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At the ASTD 2008 International Conference & Exposition in San
Diego last week, I had the opportunity to listen to one most
engaging speakers, Elaine Biech (pronounced Bik) on designing and
implementing change management effort in organizations.
She said that the accelerating rate of
information in our information-rich society is directly related to
the accelerating rate of change. This means more decisions and an
increased number of choices. We make so many decisions to purchase a
telephone today much more than we needed to do 15 years ago.
Purchasing something new may require weeks of research with changes
occurring right before your eyes.
She gave the example of buying a telephone today
and that you need to make the following decisions: Landline or cell?
Caller ID? Digital answering? Speaker phone? Voice-activated
dialing? Camera phone? 3G? Internet capable? Bluetooth capable?
Video and music capable? GPS? PDA combination? Radio? Television
access? Text messaging? Picture messaging? Which carrier? What plan?
How many minutes? Free minutes? Carrier-to-carrier plan? Family
plan? OFW plan? Replacement phones? Warranties? Insurance? Ringer
choices? Headset? Battery life? Charger? Car charger? Other
accessories? And most important, what color?
Biech says that the increased amount and rate of
information has placed not only individuals but more so
organizations on ever accelerating paths of change. She shared this
change model from her book, “Thriving through Change: A leader’s
guide to change mastery” (ASTD Press 2007).
First, challenge the current state: collect and
analyze data, determine organizational readiness, establish change
management roles, build a business case and establish a sense of
urgency.
Second, harmonize and align leadership: consider
your change leader’s qualities, select a change implementation
team, create a compelling change vision, explore alignment and
design a change communication plan.
Third, activate commitment: design the
implementation plan, build a critical mass, predict reactions to
change, plan to manage resistance and attain buy-in to the vision.
Fourth, nurture and formalize a design:
understand how change affects the system, select appropriate
metrics, conduct a risk assessment and select appropriate
implementation and planning tools.
Fifth, guide implementation: encourage
involvement, identify ways to promote short-term gains to build
momentum and determine ways to increase motivation.
And Sixth, evaluate and institutionalize change:
evaluate the change effort, institutionalize change elements and
review organization’s culture.
Biech says you can never communicate too much
during a change initiative. During a change effort, employees have
similar questions: what is happening, why do we need to change now?
How will it affect me? How can I get more information? Keep these
questions in mind as you design, refine and implement a change
communication plan and as you continue to work through the change
process steps.
As graphic artist and children’s book
illustrator Mary Engelbreit puts it: If you don’t like something
change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about
it. Or this quote by John A. Simone, Sr.: If you’re in a bad
situation, don’t worry it’ll change. If you’re in a good
situation, don’t worry it’ll change.
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www.learningandinnovation.com; innovationcamp@yahoo.com
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