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Change management and communication

We believe that ‘Change Management’ would be better termed ‘Impact Management’. Perhaps such a name would encourage people to recognise the importance of it and to stop thinking of it as a soft, fluffy subject...
Our approach to managing change has at its heart the two clear objectives of managing the potential performance dip during periods of change and accelerating the realisation of the business benefits you‘ve set out to achieve.
We‘ve rescued large-scale systems and process reengineering programmes from failing to deliver, by managing the changes in a rigorous and systematic way. Here are some examples of what happens when you fail to manage change effectively:

New systems don’t do what was planned of them, and fail to deliver business benefits because of lack of involvement of key stakeholders;

Staff work around new systems to use old legacy systems because that’s what they know, are comfortable with and believe to be superior to the new system;

Staff feel uninvolved in defining improved processes, leading to them feeling unempowered and disenfranchised, negatively impacting productivity;

Staff are simply in the dark about what is happening or, worse, why it’s happening;

Staff don’t know, understand or, worse, buy the case for change.

Our change management approach is robust, dynamic, flexible and well-proven. We’ve described here just two of our proven tools and techniques for effective change management: our Impact Assessment Tool and our Communication Planning Tool.

Impact Assessment Tool
We have developed this tool as part of a rigorous and intensive impact management process – to help organisations measure the impact of cumulative change on the business, and understand whether their business is able to absorb the changes that they are about to introduce. If the analysis reveals that the impact is not absorbable, we help them to adapt either the project or the business so that the changes can actually be achieved.

Communication Planning Tool
At the very heart of managing change effectively is communicating key messages to relevant people at the right time. The impact of good communication can be remarkable – as can the impact of failing to communicate effectively. We take a strategic approach to communication during periods of change – which, with strong execution, will guarantee that communication will achieve what you want to achieve. Sadly, communication is often not done well during periods of change. Common errors are:

A belief that communication is nice, but not critical

Believing that it’s the same as ‘business as usual’ communication – i.e. believing that newsletters and regular emails will do it

Email carpet-bombing – don’t we get enough!? We send them because it’s expedient. Not necessarily because it’s effective

Not recognising that face-to-face communication is the most effective way of getting a message across and, therefore, of gaining commitment. Many don’t do this because it apparently takes too much time, despite an intuitive understanding that it would be best. How many top sales people would try to sell a product, an idea, a service via email??

A belief that one-size-fits all – i.e. the same communications to all staff at the same time (despite the fact that changes will impact different groups of staff in different ways and at different times).

The fundamental truth about communication during periods of change is this: you have to deliver specific messages, to specific groups of people, at specific points in time.

Our approach to managing change includes developing real plans to transfer change management skills to your staff. You shouldn’t need to hire consultants more than once to manage changes for you. We believe it should be a basic skill set in all managers.