Implementing

organizational change

strategies

CMI LEVEL 7 COACHING AND MENTORING

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Contents How to apply solutions to organizational change ................................................................................... 2

Range of organisatioanl change, models or framworks ..................................................................... 2

LEWIN’S CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL ..................................................................................... 2

THE MCKINSEY 7-S MODEL ............................................................................................................. 5

KOTTER’S THEORY ......................................................................................................................... 10

NUDGE THEORY ............................................................................................................................ 14

THE ADKAR MODEL ....................................................................................................................... 17

BRIDGES’ TRANSITION MODEL ..................................................................................................... 19

KÜBLER-ROSS’ CHANGE CURVE .................................................................................................... 22

THE SATIR CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL ................................................................................ 25

Range of creative problem solving techniques to address change challenges ................................ 28

1) ASK COMPELLING QUESTIONS .................................................................................................. 28

2) FIND YOUR CENTER ................................................................................................................... 28

3) EXPLORE CONTEXT .................................................................................................................... 28

4) SEEK WISDOM ........................................................................................................................... 28

5) WALK AWAY .............................................................................................................................. 29

6) SWITCH ROLES .......................................................................................................................... 29

7) USE THE SIX THINKING HATS .................................................................................................... 29

8 ) Generate a Plethora of Ideas ................................................................................................... 29

HOW TO USE THESE CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING TECHNIQUES ............................................... 30

Change solutions that link to organizational strategic plans ............................................................ 30

How to develop a change strategy using implementation models ...................................................... 33

Range of change implementation models ........................................................................................ 33

TOP CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODELS ........................................................................................ 34

Kurt Lewin ..................................................................................................................................... 34

KOTTER'S 8-STEP MODEL OF CHANGE .......................................................................................... 34

STEPHEN COVEY: 7 HABITS MODEL .............................................................................................. 34

KUBLER-ROSS: STAGES OF CHANGE .............................................................................................. 34

How to analyse an organizational response to change ........................................................................ 35

Use of analytical tools to monitor the progress and the effect of change ....................................... 35

Monitor and measure techniques to change within an organization .............................................. 36

Strategies to minimize adverse effects of change ............................................................................ 38

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How to apply solutions to organizational change

Range of organisatioanl change, models or framworks For your business to survive it will need to evolve. For it to evolve, you need to make changes. Without

a change management model, the success of those changes is up to nothing more than hope and

dumb luck.

British Airways didn’t successfully overhaul their entire organization by making changes and crossing

their fingers – they had a model and strategy to follow.

“Before King began announcing layoffs, he explained his reasons… to prepare them for the upcoming

change. Without his transparency, British Airways could have experienced employee backlash and

negative press around all the layoffs.” – Laura Troyani, 3 Examples of Organizational Change Done

Right

A model which paved the way for them earning $284 million in profit (the highest in its industry) within

ten years of the changes.

I’ve already gone over how to form your own change management strategy, so today I’ll break down

the change management models you can use to do the same for your business.

But enough introductory babble – it’s time to get stuck into this behemoth of a post and give you

everything you need to know about the 8 main change management models, being:

• Lewin’s change management model

• The McKinsey 7-S model

• Kotter’s theory

• Nudge theory

• ADKAR

• Bridges’ transition model

• Kübler-Ross’ change curve

• The Satir change management model

LEWIN’S CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL Lewin’s model is one of the most popular approaches, and it’s easy to see why. By splitting the change

process into three stages you can break a large, unwieldy shift into bitesize chunks which account for

both the processes and people in your company.

Lewin describes three stages of change management:

• Unfreeze

• Make changes

• Refreeze

Each stage is a little hefty and requires delving into detail, so I’ll split each into its own section below.

The method

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Unfreeze your process and perceptions

Upon realizing that your company needs to change, the first step is to “unfreeze” your current process

and take a look at how things are done. This means analyzing every step and human interaction for

potential improvements, no matter how in-depth you have to go and how much you need to unearth.

By doing this you’re helping to eliminate any existing bias and commonly accepted mistakes. This gives

you the perspective you need to change the cause of your problems, rather than just the symptoms.

Unfreezing also applies to your company’s perception of the upcoming change and their natural

resistance to it. Forcing sudden change only breeds resentment, so you need to prepare your team

for the new elements in order to let them take hold when deployed.

Everyone needs to know what’s wrong with the current process, why it needs to change, what changes

are being suggested, and what benefits those changes will bring. This should help to convince them of

the need to change and encourage them to stick to the new process.

Make your changes

Once you’ve prepared everyone it’s time to deploy your changes and guide the team as they adapt.

Communication, support, and education are vital, as you want to limit any difficulties in the transition

and address problems as soon as they arise.

As such, you first need to provide any extra education or training that your team will require. If you’re

switching a piece of technology then they need to know how to use it, and if you’re adapting a new

marketing policy they need to be told what to read to learn about it.

Next, you need to make sure that everyone has a place or person they can go to for support on the

topic. This can be a regular meeting with their manager, a knowledge base they can refer to, or a

mentor that’s guiding them through the process.

Finally, you should be communicating regularly with all members of your team (or at least getting their

manager to do so). This is primarily to listen to feedback, as this will quickly highlight any problems

you need to tackle.

Refreeze the new status quo

Once your changes have been deployed, measured, and tweaked according to feedback, you need to

“refreeze” your new status quo. This is vital to any change management model – everything you’ve

done is pointless if old habits resurface.

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Regular reviews need to be carried out to check that the new methods are being followed. Rewards

should also be given to those who consistently keep to the new method, and those who make a large

effort to support and uphold the changes.

If you’ve listened to (and applied) feedback then this stage will be a little easier, since your employees

will be more invested in the changes. They helped to shape them after all, so it’s natural that they

would want them to succeed.

Beyond that, any documented processes need to be checked and updated, and all of these checks

upheld until the changes become habit. There’s no set amount of time until this happens, but as long

as you keep measuring and reinforcing the new state of things, eventually the habit will be set in stone.

The good

Lewin’s change management model is fantastic for when your business needs to drastically change in

order to succeed. It also excels at uncovering hidden mistakes which were taken for granted, since

you have to analyze every aspect of whatever you’re changing.

If you’re carrying out any business process reengineering or know that you need to shake up some

ingrained mistruths, use Lewin’s model.

The bad

Due to the scale of the unfreezing process, Lewin’s model can be difficult and time-consuming to

enact. This isn’t necessarily a problem (since the changes highlighted are often massive and require a

large time investment anyway), but it does mean that using the model for anything less than an in-

depth analysis and overhaul isn’t worthwhile.

Lewin’s model also requires a great deal of care to be taken beyond the base instructions to support

your team and consider their emotions through the turmoil.

Massive changes (which this model is suited to) run the risk of alienating employees, since their

workflow will be drastically different than before. As such, you need to be especially careful when

bringing them on board and keeping up their enthusiasm in the refreezing stage.

The verdict

If you know that your business requires in-depth analysis and improvements, Lewin’s model is a great

way to start.

By digging up the roots of your methods and completely revamping processes and practices where

needed, you can pivot your company at a critical time in its lifespan. Unfreezing and analyzing your

model with this method can show you what you need to improve and highlight how to let your team

adapt.

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Just don’t try to “unfreeze” and change for every minor problem you find – it takes a lot of time and

effort to do so, and if you’re not careful the disruption can alienate your employees.

THE MCKINSEY 7-S MODEL Instead of supporting deep analysis and large shifts, the McKinsey 7-S model is great for analyzing how

coherent your company is. If you know that you need to change your act, but you’re not sure what to

do, this is the change management model for you.

By analyzing the following seven aspects of your company and how they affect each other, you will

highlight the changes you need to make to create a united approach to business:

• Strategy

• Structure

• Systems

• Shared values

• Style

• Staff

• Skills

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Assess your strategy

Your company strategy needs to be formal enough to allow you to move forward with purpose and

gain (or maintain) an advantage over your competitors, and flexible enough to adapt to changes

without destroying your progress. As such, when assessing your strategy you need to answer

questions such as:

• What are your objectives?

