Change Management Strategies

The next step in change management methodology is building a strategy to ensure successful change. When creating a change management strategy, you need to realize that one strategy is not going to fit every proposed change for the organization. Your strategy should target the particular project that you are presently working on.

Before you begin any change, you need to understand why the change is being undertaken. You should also try to answer the following questions:

• What is the need for the change?
• Who is being impacted?
• How are these people being impacted?
• How long will the change take?

Answering these questions will help you understand the culture of the change. This in turn will help you develop a change management plan and adapt your change management strategy to the current climate.

Once you figure out the need for change and which members of your organization are being impacted, you can then move onto whom do you need to support the intended change. You need a pretty substantial support structure no matter how large or small the intended change is.

First of all, you need the support of your team. Helping them understand and buy into the change will increase your chances of success. Provide incentives for those that do accept the change. They are more likely to talk up the project and get many of their team members to accept it as well. You need to get a majority of those affected by the project to agree to what you are doing. If not, you are very likely to fail.

Plus, you need to make sure that the sponsor (the person who decided that the change was necessary) and all managers are on board. Most of your employees and teams will be looking to management for guidance. If these people don't embrace the change and their new roles, you are probably already in trouble.

It may help to develop a strategy for incremental change. You should start the change by instituting one phase of the change for a few months and then assess the effectiveness. If the current project is successful, then you can institute the next phase of your change management methodology. Using Change Management Methodology to Deal with the Risks of Change, explains in detail the relationship between change and risks.

Finally, you need to assess what risks are involved with the project. Change always involves risk. If you, however, plan for that risk, you can take steps to deal with it. You should definitely record any possible risks, both overall and individualized. Natasha Baker outlines a the steps to Writing a Risk Management Plan.

You know that there is going to be resistance in the organization. People like doing things the way that they've always done it. You need to figure out where the resistance is most likely to come from (those that are most impacted or saboteurs) and come up with individual tactics to deal with the resistance.

You also need to develop specific tactics to deal with the particular change that you are dealing with. Generalized tactics may not work for your specific problem.