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When a change-management consultant interviewed a group of workers, he realized they didn’t understand the impact of returned shipments. After that meeting, the consultant placed a pickle jar in the middle of the shipping department floor. For every successful shipment, management placed a quarter in the jar. For every shipping error, management removed $10. The money that remained in the jar at the end of the month was distributed to department staff.

While some business strategies analyze the affects of change on the bottom line, change management focuses on people and how they resist, cope with, and ultimately accept change in the workplace. Executive leaders use change-management strategies to create a culture that embraces change, and often find that these strategies make the difference between the success and failure of new management processes and system implementations.

The Elephant in the Room

People resist change for many reasons. They may not understand the objectives driving the change or they may not agree with the organization’s new direction. Or, they may simply be anxious about how the changes will affect their jobs. There are three critical steps that executives must follow to implement change in the workplace.

Focus on people.

Managers who ignore potential resistance to change learn quickly how the human element can crush a project. Employees need to be part of the process, and they need to be heard. Staff will be much more likely to accept and support the new process if they know what to expect at each phase. An added benefit of this process is that staff members are able to contribute ideas drawn from their varied experience that improve planned processes, save money, and avoid potential obstacles.

Communicate strategic messages.

Once employees understand the reason for the change, managers must reinforce cooperation with timely, practical, and even inspirational messages. By including partners and the global salesforce in the design of the program, the company was able to recognize this barrier and develop a program that explained the need for adopting the new contract process. The team also created a feedback loop for ongoing input from the field. Appropriate messaging ensures that employees understand what is happening, how they will be affected by the change, and what they need to do differently.

Combine communication and training.

New company management, systems, and processes affect how people perform on the job so it makes sense to incorporate training with the change management strategy. With the contract adoption program mentioned earlier, a key element was specific training in a variety of media directed toward teams in different business units and geographic locations. The training included online self-help, e-learning, and local experts to provide group or individual assistance as needed.

Action Learning

Elham Assadi, managing partner of Sedaa Consulting in Lafayette, California, incorporates action learning into her change-management practice. Action learning creates a laboratory where staff and managers work together as they learn new processes and solve problems. Assadi applied action-learning techniques to help one of her technology clients move from a segmented, cubicle-based office space to a more inclusive, collaborative environment.

From the simulation, an office emerged that provided spaces for group projects and private meetings, as well as areas for employees to relax and brainstorm. At the end of the project, only eight of the 150 staff members wanted to return to their cubicles. The rest of the staff continued to work in the inclusive, more personal, environment.

ROI Metrics

The cost of change-management programs depends on the size of the organization, its corporate culture, geography, and other business factors. Successful learning environments budget between nine and 17 percent of their total payroll for change management and training. Initially, this may seem overwhelming, but consider the cost of a failed implementation.

Focused, organizational change management is the prescription that leads to successful programs. Executive teams must understand the organization’s needs and budget resources, and must address these as part of their plan. Include metrics in your change management plan to justify the budget. To track metrics throughout the program, executive teams need a baseline and a goal that measure what the process costs, how long it takes, what results are achieved currently, and the expectations after adoption.

There are as many approaches to change management as there are consulting firms. The key tools are simple and derive from longstanding instructional systems design. Much of this should be familiar territory. The coordination of these activities into an integrated plan that prepares and informs staff, provides ongoing support when needed, and provides clear ROI metrics at the end are what define effective change management.

Adapted from T+D November 2007

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