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A Strategy for Change |
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| The first job for the change team is to understand what the change involves, and why it is happening. They then need to make decisions in three important areas : |
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1. The timetable for change - how quickly will the change be introduced? Specifically, will there be a pilot/transition period for people to get used to the change. (NB there is a considerable difference between a trial period to see if a change will work, and a transition period to help people into a change. Both are appropriate, but the change team and the leadership need to be totally clear on the purpose of any trial or transition period.) This decision will be influenced by the degree of resistance anticipated. 2. The degree that people will be involved in the change process: For some changes, the change team should aim for complete transparency - the process of introducing the change is so well managed, that the organisation barely notices. In this case the organisation should still be told of the change and the reasons for it to avoid feeling manipulated. 3. Identifying learning that can be taken from previous experiences within the organisation, or from similar changes introduced elsewhere. Whilst we need to be careful of mapping the issues of one particular situation onto another, there are many more similarities between situations than we often give credit for! If the change team is being sponsored by a management group or a leadership team, the proposed strategy for introducing the change should be agreed with them. |
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| Pause for Thought : This is a key part of the process where critical decisions are taken on the speed and degree of involvement. Spend a while thinking about the options facing you in your change, and then discuss them with the change team. | |
