Building Organisational Change Capability to Stay Ahead of the Curve…Uzma Aitqad writes..
In recent times, to stay ahead of the curve, it has become critical for organisations to build their in-house change leadership capability to respond with agility. The Change Maker Group has been addressing this topic with a series of articles written by our experts.
Organisations are constantly evolving due to rapid change around us; recently this pace is entirely unprecedented.
We often see organisations make significant investments in strategic imperatives to ensure continuous improvement. And almost all of these investments result in some change or another.
Unfortunately, they do not always extract the maximum value from these changes. This is because they lack a consistent, stable change capability built within their organisation.
Why build organisational change capability?
Due to external or internal factors, companies will change to:
- improve operational excellence
- business models
- customer focus or
- technological advancement.
Some industry statistics suggest, 70% of changes fail due to poor execution
The poor execution entails a lack of holistic approach to change management and change leadership. Go beyond ad-hoc and project-based change management to build a more consistent approach to manage change focused on people and adoption.
This can be a significant factor in enhancing the ROI and success of change initiatives /projects. Ultimately it enables an organisation to out-change competitors.
This means building the change capability within companies is pivotal and can be a real game-changer for businesses.
The in-house change capability will empower:
- leaders to lead the the new ways of operation
- project managers to manage the changes
- change practitioners to plan and implement
- line managers to guide people through the journey and
- individuals to know how to embrace change willingly.
What are the seven key elements of organisational change capability?
Key elements of organisational change capability
1. Stakeholder Management
A vital aspect of leading and managing change – Who is going to be impacted? And what influence they have on the success? Or how important it is to get their buy-in into the objectives? – All of the above questions need to be understood and analysed in great detail. The people engaged in this should have their expectations managed throughout the process.
2. Change Impacts Assessments
These assessments may be technology-led, process-led, strategic or culture focused. And a change will have some impacts on people, processes, structures, and culture in the organisation. These impacts need to be assessed in detail. Understanding what readiness activities are needed to ensure a smooth transition is important.
3. Operational Readiness and Assessments
This element of change management focuses on making sure the companies processes, structures, and systems are ready to facilitate change with ease and success.
4. Change Networks
Building change networks refers to active and effective engagement, which is hugely vital for sustaining change. People at every level participate in change by:
- supporting and promoting the new agenda
- modelling new behaviours and
- championing new ways of doing things.
5. Communications
To run a whole campaign around:
- making people aware of the changes
- creating desirability in people to adopt the new ways
- up-skill training to embrace communications with confidence; and finally
- offering their commitment to change to sustain it for long-lasting results is critical to the success of change.
6. Training and People Enablement
Training to develop skills to assist people adopt change with complete confidence and ability. People enablement involves up-skilling them to enact change to see how collaboration with other teams works in a more holistic and integrated fashion. It is critical for business readiness to ensure a smooth transition without causing any disruption to the business.
7. Cultural Alignment to Change
A vital aspect of change leadership is to ensure that behaviours and culture are supportive of change objectives. And people need to be embracing it, living and breathing change through their day-to-day actions and behaviours.
Contact us at The Change Maker Group where we can assist you to build organisational change leadership capability. It will help you to be agile in your response to the constant pressures of change and drive maximum value of change initiatives.
To continue the conversation, please contact Uzma
