Today, the term “change management”
takes on a variety of meanings.
The most practical and useful definition, I believe is:
Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people-side of business change to achieve the required business outcome, and to realise that business change effectively within the social infrastructure of the workplace.
This definition allows practitioners to separate change management as a practice area from business improvement techniques. So whether you are doing Six Sigma, BPR, TQM or some other technique to improve business performance, change management can be viewed as an essential competency to overlay and integrate with these methods.
Prosci's ADKAR Model
Why is change management a required competency for business today?
In his best-selling book Stewardship, Peter Block describes the traditional values that have been the centrepiece of traditional, patriarchal organisations: control, consistency and predictability. These values dictate that decision-making is at the top, leaving the execution and implementation to the middle and bottom layers of an organisation.
Twenty-five years ago, if you wanted something changed as the CEO of a traditional company, you simply spoke the words. The culture and belief system of the organisation was more akin to a military structure. The predictable behaviour in that situation was compliance to the new business direction. As a leader in that organisation, your control was typically not questioned and employees understood what was expected of them. The values of control, consistency and predictability created an environment where change was simply a plan to implement or an adjustment to a mechanical system. Although helpful, change management was not a required competency in this environment
A quarter of a century has passed. Business improvement initiatives – including Edward Deming’s teachings post-World-War-II, the earliest quality circles from Toyota, Six Sigma from Motorola, Total Quality Management (TQM) from AT&T and Ford, empowered teams, and many others initiatives – came to the forefront. Business leaders embraced if at least for some period of time, one or more of these business initiatives.
Over the course of these 25 years and these improvement strategies, we have impressed new values and belief systems on employees. The new values include empowerment (make the right decision for the customer), accountability (take ownership and pride in your work), and continuous improvement (look for ways to improve everything you do, every day). A new culture has evolved in many of today’s businesses where a new generation of employees:
- take ownership and responsibility for their work
- have pride in workmanship and look to improve their work processes
- feel empowered to make decisions that improve their product and the level of customer service
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