India's Own VIKAS Model of Change Management

"Champions accept challenge, adapt to change and chart their winning chapter."

Are you at the crossroad of a change management ? Are you thinking, why and how change has to be brought in ? Then this article is for you and all others.

New initiatives, project based objectives, workings, technology improvements, need to increase productivity, skill upgradation, behavior adaptation, need to stay ahead of competition create the urgency to initiate and drive change or reforms in any organization.

Whether there is change in leadership, process, or work culture or team structure, it is common to feel uneasy and scared by the scale of the uncertainties, challenges.

You know, change is bound to happen. But, if you want to know how to deliver the changes or how to drive the change, where to start, how to go , who all should be involved, how to track the impact of change, then the answer is VIKAS Model of change. I thought of sharing my experience of last 20+ years of change management and put them together to formulate India’s own VIKAS Model of Change Management , designed for Indian organizations. I would like to suggest you to go through VIKAS Model of Change Management, understand it and customize this change model as per your organization culture, requirement and implement for maximum positive impact. In Hindi, Vikas means progress. VIKAS Model of Change Management should bring progress for all.

VIKAS Model has below stages:

Verify and Validate the preparedness

Involve and Initiate the change process

Keep building the momentum

Address people’s concerns and align people

Sustain the benefits of change

Verify, Validate and Prepare Vision Document

When you arrive at the decision that change is the need of the hour and need to be done urgently, the first thing the management or senior leadership should do is create a Vision Document for change. ?Create an atmosphere of an honest, convincing communication of what’s happening in the marketplace, how competitors are evolving for better productivity, why sustainable changes are needed to create a better future for all. The proposed change should bring progress for all. Build ownership in employees that long lasting, long-term strategic change is necessary to succeed in future.

Verify the company culture before initiating the change. Identify the gaps, which need to be addressed in proposed change. Identify the processes, which need change. The change should be in line with company culture. The change should not change the existing culture altogether into a different culture. The proposed change should not instill fear, insecurity among employees, investors, shareholders, customers. The change should make company perception stronger and better.

Once you verify the culture and conclude that change in not going to affect company culture negatively, you should move to next step i.e Validating the preparedness across the company. Check the data points, identify the critical levers across the organization wherever change is being planned. If required pre change workshop can be organized to align key team members who will play a crucial role in the change implementation. Identify bottlenecks, pain areas which may come up during change implementation. Brain storm with all key stakeholders to come up with solutions.

Identify threats, develop scenarios showing what would happen in future if we do not change as per market dynamics to leverage opportunities. Start frank, honest discussions, give dynamic, convincing reasons to get people thinking and talking. If you act without preparation then you may face bumpy rides, turbulence in your journey of reforms. When you prepare Vision Document for change, connect all your ideas to an overall vision that people can easily grasp and remember. Identify which new technologies you are going to adopt to improve the processes, outcomes across the organisation.

A clear vision document can help everyone understand why you are asking him or her to do something. When people visualize same as the leader, then the direction of leader becomes clear to team.

Involve employees and Initiate the change process

Involve employees and Initiate the change process by creating a strategy to execute the vision. Create a core team of Change Champions to initiate the change process, execute the change. Identify team members from leadership team who will be the Change Leaders. You need to involve change leaders in decision-making process. You need to win trust of change leaders first.

Break big vision into smaller milestones. Achieving each small milestone will motivate entire organization to feel confidence about the change. Share vision story more often, more frequently at every platform. Communicate the progress after the change, at regular intervals to all the employees. Interact with your change leaders more often, train them, work with them, appreciate them on progress and celebrate the results with them.

Keep building the momentum of change

When team sees benefits of change, they will be motivated to imbibe the culture of change wholeheartedly and they will come up with thoughts, ideas to make the change more impactful.

Recognize and reward people, key team members for making the change happen. Change Champions should be encouraged to share their experience of change implementation and the broader picture around the change with co-workers.

Identify the people who are resisting the change and help them see what’s needed. Take actions to remove bottlenecks. Nothing motivates more than success. Give team, company taste of success, early in the change implementation process. Share the quick wins with team, all the employees of company. Without this critics may turn into negative thinkers.

Don’t celebrate the impact of change too early. Real changes take time and run deep. As there is a saying “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” Celebrating success too early may lead to half cooked change implementation. Analyze what went right and what needs to be improved further to continue the momentum of change.

Address People’s concern and Align People

Address people’s concern, anxiety openly and honestly. Keep communication open and transparent. Keep sharing the progress being made time to time. Walk the talk. Keep the promise you made to employees and organization. When you communicate honestly that change is aligned with company’s mission, values and culture, people will align themselves with you in your change mission and turn into change advocates. If the change is perceived as inconsistent, incompatible with organization’s identity and purpose, it can create confusion, chaos, distrust or negative thinking among the employees. To avoid this pitfall, you must ensure change is driven by a clear, compelling rationale that is aligned with organization’s strategic goals and priorities. Restructuring must be viewed as constructive restructuring which will ensure zero chaos among employees.

Sustain the changes

Sustain the changes in every aspect of your organization. Sustain the team’s enthusiasm even after the change implementation. Sustain the change processes. Sustain the results. Sustain the new culture. Sustain the new behavior in entire organization. Sustain the leadership team’s support towards the change process. Keep tracking the results of change. Share success stories about the change process and keep repeating at regular intervals at different forums. Talk about the big benefits in years to come. Recognize key members of your change leadership team for enabling and executing change. People should remember their contributions.

By implementing change through VIKAS Model of change, you will be creating a culture of openness towards change which make leaders future ready and create a better future for entire organization. Your VIKAS Model of Change will inspire generations.

Do you agree ?

Please share your views and experience.