changes implemented fail to deliver the benefits originally predicted due to performance issues.

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But from experience, the single biggest reason the benefits are not realised or take longer to realise than first outlined is due to people. Be it training has taken longer, people not understanding the Why, people not sufficiently consulted, people not leading or communicating or it taking longer for the requisite level of behaviour change to take place. In some cases, the behaviour change is never realised, resulting in non-realisation of benefits and the incurring of additional opportunity cost.

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In summary, organisations may feel that they can’t afford the cost of change management or that they don’t really see the value in what change management does.

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But that is taking a view based on a lack of understanding and thinking about the short term rather than the longer-term game. Yes, you will incur the cost up front, but does that not enable you to better manage the people aspects, support individuals more and get the change accepted more readily? And understanding that nothing changes if nothing changes, so if your people don’t change the benefits you are attempting to realise including cost savings don’t change and so the longer the status quo remains.

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And worth considering whether the cost of investing in change management up front is a better or cheaper option than delaying benefits realisation, extending project timeframes or incurring additional opportunity cost?

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I know from experience what my answer would be!!

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