Jul 14, 2010
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A 6 Step Guide for Successful Change
To move your organization forward you have to manage change.
Change can come from outside the organization, like a change in the laws or the economy. It can come from inside the organization, like a quality improvement initiative. Or, it can come from the market. Often, you need to proactively make changes to succeed.
These can include changing the way you do things, changing the products or services you provide or changing how you market those products.
Here is a six step guide to managing change successfully. It connects the dots from the previous two posts (with a philosophical p.s. on the importance of change and good project management).
First, a definition. At its core, change is about going from where you are to where you have to be.
1. Create a work-flow. A good work-flow gives you a picture of your current state. Analyzing the work-flow can help you decide where you want to go. Use data on the effectiveness of the current work-flow as a baseline against which to compare your future work-flow.
2. Create what you want your future work-flow to look like. This is your target work-flow. It should be driven by your goals. That is, figure out what it is you want to improve (customer satisfaction, profitability, job satisfaction, costs, etc.) and build a target work-flow that should deliver those improvements.
If change is being imposed from outside your organization (e.g. because of the economy) your target work-flow is about figuring out how to do what you currently do in a different, but equally effective, way.
3. Build a project plan that maps out how you are going to get from here to there. It should tell you the road you’re going to take, who’s getting you there and how to keep moving forward when you hit road-blocks.
4. Once you get there, once the target work-flow is implemented, measure its effectiveness to see if it meets your goals. Did it improve what you wanted it to?
5. If it didn’t meet your goals, figure out what else has to change and go through the process of creating that change.
6. If it did meet your goals, find another area to improve and do it again.
It has been said that change is inevitable. All things change. Having a process in place to manage change makes it more comfortable and increases your chances of have a successful transition.
On a Philosophical Level:
Economic growth depends on change. If that’s the case, a good project manager, one that can manage change and make positive changes a reality, is an engine for economic growth.
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