Change Management

1. A compelling excellence vision. See the visionary leadership page for more on this topic.

2. From the vision and the organization’s current performance, a “burning platform” is identified to provide a compelling case for the necessary change. The resulting sense of urgency should mobilize stakeholders to do the right things right.

3. Opportunity projects and initiatives, particularly the first wave, must be aligned with the organization’s process excellence and performance intent. These need to receive visible and ongoing leadership support.

4. Understand key stakeholders’ current position on the proposed solution, practices, or way. From the stakeholder analysis or stakeholder mapping, a strategy can be derived to bring stakeholders to the required level of support.

5. Full involvement and participation of stakeholders from the outset aids quicker adoption. That implies that stakeholders have a say in the identification, development, and implementation of the new way.

6. The organization and its leadership must show full commitment to the new direction. That is to ensure that sufficient resources with the appropriate competencies are made available to drive the change.

7. Open and clear communication regarding the process excellence program, initiatives, projects, and successes should be ongoing and aimed at all stakeholders. The communication needs to be timely, accurate, consistent, two-way, using various media vehicles, etc.

8. Reward and recognition systems should be aligned to ensure the desired behaviors are institutionalized. In addition, post-project lessons, from successes (best practices) and failures, need to be gathered and shared to enable learning throughout the entire organization.