• What is your strategy to achieve them?

• How are you staying competitive?

• How can your strategy adapt to the current (and future) situation?

Record the answers to each question (and any others you can think of), then move on.

Look at your structure

Your structure should be fairly simple to note down since it’s more tangible than your strategy, but it’s

nonetheless important to double check with your team(s). Unless your information is accurate for how

your company is actually structured, you’re only neutering the effectiveness of your changes.

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Ask yourself:

• How is your company structured (departments, teams, etc)?

• What is your hierarchy?

• How are your departments organized and managed?

• How are your teams organized and managed?

• How do your individual team members organize themselves?

• Who makes the decisions?

• How are they carried out/passed down?

• How does everyone communicate?

• How often does communication occur?

Analyze your systems

Any of our returning readers will know the importance of having processes and managing them

effectively, and now is when the McKinsey model applies that same belief. Here you need to assess

your business systems, including official processes, unofficial shortcuts, rules, and how everything is

tracked.

In other words, ask yourself:

• What are the core systems in your business (HR, finance, document management, team

management/meetings, etc)?

• How are these systems and/or processes stored and used?

• How are they updated (and are they up to date)?

• Are these systems accurate (are they being used word-for-word)?

• How do you track and assess the results of these processes?

• Who has access to these systems?

Record shared values

We’re back into abstract territory now, as the next step is to analyze your shared values. This will

typically include both your official company values and your company’s (possibly also your individual

teams’) culture.

While culture might seem irrelevant to managing change, if used correctly it can be a powerful tool

indeed. Linking your values and culture to the changes you make will make them more agreeable to

your work force, who will, in turn, adapt them more readily.

Take a look at:

• What are your core company values?

• What is your company culture?

• What are your teams’ cultures?

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• Are they at odds with the company culture?

• Knowing this, how strong are your values?

• How could you strengthen them in practice?

Take note of your style

This stage is all about assessing the management and leadership style used in your business. While it

might be tempting to present an idealized view of your own leadership, resist that urge and be frank

with how both you and the rest of the company are managed/manage others.

The questions you need to be asking are:

• How are your departments and teams managed?

• How active is this management/leadership?

• Is this style effective, and to what extent?

• Do you inspire competition or collaboration?

List your staff

This section is exactly what you’d expect. Take a look at your staff list and assess whether you have

the required positions filled, what gaps you have, and so on.

Take a look at your staff list, their job descriptions, common tasks, and skill set in general to answer:

• What positions do you have filled?

• What skills do they bring to your company?

• Are you lacking a particular skill set?

• Do you need to hire someone?

• If so, who will your next hire be?

If you need help writing your job descriptions, try using the template below for free.

Assess their skills

Finally, it’s time to look at the skills your staff currently have. This shouldn’t end at a basic description

– you’ll need to gather some feedback around how your company is perceived, as this will give you an

idea of what your customers think your skills are (which is arguably just as important).

Take a look at:

• Do your employees have the necessary skills to do their job to the desired quality?

• What skills are not present in your company?

• How vital are these missing skills?

• What are the strongest skills across your company/teams?

• How are you assessing these skills?

• What is your company perceived as doing well, and what skills does that reflect on?

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Cross-examine the 7-S’ and find what changes you need to implement

Once you’ve analyzed all of the 7-S’ you should take the time to think about how each affects the

others. As with many of these change management models, it’s worth meeting with at least the upper

levels of your management to do this, as you’ll get a more accurate idea of these things in practice.

You need to be looking at whether your 7-S’ support each other, and planning incremental changes to

make that happen if it isn’t already. For example, look at whether your structure supports your

strategy, how they are both helped by your systems, and how all three reflect your shared values.

Once you have an idea of what needs to be brought in line, plan out incremental changes you can

make which won’t disrupt your regular operations too much or alienate your employees. After they’ve

been deployed (or even after every change you make), go through the 7-S model again to reassess

and find out what you need to do next.

The good

The 7-S model shows the weaknesses in your company and highlights the areas that most require

attention when deploying changes. Beyond that, it helps to make sure that every aspect of your

company supports the others, giving you a formidable business plan which is both incredibly strong

and yet flexible to further change.

The bad

Unless you run a small operation with very few employees, the McKinsey model is impossible to

effectively carry out alone or in a short amount of time. You won’t have the required knowledge to

assess every element of your company, and so extra time and resources must be dedicated to build

the overview and assess viable changes.

The verdict

The McKinsey 7-S model is best suited for those who want to know how they can change for the better.

By creating an overview of how coherent and effective the various elements of your company are, you

can then go on to analyze your current situation and draft changes to tackle the problem.

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In other words, this model is great if you don’t know where to start, but if you are just looking to assess

the viability of a specific change, it might be best to use a model which has a smaller scope.

KOTTER’S THEORY Kotter’s theory is the first in this list to focus less on the change itself and more on the people behind

it (albeit from a top-down point of view). By inspiring a sense of urgency for change and maintaining

that momentum, Kotter’s theory can be used to great effect in adapting your business to the current

climate.

Kotter’s theory works by:

• Creating a sense of urgency

• Building a core coalition

• Forming a strategic vision

• Getting everyone on board

• Removing barriers and reducing friction

• Generating short-term wins

• Sustaining acceleration

• Setting the changes in stone

The method

Create a sense of urgency

First you need to create a sense of urgency for your change – this will provide the initial traction you’ll

need to get your team on board and motivated to adapt.

The best part is that you don’t need to do all of the work for this urgency to spread – once you have a

core group who are open to discussing the changes, it’s likely that they will, in turn, talk to others and

convince them to feel the same.

Take stock of potential threats, what your competitors are doing, and opportunities you can capitalize

on, and then use them to start discussions with your team around the effects on your company and

what should be done about them.

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Build a core coalition

Once you’ve got the ball rolling you need to get the key players on board. Gather your organization

leaders and stakeholders and convince them of the need to change.

This step is pretty straightforward, but you should make sure that you have a good span of people

from various experience levels, skill sets, and so on. Be sure to specifically ask them for a commitment

to these changes too, since you will need a strong core of promoters who can reach every employee

in your business.

Form a strategic vision

Your aim in this step is to be able to define your changes and the vision you’re aiming for. The key

here is to not overwhelm whoever’s listening to you with detail or complicated ideas or language.

Write down what values your changes work towards achieving, what the changes are, and what the

predicted outcome will be. Keep the summary to one or two sentences, and in simple enough

language that everyone in your core group step understands exactly what you mean.

If your coalition can’t describe your change in a couple of sentences, you’ll have no hope of convincing

your front line employees why they’re important.

Get everyone on board

Now it’s time to spread your idea for change to the rest of your organization, including the front-line

employees.

Although part of this will be having regular meetings to discuss the vision and changes with your

teams, you also need to be promoting these elements outside of meetings too. Not only that, but you

can’t just shove information at your employees and expect them to mindlessly convert – you need to

be open to feedback and host discussions about the topic.

Essentially, the goal here is to convince your entire organization that the changes are necessary and

why they should happen – you’re setting the stage for them to later deploy the changes.

Remove barriers and reduce friction

If all has gone well then your employees should be eager to get started with your changes. Before

that, it’s vital to take a moment to assess what might block the changes’ progress.

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For example, an employee might not have the skill to use a new piece of technology or a team might

not have the manpower to spare for implementing a new task. Whatever the issue, make sure that

you’ve limited it as much as possible.

You can do this by analyzing your structure and processes to see if they are holding your changes back,

and by tackling problems (both human and technical) as soon as possible after they show up.

Generate short-term wins

We’ve finally gotten around to deploying your changes, but now you must be extra vigilant – the initial

motivation to change won’t last forever. Instead, you need to make sure that there are short-term

wins associated with your changes that you can present and praise employees for.

