Change Management Plan Article written by guest blogger – Carl Gosselin
Planning for organizational change is always simpler than implementing the change. The planning process is usually linear; one activity in planned prior to other activities and so on. Although an attempt is made during implementation to follow these steps, what actually occurs in anything but linear.
I’m just going to say it, implementing organizational change is a messy process: things usually don’t go as planned; people modify change management activities on the fly; some people resist or even sabotage the project; and, ironically, some people who were slated to support or resist the change actually behave in just the opposite way. In other words, unanticipated consequences occur.
I’ve heard more than my fair share of change leaders saying “for every step forward, we take two steps back; there is a constant battle to stay the course and not fall off track“
Provided that the change goals are clear and the project sponsors are (a) willing to stay the course and (b) display visible and active support for the project, over time, the progress towards change may end up being somewhat linear, or at least a pattern will emerge.
Many eons ago, during my studies, I fell upon a simple graph that depicted this type of nonlinear process for change, and displayed a ‘loop back’ pattern moving forward through time.
This ‘loop’ pattern begins with a deviation from the plan and is completed by the momentum of the change initiative to reach its goals. It is important to mention that no pattern will emerge in the absence of clear change goals. The goals are what “pulls” or establishes a pattern. To reiterate, the absence of change goals will suppress the change pattern and worse, terminate the change initiative.
Consider the following scenario: a change effort is launched to expedite the sales cycle with a new system that automates common tasks.
During the creation of a change management plan, key executives are identified to support the initiative. Also identified are the individuals that may be resistant to the change (e.g. employees supporting the old system). To the surprise of many, it is uncovered that some of the executives set to support the change resist the change and other individuals believed to resist the change are advocates. Thus, the change plan needs to be modified to work on the newfound resistors and rally around those individuals that now advocate the new system.
In short, a ‘loop back’ is required to keep the project moving in the right direction. And I’ll just mention here that some of the loop backs will be bigger than others based on the amount of effort required to push the project back on track.
The process of managing change, as depicted in the graph above, involves dealing with unanticipated consequences that occur when change disrupts the inner-workings of an organization. Kurt Lewin said it best – “If you want to understand an organization, try to change it.“
To conclude, planning for change is required to keep the change initiative moving forward. But expect for things to not turn out as planned. There in lies the paradox.
Use the comment section below to share your examples of creating plans for managing change.
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About the Author
Carl Gosselin – Helping individuals, groups and organizations through change.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carldgosselin
– See more at: http://carldgosselin.com
Interesting Article! What is your advice on how a Project Manager should manage this loop pattern? I’m asking from the point of view of a planned budget and coarse of action view point vs what happens in the execution? Any advice?
Hi Ron,
thanks for your question. I would recommend having a change management expert review the project plan prior to project and budget approval so that change management activities and milestones are included. In this manner, the management of change is not simply an afterthought during the execution of the project. The change management activities and milestones included in the plan will provide the opportunity to bring the project back on track if some of the change activities fall by the wayside.