Now that January, the month for making New Year Reflections and Resolutions but not necessarily keeping to these, has passed perhaps it is appropriate to take some time to reflect on how we apply change management good practices.
Reflection 1: taking time for our professional and personal wellbeing
How much time do we, as busy change managers, give or perhaps a better word, allocate to capturing lessons learned and implementing these?
If we used Forcefield Analysis to identify the factors creating accelerators and brakes to our professional and personal wellbeing as effective change managers would this identify opportunity for more acceleration and less braking?
Reflection 2: is it less about effort and more about taking a cool, hard look at the change being implemented and the metrics being used to evaluate the delivery of organisational value?
Taking time to assess is it time to quit or at least evaluate what’s contributing to a widening gap between plan and delivery reality is often missed or seen as failure and therefore not discussed? Annie Duke has a very useful book called Quit recently published (2022) in which she reviews the criteria for quitting. Annie was a successful professional gambler and now works with, among others, Nobel prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler on when to quit and more effective decision-making.
Reflection 3: is the culture of the organisation a positive factor for the change(s) being made?
The organisational legacy from previous change programmes or projects may be a more significant factor, both positive and negative, than may be obvious. For example, how is the executive “team” working individually and collectively? Is there some “history” between senior people which influences their direct reports and how they buy-in to the change programme requirements?
Reflection 4: how effective is the communication process in keeping all those involved in the change, appropriately up to date?
Sometimes after the “big bang” change programme announcement, the day-to-day communications can drift, lose focus, and consequently be ignored. One of the key elements supporting effective change implementation is high-quality two-way communication. Frequently, the importance of reality-based communications is underestimated favouring overly optimistic message communication.
The adage “people hear what is said but believe what is done” should be kept at the front of every change manager’s mind!
Reflection 5: how is the troika of people, process and technology working?
Are they in harmony, creating velocity for valuable work and this in turn delivering the outcome of successful change? How does the original business case for the change match to the current change programme delivery reality?
It should be culturally appropriate to adapt from the original business case to the current reality as things change over time! It could be the best business case and supporting plan at the time of creation however when plan and reality collide, effective change managers and their organisations should adjust to reality.
“When the facts change, I change my mind” - John Maynard Keynes