This both gives your team a sense of accomplishment and shows them the process working in action,

making them more likely to keep up with the changes.

Although it’s best to plan out these milestones in advance, you can always measure the effects of the

change as it happens, then present that data to your team to show them exactly how their

performance is being affected.

If you’re struggling to think of any milestones, you could always just reward those who are sticking to

your changes and helping you to meet your targets.

Sustain acceleration

This stage is all about sustaining the momentum that you generated for your changes. If you’re

successful, the acceleration can carry you far enough that the changes become the new habit before

the team loses steam.

Take stock of any successes (or failures) your team has, looking at what happened and what could be

improved next time. Beyond that, be sure to set new goals whenever one of your current ones is

reached to let your team have something to work towards.

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Set your changes in stone

Finally, you need to make sure that your changes have been set in stone, both in your documentation

and company culture. Aside from updating any formal processes you have to reflect the new change,

you also need to promote the success of your changes and help them to endure going forwards.

For example, one great way to cement a change is to announce and recognize the original coalition

and their contributions to the final product. This highlights their interaction in the change, your

willingness to hear feedback, and the change as a whole as a good thing.

All that’s left to do now is to repeat the change process for the next round of alterations.

The good

The first few stages of Kotter’s theory are fantastic – they force you to set the foundation for success

by creating a sense of urgency and convincing everyone why change is necessary. This gives your team

the drive they need to enact the change, with enough people working on deploying it that it should

quickly become standard practice.

The bad

While it focuses largely on widespread adoption of your changes, Kotter’s model is a top-down

approach at heart. Without a little extra effort on your part it doesn’t take any feedback on board,

and therefore runs the risk of alienating employees by just telling them what to do.

This is likely because the majority of Kotter’s experience came from working with large top-down

companies, but still, it can be an issue for companies rely on a more collaborative setup. For anything

other than a large corporation, having some kind of back-and-forth is vital for giving context on

changes from varying points of view and skill sets, and for having employees adapt to the change at

all.

Put it this way – if you’re small enough to know the name of almost everyone working for you, you

need to go one step beyond Kotter and listen to your team. That way they will be more likely to adopt

your changes, as they will at least have some say and direct connection to the changes.

The verdict

Kotter’s theory is great as a checklist, but lacks the necessary back-and-forth (and, to a degree,

actionable instructions) to be taken as a step-by-step process. Smaller companies depend much more

on cementing every employee as a champion of each change, meaning that you need to pay more

attention to their feedback.

So, as with Lewin’s and the McKinsey change management models, Kotter should be supplemented

with other approaches (or at least elements of them to make up for its shortcomings.

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NUDGE THEORY Nudge theory is odd, in that it really is just a theory – there’s no set change management model to be

had, but instead a mindset and tactic which can be used to frame your changes in a more attractive

and effective manner.

The basic theory is that “nudging” change along is much more effective than trying to enforce it in a

traditional sense. So, instead of telling your employees what to do and how to change, you pave the

way for them to choose to do so by themselves. The trick is knowing how to present these nudges.

Businessballs highlights some of the core aspects of nudges as being indirect, subtle, open-ended,

educational, backed up with evidence, optional, and open to discussion. However, as for a set method,

the theory is incredibly vague, since it’s more of a tool to use within another, more structured change

model.

The basic principles you need to follow when nudging changes are:

• Clearly define your changes

• Consider changes from your employees’ point of view

• Use evidence to show the best option

• Present the change as a choice

• Listen to feedback

• Limit obstacles

• Keep momentum up with short-term wins

The method

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Clearly define your changes

As with any other model, it’s vital for you to clearly define your changes. Your ultimate goal with this

method isn’t just to deploy your changes, but to do so with the full support of your employees, and to

do that they need to know exactly what they’re signing up for.

Consider changes from your employees’ point of view

Once you’ve clearly set out what changes you want to make, you need to consider them from the

point of view of your employees. Take what you know about their team’s culture and structure, along

with their responsibilities and skills in order to gauge their reaction.

More importantly, start to think about how the same changes could be achieved in a way that’s

desirable to your workforce. For example, if you want to create a set editing checklist to follow for

your marketing team, you could say how such as process would be a great way to make editing easier,

quicker, and more consistent.

Use evidence to show the best option

Once you know how present the change to fit with the team’s priorities, you need to gather evidence

to prove how useful it is.

I’m not saying that you should cherry pick evidence that supports your theory and ignore anything

contrary. Instead, you need to gather information about their current performance and structure, and

then compare that with the predicted effects of the change.

When you come to present the change to the team this will both show them why it’s necessary in the

first place, and why that particular suggestion is the best course of action.

Present the change as a choice

In keeping with the passive spirit of nudge theory, despite all of the evidence you’ve gathered you

can’t just force the change on your team and justify it with your findings. This will breed resentment

to both the change and you, since no-one else had a say in the matter.

Instead, the change should be presented in a way that the team will understand and respond well to,

with evidence to back it up, and above all else as a choice. If you haven’t missed anything and have

argued your case well enough your team should back you on this, and the change will be deployed all

the better for it.

If not, make the most of the rejection, and either way…

Listen to feedback

Whether your changes were rejected or not, you need to be open to whatever feedback your team

may have. It’s entirely possible that you missed an effect the change may have or an outside factor

which will help or hinder progress, and nobody will know more about these hidden factors than the

team the change will affect.

Not to mention that by letting your team give feedback you’re showing them that they are valued as

people, and their opinion matters. This, in turn, will make them more willing to give your changes a

shot.

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Limit obstacles

Both before and during your changes’ deployment you should be limiting or removing any obstacles

you can. If your team uses your new process and immediately hits a roadblock, their enthusiasm for

the whole thing is going to plummet.

Instead, make the transition to the new way of doing things as easy as possible by assessing what

might get in the way of the change and tackling that issue as soon as possible. Again, talking to your

team to help identify these obstacles is a great way to identify ones you would have otherwise missed.

Keep momentum up with short-term wins

Once some progress has been made on deploying your change you need to make sure that it is

maintained. To do this it’s worth planning out some short-term goals and milestones which you can

celebrate upon reaching – at the very least this should keep the new practice going until it becomes

the normal routine.

The good

Helping the employee realize the importance of the issue and letting them choose the solution makes

them more motivated to see it through. Giving them that choice also promotes a stronger bond with

yourself and your business, which can extend into greater loyalty and a lower employee turnover rate.

Nudge theory also covers the hole many other change management models leave open – it deals with

change on the employee’s side of things and focuses on encouraging them to adopt it. This makes

nudge at least a great supplement to more formal approaches.

The bad

By itself, nudge doesn’t provide a model capable of analyzing, managing, deploying, and maintaining

change, hence why it serves best as a supplement. Also, because of having to be used alongside

another method, the extra time and effort involved in providing attractive choices for your employees

can be staggering and impractical for larger companies.

Nudge also suffers a little in terms of its predictability. While you can improve the landscape for your

changes all you want, the choice (or a variation thereof) ultimately has to lie with your employees,

which can make the outcome uncertain.

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The verdict

Nudge theory is an odd concept, but with careful planning you can turn the people] your changes most

depend on (your employees) into its biggest champions.

However, the lack of specific, actionable instructions, combined with the time and resources nudge

requires on a large scale means that it’s best to combine with another model which follows a set

structure. That way you can have a specific action plan while getting a large amount of support from

your team.

THE ADKAR MODEL Created by Jeffery Hiatt (founder of Prosci), the ADKAR change management model is a bottom-up

method which focuses on the individuals behind the change. It’s less of a sequential method and more

of a set of goals to reach, with each goal making up a letter of the acronym.

By focusing on achieving the following five goals, the ADKAR model can be used to effectively plan out

change on both an individual and organizational level:

• Awareness (of the need to change)

• Desire (to participate and support the change)

• Knowledge (on how to change)

• Ability (to implement required skills and behaviors)

• Reinforcement (to sustain the change)

The method

Awareness

The awareness stage is all about making sure that your employees understand the need for change.

