As a Change Practitioner, it’s come to my attention that there is alot of fake news out there about Change Management practices. In this post you will read about some of the misconceptions of Change Management, and the challenges that are most often experienced. You will also see how to overcome some of these challenges.
3 Misconceptions you are most likely to experience
- The project was easy peezy because no one heard any grumblings. If you have worked on any type of project, you most definitely experienced resistance at some point throughout the process. And even if you have the best Change Manager, sometimes the stakeholders will assume that everything has been good and running smoothly. This happens when they are not in the weeds with you day in and day out. This can actually be a WIN for you as the Change Manager. Have you ever heard of the saying “Don’t air your dirty laundry” Well, “You don’t want to air your dirty laundry in front of the stakeholders. They don’t care what’s in the basket as long as it gets done and put away!”
- Mid-level leaders do not understand how important their role is for a change initiative. It’s critical for employees to understand what is going to happen before it does. They need to be prepared, have the right tools and knowledge to perform. Employees need to be able to voice their concerns, questions, and insight about the change in order to feel heard. As a leader of people, if an employee understands why things are changing and how it impacts their work, ahead of the change, they are more likely to accept the change rather than resisting when told to do things differently. When the employees have the right information and can continue to do their jobs without disruption, the transition to the new solution goes much smoother and productivity is improved
- Many companies think why not have everyone responsible for change since everyone is impacted by it. And while it’s good to have a team effort, you still need someone to drive the car and get you over the finish line, especially if you are working with a medium to large scale project.
Change Management is not training
And for the love of God, yes education is a part of Change Management but not the only part! In fact, it’s just a small portion of the overall change effort. Anyone that tells you change management only happens at the end of a project, when the employees need to be trained, they are completely out of their minds! LOL
There have been many studies showing that if Change Management was applied early in a project, the project itself would have been much smoother of a transition for the employees. The graph below from Prosci Change Management Institute shows a year over year improvement in project objectives when Change practices are established.
It’s important to start early in the project to identify your risks and plan for them. The sooner your Change Manager can start to assess the readiness and competencies of the organization, the better your risk mitigation plans will be.
Check out my YouTube video on this topic by clicking here.
