The article acts as a guideline for project managers as to how to use the change management process to increase the productivity of the project management team. Kotter's 8-Step Change Model is one of the change management models which is useful in implementing the change management practice.
Significance of Change Management Practice
In today's world a typical business process undergoes continuous changes. Change has become a necessity so that business processes can be optimized repeatedly. Change Management is a practice that is followed by most project managers and team leaders in an organization to enable changes in that organization. Kotter’s 8-Step Change Management Model is one such model which can be used by project managers to bring necessary changes into the execution of projects.
Step 1: Creating Urgency
Timely deliverables are important in project management. A project manager’s credibility is at stake if he fails to execute projects on time. According to Kotter, it becomes necessary to develop a sense of urgency in the organization so as to ensure that the work is done on time. A sense of urgency can be created among employees by a project manager though the following:
- Explaining the importance of the project and the value of timely execution associated with it.
- Identification of project based risks and providing a detailed plan on mitigating those risks.
- Discussing how to bring change in the execution of a project and who will be responsible to bring those changes.
Step 2: Forming Coalitions
Team work is a necessary aspect of project management. Lack of leadership in guiding team members would lead to a decrease in productivity among the team members. According to Kotter, forming a coalition in the organization is critical as it helps in successful execution of projects. Powerful coalition can be built if the following are practiced by project managers:
- Forming teams which have a balanced skill set, useful for executing projects.
- Identifying key personnel from the teams and electing them as leaders. They should be held accountable for the teams’ success or failure for execution of a project.
- Give the decision making power to the leaders and monitor their activities.
Step 3: Creating the Change Vision
Project managers should develop necessary reasons for bringing in change while executing a project. Enforcing change without a vision is not considered to be good practice in project management. According to Kotter, productivity will be increased between the team members and the manager if a manager creates a change vision and acts on it. The following characteristics are essential while developing a change vision:
- The change which will be brought should be in interest with the stakeholders of a project. The vision created should be desirable and also should be imaginable by the stakeholders.
- It should be feasible to implement and communicable to the stakeholders.
- Change should be focused and flexible. It should also undergo minor adjustments if found necessary.
Step 4: Communicating the Change Vision
Multiple obstacles arise when a project manager tries to bring change while executing an existing project. One such obstacle is from the team members. According to Kotter, obstacles arising from the team members can be avoided by communicating the reasons behind the change. The change vision can be shared by practicing the following:
- Eliminating the jargon associated with the change vision and explaining the change vision in the simplest of the ways.
- Organizing regular meetings by conducting multiple forums and sharing the change vision among the team members.
- Demonstrating the change vision through a manager’s actions, so that the team members can get inspired by his actions.
- Explaining the reasons behind the actions of the leaders necessary in bringing change to a project.
- Establishing a feedback oriented work culture so that both the team members and the leaders can interact and bring necessary changes to the project.