This is done much as you’d expect – by meeting with your employees and/or managers, presenting

the current state of affairs, and how your proposed changes could benefit the situation.

The main difficulty here is remembering that you’re pitching this change to other people, and so you

can’t just reel off a list of changes and expect them to be accepted. Instead, you need to justify those

changes by using hard evidence to really drive the point home.

Similarly, forcing yourself to justify your changes will prevent you from over-reaching with drastic

shifts or promoting those that you think are correct (but quite frankly aren’t).

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Desire

Inspiring the desire to change is usually the most difficult part of ADKAR, since you’re appealing to

both the logical and emotional side of your employees. If you can’t get both on your side, you aren’t

going to get the total commitment you’ll need to deploy the change.

As with most other management models in this post, one of the best ways to grow this desire is to

promote the benefits of the change relevant to the people you’re talking to.

Give real-world examples of what will happen after the change and compare it to their current

position. Listen to their feedback and implement any useful advice to share the responsibility if

creating the change.

Knowledge

The knowledge goal in ADKAR is to make sure that everyone knows how the change will be carried

out and how to fulfill their specific part in that process.

So, here you need to break down the change into steps and analyze what various employees will need

to know in order to complete them all. Once you know this, the team(s) need to be taught how the

change will be completed and what their part in the process is.

Ability

While it might seem like knowledge and ability are the same thing, the time it takes to go from knowing

how to complete a task to being able to actually carry it out can be immense. Just because you know

how to do something doesn’t mean you’re good at it.

As such, you need to check the ability of each employee and assess whether they need extra

experience (or knowledge) in order to reliably complete their tasks.

The required knowledge and ability to achieve your change can also be limited by creating a

documented process which anyone can follow, no matter their skill set or experience. This will make

your changes more consistent and measurable, since most variables can be locked in a constant state.

Reinforcement

Reinforcement here means implementing incentives and rewards to make sure that the change is

maintained until it becomes the new norm. Remember that it’s a good idea to identify any mistakes

in this stage as early as possible, as then you’ll prevent a flawed method becoming your employees’

default.

The good

ADKAR is a bottom-up approach which focuses greatly on employees, in turn speeding up the rate at

which changes can be reliably deployed. By giving you set goals to meet without a specific method,

ADKAR provides a flexible framework which you can go on to apply to almost any situation.

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This flexibility also makes ADKAR great for deploying incremental changes, since small frequent

changes are less disruptive, and can be planned out to achieve a larger shift over several ADKAR cycles.

The added focus on the people and their needs rather than just the technical aspects also results in a

higher success rate for changes you make.

The bad

While it’s suited to incremental change, ADKAR is left lacking what it comes to large-scale alterations.

This is largely down to the style of ADKAR being bottom-up, since any macro management is either

ignored or taken for granted.

In other words, ADKAR requires you to know what you’re going to change and have the drive to push

for it.

The verdict

ADKAR is a great model for cutting through any complicated setups and getting straight to the point

with how to improve your employees’ reaction to change. As long as you already know what you want

to change and why it’s important to do so, you can deploy it using this model with a fair amount of

confidence.

Remember, however, that this is severely lacking in terms of a high-level plan. If you don’t already

have a set change in mind then it’s best to analyze your company with something like the McKinsey

model first.

BRIDGES’ TRANSITION MODEL Created in 1991 by William Bridges, this model focuses on transition rather than change. While that

might seem like a needless difference, this small factor alters the entire way that change management

is approached.

Put simply, change happens to people and can be considered intrusive. It’s usually pushed despite

what the recipient wants and they’re forced to adapt despite their feelings on the issue.

Meanwhile, a transition is more of a journey over time than an abrupt alien shift. This makes Bridges’

transition model one of guiding your employees through the reaction and emotions they will

encounter when dealing with your changes.

It does this by detailing three stages of transition, each of which the employee must be guided through

for the change to be successful:

• Ending, losing, and letting go

• The neutral zone

• The new beginning

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The method

Ending, losing, and letting go

Ending, losing, and letting go is exactly what you’d expect. It’s all about guiding people through the

emotions associated with the change and communicating how their skills and knowledge will transfer

to the new activities.

Here you need to focus on listening and communicating, as employees may feel fear, anger, denial,

uncertainty, and a host of other negative emotions which serve as a roadblock in the transition.

Combat fear by helping them to understand the change and the positive outcome that it will

eventually bring. Make sure that anyone who needs to can reach out to a support channel (through a

knowledge base, mentor, etc). Listen to what your employees have to say on the subject and take on

board whatever feedback they may have.

The neutral zone

The neutral zone is the bridge between the old and the new. It is likely to be the time when

productivity is at its lowest and your employees most tempted to give up and revert.

This is perfectly normal.

When the changes are first deployed people will resist it, potentially have a higher workload, and may

be less productive while they adapt. The best way to combat this is to regularly provide your team

with feedback to give some wider context on how they’re doing, and to help them solve any problems

they encounter.

As with many other change management methods, it’s also worth clarifying some short-term wins

which you can capitalize on during this phase, since this should help to buoy up your team’s general

attitude.

The new beginning

The new beginning is when the changes have been accepted and energy is high. Here the main aim is

to reinforce the changes, keep objectives clear, and to keep up the pace while you can.

Again, rewarding your team members (especially those who championed the changes) is a great way

to reinforce that your goals were both handled well and were the right thing to do in the first place.

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Meanwhile, setting new objectives and using the momentum from your changes to power through

will help to make sure that there isn’t time to get complacent and lapse back into old habits.

The good

The Bridges’ transition model closes the gap between management and rank-and-file employees. It

takes a very personal approach to helping everyone adapt to changes by considering their emotions

and reactions, which is rare (at least to this degree) in most management models.

The consideration for your team as people will also inherently encourage loyalty and better

performance, making them feel a stronger bond with their work.

The bad

As with several other models here, Bridges’ contains no real actionable steps, and no set timeline or

conditions for moving from one stage to another. It’s once again more of a transition checklist or

guideline to help manage your employees than a step-by-step guide on implementing change.

The verdict

As the name suggests, Bridges’ transition model is fantastic for guiding your team through a period of

slow improvement (transition). Unfortunately, this leaves it lacking the heavy management aspect

that a large-scale change (or company) requires

In other words, this model is fantastic to apply to your core employees (be they managers or your

entire team if you’re a small company) in order to ensure your changes’ success with the core players

in promoting it. Beyond that, Bridges’ model can be useful for predicting the general effect of changes

in your workforce’s mood (and therefore productivity).

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KÜBLER-ROSS’ CHANGE CURVE Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a psychiatrist who detailed the five stages of grief in her book On Death &

Dying. It may seem odd to mention that in this list, but the Kübler-Ross model based on those five

stages fulfills a specific niche in change management – allowing you to focus on and deal with the

emotional response of those affected by the change.

Your employees are (ultimately) entirely responsible for carrying out your changes after all. Sure, you

can give them systems to follow and training to fill in the gaps, but all the help in the world won’t save

your change if the employee is opposed to it emotionally.

No matter how hard we try to remain consistent, emotions play a massive role in our productivity,

and by knowing the following the five stages of grief you can anticipate your employees’ reactions and

plan your response (and schedule) well ahead of time. The stages are:

• Denial

• Anger

• Bargaining

• Depression

• Acceptance

It’s quickly worth noting that people can move through the stages in a random order, and they can

jump backward or repeat stages too. As such, it’s important to know how to deal with each step and

encourage progression to the next smoothly.

The method

Guide them through denial

Denial is usually short-lived and involves team members dismissing that the change needs to happen,

why it will happen, what will happen if it occurs, and even that it will happen at all. Employees,

therefore, need to be allowed to take things gradually and not be swamped with too much information

or too severe a change – if you change too much at once then they will naturally rebel against the

thought.

If your employee is going through denial about your changes, you need to focus on open

communication and taking the transition slowly in order to bring them around.

