Driving Change Begins Here Now

Driving change is hard. There are many change management strategies. How a change management plan differs from normal management and project plans is also part of it.

A change management consultant can help. Still, knowing just a bit can make us smarter consumers. It can also make us better at driving change.

A key difference is successfully implementing change in the workplace. A change management plan founded on sound strategy has a higher chance of success than other plans. It deals with key issues not normally found in the others.

Driving Change Begins With a Strategy

Strategic organizational change begins with a strategy. Too often though we pursue change as if it were just another management effort or another project. This ignores the role of internal cultures and office politics in driving change.

Unless these are worked into the plan, change is doomed. If a plan does not deal with these, then it is not a change management plan. That is because at its root change is about relationships. They are the best chance for success.

Driving change begins means breaking change down. It means change leadership seeing how much change people can accept at a time.

Driving Change Begins With Breaking Change Down

Break the change down is one of the most vital change management concepts. Many change management templates will have us do this. They tell us to break change down into steps, phases or something like that.

Here is the problem though. This is done from the view of the one driving change. It is not done from the view of those who must change.

For example, once we roll out a phase and our work is done with it. We are now ready to continue with the next phase of implementing change in an organization. This is bad.

We sort change management activities into a series of steps from the end user’s point of view. These steps mean we give them rest. We give them time to adapt. We give them time to regroup and take the next step.

Driving Change Begins With Change Leadership

Strategic organizational change begins with a strategy. The biggest of change management issues is how much change to drive at a time. That is done from the end user’s point of view. It is not done from the point of view of the ones driving change.

We assess their change readiness. We proceed from there. This is change leadership. There is a reason why stairs help us ascend steep heights better and quicker than ramps do.

Constant change does not mean the best way of driving change is to keep people in a constant state of change.