April 1998 Hot Topic:
Applying The Discipline of Change Management To Your Organization

What You Need To Know! The Discipline of Change Management ... Although we've been in the business of Change Management for almost 30 years, we are seeing that Change Management has recently emerged as a RED-HOT Topic for many of our clients as their business environments have moved rapidly from "Change is the Exception" to "Change is the Rule." That is, many of the organizations we are working with now have been handling occasional change on an ad hoc (muddling through) basis with the belief that "once we get through this period of change, things will settle down to a business-as-usual basis." Well, that time is over!

So what exactly is Change Management? We define it for our clients as follows: Change management is the use of systematic methods to ensure that a planned organizational change can be guided in the planned direction, conducted in a cost-effective and efficient manner, and completed within the targeted time frame and with the desired results. Whew! That's a mouthful! What we are saying is that successful Change doesn't happen by chance. There is a science to Change Management ... it can be done over and over again in a managed, effective way if it is handled and planned with a systematic, consistent, rigorous and disciplined approach.

Now that organizations are recognizing that frequent change may be a critical part of how they need to do business, Change Management is being seen as a new, critical organizational discipline. Some see the Change Management discipline as primarily a risk management tool to ensure that needed changes can be implemented most effectively and efficiently without major calamity. Others see disciplined Change Management as an offensive weapon of competitive strategy, giving the organization a winning capability in an ever-changing marketplace.

Do You Have What It Takes?
The Requirements of the Change Management Discipline ...
Saying that Change Management is another organizational or management discipline is an idea that may need some explanation. So here it is ... Organizations run their businesses today with a number of familiar disciplines. Each disciple has its own "reason for being" and is guided by principles, protocols, standards, and tools. For example, the Operations Management discipline is focused on "increasing productivity" and uses tools like materials requirements planning (MRP) and activity analysis. The Resources Management discipline is focused on "increasing organizational capability." The discipline of Financial Management works to "secure sources of funding and to give integrity to financial information," and so on.

Change Management, as a new management discipline, is focused on "increasing the organization's capability to adapt and adopt new ways of doing business." While the other disciplines described above are all in play in the Running of the Business, Change Management is emerging as a key discipline for the Changing of the Business.

Developing Change Management as a new organizational discipline requires a number of actions. Without these required actions, change management may continue to be basically an ad hoc exercise occasionally aided by anecdotal experience.

The two basic actions that are required for the development of an organizational discipline are simple to say but tough to put into action. First, top management must come to agreement on the definition of the Change Management discipline as it will apply in their organization. Second, the organization's leadership must formally implement Change Management as a required capability in the organization. Change Management must be used while the organization goes about its day-to-day task of Running the Business.

Does Your Organization Know What It Takes?
The Definition of the Change Management Discipline ...
While Change Management needs to be defined in the context of the specific organization, the basic ingredients of the definition include 4 essential elements that require understanding: Running the Business, Changing the Business, Means of Change and Managing Change.

Key Operating Definitions

Key Principles
The key principles that are emerging from the Change Management body of knowledge are as follows:

Key Tools
There are three primary Tools in the Change Management Discipline that if understood and used appropriately, will help insure that a change initiative will succeed.

Obviously, an organization needs a Change Management Method that gives detailed steps on how to make organizational change happen in a controlled and predictable way. A Change Management Method gives detailed guidance on how to employ the "means of change" (i.e., process alteration, employee performance change, etc.) to alter the "means of doing business" (i.e., how the company delivers its products and services to customers, etc.).

Next there is a Project Management Method that gives the capability to bring concrete results to a given initiative in a defined time period. The Project Management Method should provide detailed guidance on how to manage a specific change project (using steps from the Change Management Method as the key activities to be managed).

Lastly, employing a Program Management Method allows the organization to effectively manage multi-year initiatives of strategic value (like "cost reduction" or "customer relations optimization"). Program Management provides the facility to manage multiple organizational changes (including multiple Change Projects) simultaneously -- while the organization is continuing to Run the Business.