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Prepare in advance for anger

Denial can often pave the way for fear to settle in, which in turn can lead to anger. This could be anger

at the changes, anger at your decision to make the change, anger at their colleagues for accepting it,

and so on.

Anger can also manifest either as general curtness towards the rest of the team or full-on outbursts

at the slightest provocation.

While awkward and destructive, their anger is understandable. Change takes people out of their

comfort zone, and doing so puts them on the defensive (often making us lash out in the process).

The key here is to realize that this is natural and to plan in advance for it. If you know that a particular

employee is more likely to get angry (either by having the brunt of the changes or because of their

nature), take extra care to provide communication and support so as to limit their anger.

If they blow up, continue to provide support to stop things getting out of hand.

Be firm, but listen to bargaining

Bargaining may show in the form of the employee trying to alter the change so that most things remain

the same. This could be through feedback and conversations with you directly or even by convincing

themselves that parts of the change are unnecessary and trying to spread that belief to their team.

This can lead to team members failing to carry out your changes in their entirety, which is almost

worse than if they weren’t carried out at all.

Although they can give useful feedback you should listen to, be aware of when employees are trying

to bargain for the sake of reducing the changes, and remain firm on the parts that matter. If you have

up-to-date processes for your changes then make sure they are being followed fully, since any

shortcuts taken now can lead to long-term inaccuracy.

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Try to ease them through any depression

Change can be difficult, and it’s unrealistic to expect an employee’s mood not to affect their output.

Upon reaching the depression stage, productivity will take a dive while the changes are prepared for

and adjusted to. The best you can do is to limit the friction in their activities and try to make the new

process rewarding or interesting in some way.

Admittedly, it’s rare that a change in your business will result in your teams coming down with full-

blown depression. Even so, a minor mood dip can harshly affect their productivity, so don’t

underestimate the importance of keeping spirits up.

Celebrate acceptance

Once changes are accepted then people can start building new goals around it. If they fully subscribe

to (and understand) the change itself they might even experience a boost in productivity when it

comes to this stage, since they might be able to build ambitious new goals with the new changes in

action.

The best way to promote this productivity burst is to celebrate once the changes have been

successfully upheld for a while, whether that means messaging your core promoters or rewarding

particularly helpful team members.

The good

The Kübler-Ross model excels at anticipating and managing the emotional reaction of your employees,

and thus their productivity. The emotional take on the change process can also let you see in advance

where the biggest problems will arise and who will put up the most resistance.

In turn, knowing how employees react to similar situations will let you limit the damage they do if they

take their frustration out on their team or a part of your business.

The bad

The unpredictable nature of emotions means that not everyone will fit this model, and your team may

jump between completely different steps at any given time, making it hard to manage your approach

for each individual. Some employees may not even fit the model at all and react completely differently

to your changes – such is the human mind.

The biggest drawback, however, is that Kübler-Ross doesn’t provide a method for guiding employees

through each stage, meaning the steps you take are down to your own knowledge and experience.

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However, even if you tried to create a universal actionable checklist for this model, the best approach

for each employee will vary drastically, making your attempts next to impossible to succeed.

The verdict

In short, Kübler-Ross’ change management model is great for using in small meetings when you’re

trying to connect with employees on an individual level and manage their complaints to any changes.

However, much of this is vague and deals with concepts that highly depend on the employee

themselves, so a little flexibility in your methods is a must.

Plus, there’s nothing here about how to figure out what you need to change or how to go about

changing it on an organizational level. As such, a solid framework needs to be paired with this model

to effectively manage your changes.

THE SATIR CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL The Satir change model is fairly similar to Kübler-Ross’, except it applies the progression through the

five stages of grief to a general model of performance during the change. In this sense, it’s a way of

predicting and tracking the effect of changes on overall performance.

Satir’s change management model is made up of five stages:

• Late Status Quo

• Resistance

• Chaos

• Integration

• New Status Quo

Also, before diving into the final change management model, note that the Satir model focuses on

tracking rather than affecting performance. Without using a supporting model to tackle these negative

effects you’re left with little more than a way to measure the affect of your change.

This isn’t always a bad thing, but keep it in mind when looking for a method to actively support your

changes.

The method

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Late status quo

Late status quo is where things currently are and how they are done – it’s your starting point before

you introduce any changes.

Performance should be reasonably consistent, and your team should be pretty comfortable where

they are. They know what to expect, and have plenty of experience doing the exact same thing before,

so significant challenges should be minimal.

At this stage there may not be a set change in mind, and so it’s important to encourage team members

to seek out information and ways to improve by themselves.

Resistance

Resistance is encountered when a new element (or change) is introduced. This could be encountered

at any level (from CEOs to front-line employees) and is usually accompanied by denial or dismissal.

You can usually identify the start of resistance by a team or employee’s output beginning to take a

nosedive. To limit this where possible, you need to help everyone to overcome that resistance by

reaffirming the need to change and getting them to commit to it.

Unfortunately, other than the fact that it will happen after a change is introduced, very little about

this step is set in stone. Instead, your task is to measure the effect this has on your performance and

plan your response while trying to limit the negative affect on your team’s output as much as possible.

Chaos

Chaos is where the emotional impact of your changes needs addressing, as whether you made large

or small changes there will be a negative reaction which affects your team’s productivity. Listen to

feedback, answer questions, and consider implementing a mentor (or general support) system.

Above all else, measure performance during this period to continue the change curve, and know that

this stage will probably be the lowest point you reach. As long as your supporting change management

model is working, it’s all up from here.

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Integration

Integration is a very mixed bag. This is both where productivity begins to sharply improve and

enthusiasm takes hold, but all involved will still need support with any problems they encounter to

make sure that they don’t lose any steam prematurely.

As with other stages, make sure that you track everyone’s performance and continue to plot your

curve.

New status quo

Finally, the new status quo settles in once the change becomes the norm, and will (hopefully) result

in a higher level of performance than during the late status quo.

This is where you can really analyze the effect of your change and whether the process was

worthwhile. By checking the overall effect of the change on your performance you can provide solid

proof that the operation succeeded or failed, and begin to pick apart why that result happened.

In turn, what you learn from the success or failure can be used to influence further changes and predict

what will be more effective in boosting performance.

The good

Like Kübler-Ross, the Satir change model can be good for anticipating the impact of a change before

it happens, and even for justifying the change to employees as they go through the chaos phase. If

they can be shown that the turmoil is only natural, they’ll be more willing to stick out the changes.

Unlike most other change management models, the Satir model also provides an easy way to analyze

the impact of your changes at a glance (by producing a graph based on your ongoing performance).

Not only that, but it makes it easy to compare the effects of various changes you have made and

provide a measure of your business’ progression.

The bad

If you’re trying to predict a change’s outcome with the Satir model it’s easy to take for granted that a

change will increase performance rather than measuring and checking it. There’s also very little to tell

you exactly how to identify when the last three stages begin and end, and few actionable tips for

guiding employees through the process.

Finally, the Satir model is only suited for measuring and predicting the affect of a change, and not for

analyzing what changes need to be made (or how to make them).

The verdict

Like with most of the other change management methods mentioned above, Satir’s model is only truly

effective when supported by an actionable, measurable framework. It’s fantastic for measuring your

employees’ individual reactions to a change and to reassure them during the chaos phase, but it’s all

too easy to become complacent and fail to measure and adapt to the hard stats of what the changes

are doing.

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Range of creative problem solving techniques to address change challenges 8 Creative Problem-Solving Techniques That Get Results

All of the following creative problem-solving techniques work some of the time. The key to is mix and

match them until you get a workable solution.

When faced with a difficult challenge, try a combination of the following problem-solving techniques:

1) ASK COMPELLING QUESTIONS Use “what if?” questions to project different scenarios into the future.

In A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, Roger Von Oech, says,

“In the imaginative phase, you ask questions such as: What if? Why not? What rules can we break?

