How to Structure Change Initiatives

Embracing and implementing change is an essential step in an organisation’s evolution – honouring the mantra, “Take charge of change before change takes charge of you!”

Change can be delivered through a programme, a project or even as part of business as usual. These can all be referred to as Change Initiatives.

Change Initiatives should be owned by the individuals who are operationally in charge of the impacted business areas.

Change Initiatives aim to address an organisational challenge such as outdated processes, products or staff behaviours. But regardless of the context, the principles for successfully delivering change remain the same, which is why a structured approach is most effective.

This is a simple, step-by-step guide on how to structure a successful change initiative – taken from a webinar conducted by APMG-accredited training organization, Raj Khanna Associates Ltd.

Before you begin to initiate a change – consider these four principles:

• Reasons
• Benefits
• Outcomes
• Outputs

Reasons – Identify the problems

The first step is to identify the current problems or challenges your department or organisation faces. These are what should be addressed by the initiative.

Examples of problems are:

• The number of complaints has risen
• Sales have fallen
• Crime has increased

Benefits – Identify what improvements you would like to see

Now that you’ve identified a problem, identify the improvements you would like to see once the Change Initiative is complete.

At a high level, the improvements are likely to be opposite of the reasons, although it would be useful to identify other areas for improvement.

For example:

• The number of complaints has decreased
• The number of customers re-ordering has increased
• The number of crimes committed has reduced
• The money spent on a process has decreased

Outcomes – What needs to be done differently in order to deliver the improvement

Albert Einstein said, “In order to improve, we have to do things differently.”

Identify:

• where and how we need to change the way we work
• how these changes will successfully sustain the change initiative

This is often referred to as outcome, business change, or transition.

Ideally, the outcomes should be linked to the organization’s strategic objectives. However, if this is not the case - then it is likely that additional justification may be required to convince the leadership team to approve the initiative.

Outputs – What tools do we need to do things differently?

Lastly, in order to change the way we work, we need to identify the tools that will enable us to do so.

It might seem strange that this is last – but the previous steps will determine which tools will be best for the job. The necessary tools may be referred as outputs or solutions.

During the visioning phase of the Change Initiative we work through the principles in the order specified above. However, during the actual delivery the order is reversed, so we work bottom up.

We’ll demonstrate this in the scenario next.

Here is a hypothetical scenario which demonstrates the principles in practice.

Let’s say our organisation’s staff has bathing facilities…currently they use a bucket, a mug and a tap (hot and cold.)

Staff must fill the bucket with a mixture of hot and cold water in order to bathe.

Reasons – what are the problems with these bathing facilities?

• We have to wait for the bucket to fill up – during which time we are unable to do anything. Productivity takes a hit
• When the bucket is full – the water is either too hot or too cold. We then waste water trying to get the temperature right

Benefits - what improvements could be made?

• We could decrease the time it takes for staff to bathe, thereby increasing efficiency
• We could reduce the amount of wasted water
• These address each of the reasons identified above

Outcome - changes in working practice

• We could maintain status quo and continue the way we are bathing
• We could stop bathing
• Or we could install a new shower unit and change from using a bucket to have a bath to having a shower

Solution - outputs

• The shower unit is the necessary solution that is needed for the staff to change the way that they bathe

In several cases, it is likely that people will continue to bathe using the bucket as they feel comfortable in the old way of working. If this is the case and the staff do not change, then the department or the organization will not achieve the necessary benefits. Therefore the challenge is to take the bucket away.

You might leave the bucket there during the transition period, but try to keep this transition period to minimal length.

Overcoming peoples’ resistance to change is one of the key challenges for the Operational Manager.

In summary – this is what a map of this structured journey would look like.

Output

• New shower unit

Capability

• Trained members of staff to use the shower

Outcome (business change or transition)

• Staff use the shower instead of bucket

Primary Benefit

• Decrease the time to wash

Secondary Benefit

• Increase the number of bathing opportunities

Strategic Objective

• Improve efficiency