Why is Change Management important?

www.maventraining.co.uk І 020 7089 6161

Why is change management important?

A business case for developing an approach to managing change within organisations

© Maven Training Ltd 2012



Summary

• This presentation has been written for anyone who is trying to persuade their colleagues that applying a structured approach to change management is a good thing!

• I have provided a couple of my favourite quotes about the importance of change, as sometimes the views of others can be more persuasive than your own reasoning.

• I have outlined the benefits and costs of having a change management framework which has done some of the thinking for those of you who have to put together a business case for investing in change management skills.



Have a structure to allow change…

“It’s such a volatile world that the first resolution for any business leader coming into 2012 must be to become change friendly. I can’t think of any sector that could not change massively within the next year.

So before you even start thinking about what those changes might be, you must ensure that you as an individual and your company as a whole is open to change and has the structure in place to allow it.”

William Higham, founder of future trends consultancy The Next Big Thing, quoted in Director Magazine, January 2012



Become a change leader…

But unless an organisation sees that its task is to lead change, that organisation - whether a business, a university, or a hospital - will not survive. In a period of rapid structural change the only organizations that survive are the ‘change leaders’.

It is therefore a central 21st-century challenge for management that its organisation become a change leader.



A change leader sees change as an opportunity. A change leader looks for change, knows how to find the right changes and knows how to make them effective both outside the organisation and inside it.

This requires:

1. Policies to make the future.

2. Systematic methods to look for and to anticipate change.

3. The right way to introduce change both within and outside the organisation.

4. Policies to balance change and continuity.

Peter Drucker, Management Challenges for the 21st Century (1999)

Become a change leader…



Benefits of effective change management

• Return on investment:

— Economies of scale as the approach to change is re-used for each initiative saving the number of days spent defining a unique approach to each change initiative.

— Faster implementation of change as those involved have the confidence to know where to get started, who to involve and can estimate with greater certainty the impact on their workloads and the level of impact in their departments.




• Quality of the outcome achieved:

— Increased understanding of the impact of the change which ensures that all processes, systems and people that are impacted are consulted, and their requirements incorporated into the change plan.

— Appropriate levels of involvement with agreed responsibilities for making the change happen reduces the resistance to change and increases the rate of adoption, leading to greater realisation of benefits.




• Efficiency of resources:

— Clarifies the roles and responsibilities of all those involved in the change effort, ensuring that those with the most relevant skills and experience are given appropriate activities to manage.

— Reduction in the number of ‘failed’ change initiatives and the waste of resources involved in making changes that ‘run out of steam’ or get overtaken by other events which had not been assessed when the change was conceived.




— Reduction in the level of activity that is duplication of effort or that is running at cross purposes to other changes being made elsewhere in the organisation.

— Enhanced employee morale and a reduction in recruitment and retention costs.



Costs of change management

Ability to manage change is a management skill so we need to invest in training and development programmes that enable people to learn the theories and apply them to practical situations:

— Define your processes for managing change:

—Build a business change lifecycle.

—Align it with your existing operational governance approach.

—Develop a framework of roles and responsibilities for defining, leading and implementing change.



— Deliver training programmes that empower individuals to participate in change:

—Explain what your organisation means when it refers to change management and business transformation.

—Train people to understand your step-by-step guide to implement change as defined in your business change lifecycle.

— Delegate responsibility for implementing change across your organisation:

—Reduce ‘business as usual’ responsibilities to create the time to invest in new ways of working.

—Accept the need for lower productivity and/or temporary staff during periods when significant change is taking place.

Costs of change management


Further Information For further information about Maven Training please contact: Melanie Franklin e-mail: [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]�

http://twitter.com/maventraining�

http://www.facebook.com/maventraining�

http://www.linkedin.com/company/64556�

http://www.slideshare.net/MavenTraining/slideshows�

http://www.youtube.com/user/maventrainingltd�

http://www.scribd.com/MavenTraining�

Education

Why is Change Management important?