What assumptions can we drop? How about if we looked at this backwards? Can we borrow a

metaphor from another discipline? The motto of the imaginative phase is: Thinking something

different.”

Using this creative problem-solving techniques challenges you to allow your mind to play out different

scenarios without judgment or criticism. Judgment always comes after the creative problem-solving

process—not before.

2) FIND YOUR CENTER Most problems arise because of inner confusion. Different parts of us hijack our mind and give us

conflicting wants, beliefs, and perspectives. These parts keep us from thinking clearly to a workable

solution.

These guides offer effective methods for centering yourself:

Getting in the habit of centering yourself before approaching a problem is perhaps the most powerful

creative problem-solving technique.

3) EXPLORE CONTEXT Many problems arise because we neglect to zoom out from the content of the problem and examine

the overall context of the situation.

If sales are down, for example, instead of revisiting your sales strategy examine the context of your

overall industry:

1. Has your industry changed?

2. Are you disconnected from your customer’s needs?

3. Is your product becoming obsolete?

Take an expansive viewpoint before narrowing in on the specific problem.

4) SEEK WISDOM In The Seven Decisions: Understanding the Keys to Personal Success, author Andy Andrews

recommends putting together a personal Board of Directors—“advisors” for various areas of your life.

Asking an experienced advisor from outside your industry for their thoughts on your problem can yield

insightful perspectives.

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Even better: Instead of asking them what they would do in your situation, ask them what question

they would ask.

5) WALK AWAY Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to stop trying to solve it.

Walking away from the problem brings forth the Wanderer archetype. The Wanderer is essential

to the creative process because it allows you to hear your Muse.

The key is knowing when to let go of trying to solve the problem. Creativity problem solving is actually

an effortless process; the key is learning how to get out of your own way.

6) SWITCH ROLES Our minds tend to get locked into old patterns, leading to what’s called “paradigm blindness.”

If you have a marketing-related problem, for example, try putting on an engineer’s hat—or even a

gardener’s hat. The idea is to shift your perspective so you can approach the problem from a new

angle.

The idea is to shift your perspective so you can approach the problem from a new angle.

7) USE THE SIX THINKING HATS Speaking of hats, de Bono’s Six Hats method provides you and your team with six different

perspectives to utilize when tackling a problem.

It’s an ideal tool for group brainstorming and creative problem-solving. Your ability to shift

perspectives quickly—without privileging any one perspective—doesn’t only help you solve problems.

It also helps you become a better leader.

8 ) Generate a Plethora of Ideas Research suggests that the most effective way to uncover the best solution is to brainstorm as many

ideas as you can in a nonjudgmental environment before evaluating them.

There are numerous pathways to get the answer you seek.

Some pathways, however, are more effective than others. The key is to experiment with various

methods to uncover which ones work best for you.

Different methods will be more effective in different contexts.

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Here, wisdom and intuition come into play. Over time, your connection with your inner

guide improves and creative problem-solving can become a more spontaneous process.

HOW TO USE THESE CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING TECHNIQUES Creative problem solving is a skill. And like all skills, it can be learned and developed. The more you

use these problem-solving techniques, the more they become second nature.

Each technique begins to play off the other. And then the art and subtleties of the discovery process

begin to emerge.

One thing I’ll point out from my study of creative geniuses: they rarely take credit for their discoveries.

Change solutions that link to organizational strategic plans Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish

strategic objectives and goals. Implementing your strategic plan is as important, or even more

important, than your strategy.

Critical actions move a strategic plan from a document that sits on the shelf to actions that drive

business growth. Sadly, the majority of companies who have strategic plans fail to implement them.

According to Fortune Magazine, nine out of ten organizations fail to implement their strategic plan for

many reasons:

• 60% of organizations don’t link strategy to budgeting

• 75% of organizations don’t link employee incentives to strategy

• 86% of business owners and managers spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy

• 95% of the typical workforce doesn’t understand their organization’s strategy.

A strategic plan provides a business with the roadmap it needs to pursue a specific strategic direction

and set of performance goals, deliver customer value, and be successful. However, this is just a plan;

it doesn’t guarantee that the desired performance is reached any more than having a roadmap

guarantees the traveler arrives at the desired destination.

Getting Your Strategy Ready for Implementation

For those businesses that have a plan in place, wasting time and energy on the planning process and

then not implementing the plan is very discouraging. Although the topic of implementation may not

be the most exciting thing to talk about, it’s a fundamental business practice that’s critical for any

strategy to take hold.

The strategic plan addresses the what and why of activities, but implementation addresses

the who, where, when, and how. The fact is that both pieces are critical to success. In fact, companies

can gain competitive advantage through implementation if done effectively. In the following sections,

you’ll discover how to get support for your complete implementation plan and how to avoid some

common mistakes.

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Avoiding the Implementation Pitfalls

Because you want your plan to succeed, heed the advice here and stay away from the pitfalls of

implementing your strategic plan.

Here are the most common reasons strategic plans fail:

• Lack of ownership: The most common reason a plan fails is lack of ownership. If people

don’t have a stake and responsibility in the plan, it’ll be business as usual for all but a

frustrated few.

• Lack of communication: The plan doesn’t get communicated to employees, and they

don’t understand how they contribute.

• Getting mired in the day-to-day: Owners and managers, consumed by daily operating

problems, lose sight of long-term goals.

• Out of the ordinary: The plan is treated as something separate and removed from the

management process.

• An overwhelming plan: The goals and actions generated in the strategic planning session

are too numerous because the team failed to make tough choices to eliminate non-critical

actions. Employees don’t know where to begin.

• A meaningless plan: The vision, mission, and value statements are viewed as fluff and not

supported by actions or don’t have employee buy-in.

• Annual strategy: Strategy is only discussed at yearly weekend retreats.

• Not considering implementation: Implementation isn’t discussed in the strategic

planning process. The planning document is seen as an end in itself.

• No progress report: There’s no method to track progress, and the plan only measures

what’s easy, not what’s important. No one feels any forward momentum.

• No accountability: Accountability and high visibility help drive change. This means that

each measure, objective, data source, and initiative must have an owner.

• Lack of empowerment: Although accountability may provide strong motivation for

improving performance, employees must also have the authority, responsibility, and tools

necessary to impact relevant measures. Otherwise, they may resist involvement and

ownership.

It’s easier to avoid pitfalls when they’re clearly identified. Now that you know what they are, you’re

more likely to jump right over them!

Covering All Your Bases

As a business owner, executive, or department manager, your job entails making sure you’re set up

for a successful implementation. Before you start this process, evaluate your strategic plan and how

you may implement it by answering a few questions to keep yourself in check.

Take a moment to honestly answer the following questions:

• How committed are you to implementing the plan to move your company forward?

• How do you plan to communicate the plan throughout the company?

• Are there sufficient people who have a buy-in to drive the plan forward?

• How are you going to motivate your people?

• Have you identified internal processes that are key to driving the plan forward?

• Are you going to commit money, resources, and time to support the plan?

• What are the roadblocks to implementing and supporting the plan?

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• How will you take available resources and achieve maximum results with them?

Implement your strategic plan effectively

Our solution includes a dedicated strategy advisor that will support the completion of your plan and

it’s successful implementation.

You don’t need to have the perfect answers to all these questions right now, but just make sure that

you’ve given all the questions equal consideration. You don’t want to look back six months from now

and wish you had identified some big issues that are now threatening your success. If you’ve identified

some red flags, assess if they’re huge obstacles or small ones. If they’re big, get them out of the way

before you implement, even if it means pushing your timeline out for awhile.

Making Sure You Have the Support

Often overlooked are the five key components necessary to support implementation: people,

resources, structure, systems, and culture. All components must be in place in order to move from

creating the plan to activating the plan.

People

The first stage of implementing your plan is to make sure to have the right people on board. The right

people include those folks with required competencies and skills that are needed to support the plan.

In the months following the planning process, expand employee skills through training, recruitment,

or new hires to include new competencies required by the strategic plan.

