You will be familiar with the word “Change Management” if you are working within a large corporation or organisation. Organizational Change Management has been around for a while but this term has become very common among organisations and corporations that like to initiate changes to processes including both tasks and organizational culture. Change management is a set of processes that are employed to make sure that changes have been implemented in an ordered, controlled and systematic way.
While it is not a basic skill, business leaders and executives need to be competent in Change Management. Only a few work environments can continue working without changes otherwise every business needs change due to technological awareness in the world and high competition in the market. Change Management has been developed and improved throughout the years, and while business leaders use different models for making changes in their businesses, the ADKAR method has become one of the most popular Change Management Models.
ADKAR
The ADKAR model is one of the most commonly known and followed change management models. This model defines five basic stages that must be kept in mind to make successful amendments in an organization. These stages include:
- Awareness: Leaders must know what changes are needed and why.
- Desire: All concerned members of the organization must have the motivation and desire to make changes in processes.
- Knowledge: Organisations must know what changes can be made and how.
- Ability: An organization willing to change must have the abilities and competencies to plan and implement it.
- Reinforcement: All concerned people must be reinforced to sustain this and adopt new behaviours.
Basic Principles for Change Management
Change management is only possible if some specific principles are being followed. Here is information about basic principles that must be knowledge of all managers and leaders:
- Different people will react differently to proposed changes.
- Everyone has fundamental needs that should be considered.
- Change may result in loss, therefore, business leaders should be courageous enough to accept it.
- Expectations need to be managed realistically.
- Courage to deal with fears.
- You need to know how these principles will be applied in change management.
- You can deal with different behaviours of concerned people by proper communication beforehand. Be open and honest about providing facts. Avoid being over-optimistic. Meet their openness needs but in a way that they may not set unrealistic expectations.
- Make a communication strategy for large groups of people that ensures the necessary information is efficiently and comprehensively disseminated to all people. Tell the story of change to everyone at the same time. You can also arrange individual meetings to make strategies to deal with it. This will help leaders in dealing with individual behaviours.
- Give people a choice to make among proposed changes and be very honest about the consequences.
- Give people time to express their reviews and support their decision-making.
- Identify chances of losses. Define ways to replace the losses. This will help to overcome fears.
- Give individual opportunities to all involved people to express their concerns and satisfy them with potential facts.
Follow each principle while introducing any change in your organization to get optimum results from it. Try to develop a change-oriented attitude in your team.