These three tools, used together, form the primary mechanism for disciplined and effective Change Management. These tools are an absolute requirement to complement the organization's existing tools for Running the Business for organizations working in today's turbulent, business environment.

Getting the Job Done!
The Implementation of the Change Management Discipline ...
The purpose of implementation is to get the organization's key Change Management definitions and principles in play along side the organization's existing rules for Running the Business. For successful implementation to occur, the company must develop and follow a definite plan to get a Change Management capability on board.

Implementation of the Change Management Discipline should be built on lessons learned by organizations that have worked to integrate other disciplines (such as Total Quality Management). Organizations have learned that there must be a broad consensus about the discipline being implemented, that hard goals for the discipline should be established, and that everyone in the organization must be involved in the effort. Organizations have also learned that the implementation process is far from painless, and while outsiders can really help, they can't "do it all" for the organization.

Organizations that are considering the implementation of the Change Management discipline should also learn from previous implementations they have attempted. Lessons already learned by the implementing organization should be included in any implementation planning. While the implementation process may vary somewhat from organization to organization, the most effective process we have found has three phases:

Phase One: Awareness and Education
The first purpose of this phase of implementation is to gain organization-wide understanding and acceptance of the Change rationale:

• the organization's changing business environment,
• the organization's need for periodic change,
• the need to both Run the Business and Change the Business,
• the responsibility of each employee for doing both, and
• the need for Change Management principles to be in use.

Obviously this understanding and acceptance of the Change rationale starts with top management. Also critical in Phase One is the development of hard goals and measures for Change Management. Goals might include something as simple as a target date for beginning to use formal Change Management or something as complex as measures of forecasts of the Cost of Change compared to actual Cost of Change.

The second purpose of this phase is to ensure that the organization fully understands top management's commitment to implement the Change Management Discipline as a required organizational capability. And organizations have learned the hard way that management commitment to anything is only shown by their actions.

Phase Two: Selective Usage and Learning
The purpose of this phase of implementation is to put the Change Management discipline into selective use on pilot projects to both test the usefulness of its definitions and principles as well as to develop case histories of success that can be used for "organizational learning and communication." Pilot Change Management projects should be run using the Change Management tools the organization has selected. The pilots should be focused on "real organizational changes" that have significance for the company rather than on "safe test sites."

Phase Three: Organizational Integration
The purpose of this phase is to take those required actions necessary to get the Change Management Discipline into day-to-day use throughout the organization. These actions will include the following:

• Designing and adding Change Management processes to the organization's inventory of existing business processes (including finding ownership for each and every change management process);
• Providing to employees the piloted Change Management Tools necessary to support change processes; and
• Using the organization's Performance Management Systems to alter the work contracts and skills of all employees who will be involved in change processes.

Once Change Management is in use in the organization, time should be taken to evaluate its overall effectiveness and to take advantage of lessons learned. If Change Management is not producing positive bottom-line results (or if it is not preventing negative results), something must be done differently and done fast!

Where the Rubber Meets the Road!
The Critical Success Factors for Disciplined Change Management ...
The highest calling of leadership is to steer the organizational ship to the desired destination. Frequently, leadership is called on to take the organization where it would not have gone in order to ensure long-term organizational success. Almost by definition, the role of leadership is to cause and to enable needed changes to better the organization's results.

In times of more frequently needed change, the necessity for strong leadership is imperative. Only the leaders of the organization can define, implement, and continue to execute Change Management in any kind of disciplined way. For many of today's organizations, disciplined Change Management must become the rule and not the exception!

So Where Do We Go From Here?
The Action Steps to Get Started ...
If it makes sense for your organization to implement the Discipline of Change Management, the steps to take might be similar to those needed to implement any other management discipline.

Today's business organizations have mastered Running the Business. They can also master Changing the Business if leadership will put the right level of attention needed into the game. After working with more than a hundred companies over the last twenty years, we know that Change Management can be learned and that companies can use that knowledge to better their competitive positions! Today's business organization can no longer look at managing change as a "black art" -- for many companies, today is the time to adopt Change Management as a critical organizational discipline that will be required for a successful tomorrow.

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