Resources

You need to have sufficient funds and enough time to support implementation. Often, true costs are

underestimated or not identified. True costs can include a realistic time commitment from staff to

achieve a goal, a clear identification of expenses associated with a tactic, or unexpected cost overruns

by a vendor. Additionally, employees must have enough time to implement what may be additional

activities that they aren’t currently performing.

Structure

Set your structure of management and appropriate lines of authority, and have clear, open lines of

communication with your employees. A plan owner and regular strategy meetings are the two easiest

ways to put a structure in place. Meetings to review the progress should be scheduled monthly or

quarterly, depending on the level of activity and time frame of the plan.

Systems

Both management and technology systems help track the progress of the plan and make it faster to

adapt to changes. As part of the system, build milestones into the plan that must be achieved within

a specific time frame. A scorecard is one tool used by many organizations that incorporates progress

tracking and milestones.

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Culture

Create an environment that connects employees to the organization’s mission and that makes them

feel comfortable. To reinforce the importance of focusing on strategy and vision, reward success.

Develop some creative positive and negative consequences for achieving or not achieving the

strategy. The rewards may be big or small, as long as they lift the strategy above the day-to-day so

people make it a priority.

Determine Your Plan of Attack

Implementing your plan includes several different pieces and can sometimes feel like it needs another

plan of its own. But you don’t need to go to that extent. Use the steps below as your base

implementation plan. Modify it to make it your own timeline and fit your organization’s culture and

structure.

• Finalize your strategic plan after obtaining input from all invested parties.

• Align your budget to annual goals based on your financial assessment.

• Produce the various versions of your plan for each group.

• Establish your scorecard system for tracking and monitoring your plan.

• Establish your performance management and reward system.

• Roll out your plan to the whole organization.

• Build all department annual plans around the corporate plan.

• Set up monthly strategy meetings with established reporting to monitor your progress.

• Set up annual strategic review dates, including new assessments and a large group meeting

for an annual plan review.

How to develop a change strategy using implementation models

Range of change implementation models Change management models are useful in that they describe and simplify a process so that we can

understand and apply the principles.

The top models of change management described on this page have proven their value but all focus

on very different processes and outcomes.

At the end of the day the reality is that change models are created by people based on their research

and experience. None of them describe a perfect change process.

Think about it. If change always followed an exact pattern, if it was always predictable, there wouldn't

be a need for different models.

No matter how well you plan for change you should always expect a surprise. Change rarely follows

the exact steps change management models suggest.

However, it's always good to work to a plan, especially using a model that's based on experience and

observation.

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So, explore these models of change management and take what is valuable to you. Allow yourself

some flexibility when following a model rather than following it too rigidly.

At a personal and organizational level the models of change we choose are motivated by the way we

approach change. There is no right or wrong.

The way you go about implementing change will differ depending on the model you use, but there are

basic steps that are essential to follow that are common to personal or organisational change.

TOP CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODELS

Kurt Lewin Kurt Lewin's Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze model is popular as it's easy to understand and focuses on

process. It's also inspired many similar 3-step change models that are really a spin on the Lewin model.

Lewin's Force Field Analysis integrates with the three stage theory of change. The Force Field Analysis

is a great tool to motivate people towards change and understand resistance.

ADKAR®

The ADKAR® model is frequently used in organisations. A practical model of change that is simple to

learn, makes sense, and focuses on the actions and outcomes required for change.

KOTTER'S 8-STEP MODEL OF CHANGE John Kotter's influential 8-step process for change: This page has been updated to include Kotter's

2014 book 'Accelerate' in which he creates a contemporary framework for the original 8-step change

model.

STEPHEN COVEY: 7 HABITS MODEL Stephen Covey's Seven Habits model is an inspiring sequential change management process that

challenges us to examine our values and the way we react to change in our lives. Apply the lessons

originally published in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and learn to manage change

effectively.

In 1998 Sean Covey published The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens effectively making the seven

habits model more accessible and proving that a solid model for managing change in life can be

presented in a fun and highly readable format.

KUBLER-ROSS: STAGES OF CHANGE The Kubler-Ross model describes typical responses to grief. These have been applied to understand

change on an individual level and in the workplace.

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When I use this model I find people are relieved to identify their feelings regarding change. But they

most enjoy being able to identify and understand how other people respond to change. They

immediately get a better sense of their own behaviour and why colleagues behave in a particular way.

How to analyse an organizational response to change

Use of analytical tools to monitor the progress and the effect of change Strategic tools focus on the start of the change effort. They deal with researching, assessing and

strategizing. Analytical tools help picture, quantify and measure the change. They are more dynamic

than strategic and planning tools are.

Using a car as an analogy, strategic tools design it. Planning tools are the engine and other moving

parts that move it forward. Analytical tools are the gauges that tell what is happening.

1. Flowchart

The power of this tool is to help picture the status of change at various points. It is typically used in

changes to process, reporting, logistics and communications. Flowcharts have strategic uses too such

as reorgs. In tandem with network mapping, they can show relational changes too.

2. Force Field Analysis

This analytical tool assesses the forces driving and retarding change. That includes objective and

pragmatic ones. It also includes subjective, cultural and political ones. It is dynamic. It can show the

current status of these forces at any point in the change.

3. Metrics

Metrics help measure change. The key is finding the right ones. These will depend on the change. They

can sidetrack though. Some important forces such as morale do not lend themselves to easy, accurate

metrics. People will tend to ignore these key influences as a result.

Metrics are also help the other change management tools. They are especially important to analytical

tools of change management.

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4. Data Collection

When choosing the metrics, it is good to look at what data collection tools there are. These include

software, workflows and sensors. If the right tools are not there to collect the data for the metric, it

will retard change. This tool answers questions such as how:

• Well can we track what we are monitoring?

• Much effort will it take to collect the data?

• Much will it cost?

• Long will it take to collate it?

Other Change Management Tools

Again, this post focused on analytical tools for change management. A past post dealt with the

strategic ones. All change efforts will likely use some form of these tools. Change management

processes that do not use many of them are suspect.

Monitor and measure techniques to change within an organization Your organization probably has well-established measures for assessing project performance. The

measures likely include achievement of project goals, implementation on time and expenditures

within budget. Unfortunately, the same rigour is not typically applied to measuring the “people side

of change”. Many change management practitioners measure activities, such as the number of

communication sessions held or the number of individuals trained, as opposed to what business

leaders truly care about, the realization of the benefits expected from a change.

When an organization implements a change, it comes to life one person at a time. Organizational

success is the cumulative result of successful individual transitions. This means that in order to assess

change management effectiveness, you need to focus on measuring the success of individual

transitions in response to a change. The organizational benefits will be realized if a “critical mass” of

the impacted individuals adopt and use the change. The objective of change management then, is to

enable successful individual transitions, i.e. to ensure that people are able to successfully adopt and

use the change in their daily work.

So, how do you measure the success of individual transitions?

1. Define the Transition

Measuring the success of individual transitions requires that you first define, at a practical level, what

employees impacted by a change need to do differently in their day-to-day jobs. Once the transition

has been clearly defined, it’s possible to measure individual progress in making the transition.

2. Measure Individual Progress

Prosci’s ADKAR model is a simple, yet very powerful model for measuring individual progress in

adopting and using a change. The five building blocks of the model are:

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Managers can use the ADKAR model to monitor the progress of individual transitions. If an individual

becomes “stuck”, the model can help identify which of the building blocks is the barrier and the

manager can then identify specific tactics to help the person get past the barrier point.

3. Measure Cumulative Progress

To measure the cumulative impact of the individual transitions, we recommend using the three human

factors developed by Prosci from their Best Practices Research. The three factors are:

Speed of adoption - how quickly are people adopting the change?

Utilization - how many people are using the change in their daily work?

Proficiency - how well are people using the change?

An easy way to remember the three human factors is the acronym SUP, e.g. what’s SUP for your

change?

The actual measures you use to assess SUP will be specific to your change. The data can be gathered

in a number of ways, including interviews with a representative sample of employees and individual

surveys. Individual progress and cumulative impact need to be measured a number of times during

the lifecycle of a project to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of your change management plan.

By measuring multiple times, you receive early warning of the need for revisions to the plan in order

to achieve the desired outcomes.

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Applying these three steps will help ensure your change management efforts are contributing to what

really matters: the achievement of the business outcomes that your leaders care about.

Strategies to minimize adverse effects of change Resistance to change is a natural reaction when employees are asked, well, to change. Change is

uncomfortable and requires new ways of thinking and doing. People have trouble developing a vision

of what life will look like on the other side of a change. So, they tend to cling to the known rather than

embrace the unknown.

Change Produces Anxiety and Uncertainty

Employees may lose their sense of security. They may prefer the status quo. The range of reactions,

when change is introduced, is immense and unpredictable.

No employee is left unaffected by most changes. As a result, resistance to change often occurs when

change is introduced.

Your Expectations Play a Role in Employee Resistance

Resistance to change is best viewed as a normal reaction. Even the most cooperative, supportive

employees may experience resistance.

So, don't introduce change believing that you will experience nothing but resistance or that resistance

will be severe. Resistance to change is a normal, human reaction when people are asked to change.

Instead, introduce change believing that your employees want to cooperate, make the best of each

work situation and that they will fully and enthusiastically support the changes as time goes by.

By your thinking and your approach, you can affect the degree to which resistance to change bogs the

change down. You can reduce natural resistance to change by the actions you take and how you

involve the employees who you are asking to change. Deep in their hearts, they want to become part

of the bigger picture in the changed organization.

Communication and Input Reduce Employee Resistance

In a best-case scenario, every employee has the opportunity to talk about, provide input to, and have

an impact on the changes you are pursuing. Rationally, this depends on how big the change is and how

many people the change will affect.

In a company-wide change effort, for example, the employee input will most likely affect how to

implement the changes at a departmental level, not the issue of whether to make the changes in the

first place. The overall direction, in these cases, comes from senior leadership who have solicited

feedback from their reporting staff.

In some cases, a leadership team to lead the changes organizationally is established. These teams may

contain a cross-section of employees from across the organization. Or, they are often staffed by

managers and senior leaders who have consequential oversight for portions of the organization.

If communication is a strength in your organization, the opportunity for input may have reached down

to the frontline soldiers. But, this is often not the case because the input and feedback have to make

their way through all of the filters presented by middle management.

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These recommendations are made for the millions of managers, supervisors, team leaders, and

employees who are asked to change something—or everything—periodically at work. You may or may

not have had input into the direction chosen by your senior leaders or your organization.

But, as the core doers at work, you are expected to make the changes and deal with any resistance to

change that you may experience along the way. You can reduce employee resistance to change by

taking these recommended actions at each stage.

Manage Resistance to Change

These tips will help you minimize, reduce, and make less painful, the resistance to change that you

create as you introduce changes. This is not the definitive guide to managing resistance to change—

but implementing these suggestions, will give you a head start.

Own the changes. No matter where the change originated—and change can show up at any point in

your organization, even originating with you—you must own the change yourself. It's your

responsibility to implement the change. You can only do that effectively, if you step back, take a deep

breath, and plan how you will implement the change with the people you influence or oversee in your

organization.

Get over it. Okay, you've had the opportunity to tell senior managers what you think. You spoke loudly

in the focus group. You presented your recommended direction with data and examples to the team.

The powers that be or the team leader have chosen a different direction than the one you supported.

It's time for the change to move on. Once the decision is made, your agitating time is over. Whether

you disagree or not, once the organization, the group, or the team decides to move on—you need to

do everything in your power to make the selected direction succeed. Anything else is sabotage and it

will make your life miserable and it can even get you fired.

No biased and fractional support allowed. Even if you don't support the direction, once the direction

is the direction, you owe it 100 percent support. Wishy-washy or partial support is undermining the

change effort.

If you can't buy into the fact that the chosen direction is where you are going, you can, at least, buy

into the fact that it is critical that you support it. Once the direction is chosen, it is your job to make it

work. Anything less is disrespectful, undermining, and destructive of the team decision or the senior

leaders' direction.

Support the change or, it's time for you to move on and out. (Don't wait for your senior leaders to

have to terminate your employment for non-support. You can do a lot of damage while waiting for

the end to come.)

Recognize that resistance to change is minimized if you have created a trusting, employee-oriented,

supportive work environment prior to the change. If your employees think that you are honest,

and your employees trust you and feel loyal to you, employees are much more likely to get on board

with the changes quickly.

So, the efforts that you have expended in building this type of relationship will serve you well during

the change implementation.

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Communicate the change. You undoubtedly have reporting staff, departmental colleagues, and

employees to whom you must communicate the change. How you communicate the change to the

people you influence has the single most important impact on how much resistance to change will

occur. If you wholeheartedly communicate the change, you will win the hearts and minds of the

employees.

One of the key factors in reducing resistance to change is to implement change in an environment in

which there is widespread belief that a change is needed. So, one of your first tasks in effective

communication is to build the case for "why" the change was needed.

(If the rationale was not communicated to you, and if you are not clear about it yourself, you will have

difficulty convincing others, so consult with your manager to make sure that you are clear, first.)

Specifically, inform the employees about what your group can and cannot affect. Spend time

discussing how to implement the change and make it work. Answer questions; honestly, share your

earlier reservations, but state that you are on board and going to make the change work now.

Ask the employees to join you in that endeavor because only the team can make the change happen.

Stress that you have knowledge, skills, and strengths that will help move the team forward, and so

does each of the team members. All are critical to making the changes work—and gee, life after the

changes may get better.

Help the employees identify what's in it for them to make the change.A good portion of the normal

resistance to change disappears when employees are clear about the benefits the change brings to

them as individuals.

Benefits to the group, the department, and the organization should be stressed, too. But, nothing is

more important to an individual employee than to know the positive impact on their own career or

job.

Additionally, employees must feel that the time, energy, commitment, and focus necessary to

implement the change are compensated equally by the benefits they will attain from making the

change.

Happier customers, increased sales, a pay raise, saved time and steps, positive notoriety, recognition

from the boss, more effective, productive employees, and an exciting new role or project are examples

of ways in which you can help employees feel compensated for the time, energy, focus, change, and

challenge that any change requires.

Listen deeply and empathetically to the employees. You can expect that the employees will

experience the same range of emotions, thoughts, agreement, and disagreement that you

experienced when the change was introduced to you or when you participated in creating the change.

Never minimize an employee's response to even the most simple change.

You can't know or experience the impact from an individual employee's point of view. Maybe the

change seems insignificant to many employees, but the change will seriously impact another

employee's favorite task. Hearing the employees out and letting them express their point of view in a

non-judgmental environment will reduce resistance to change.

Empower employees to contribute. Control of their own jobs is one of the five key factors in what

employees want from work. So, too, this control aspect follows when you seek to minimize resistance

to change. Give the employees control over any aspect of the change that they can manage.

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If you have communicated transparently, you have provided the direction, the rationale, the goals,

and the parameters that have been set by your organization. Within that framework, your job is to

empower the employees to make the change work.

Practice effective delegation and set the critical path points at which you need feedback for the

change effort—and get out of their way.

Create an organization-wide feedback and improvement loop. Do these steps mean that the change

that was made is the right or optimal change? Not necessarily. You must maintain an open line of

communication throughout your organization to make sure that feedback reaches the ears of the

employees leading the charge.

Changing course or details, continuous improvement, and tweaking is a natural and expected, part of

any organizational change. Most changes are not poured in concrete but there must be a willingness

to examine the improvement (plan, do, study, take additional action).

If you implement your change in an organizational environment that is employee-oriented, with

transparent communication and a high level of trust, you have a huge advantage.

But, even in the most supportive environment, you must understand and respond to the range of

human emotions and responses that are elicited during times of intense change.