PRACTICE :: ORGANIZATION & HR

As a manager and a leader, how do you successfully handle change in your organization? Organizations implement changes to accomplish a goal. This could be their very survival, or addressing new segments and customers, or moving to the next level of their life-cycles. However, a poorly implemented change may be worse than the status quo. This makes effective change management a critical necessity.

Professor S. Nayana Tara of IIMB, highlights the challenges organizations face in implementing change. She identifies individuals' resistance and skepticism as the critical contributors to the failure of many well-intended change efforts. A major change may involve changes in individuals' values and beliefs. It is therefore normal to expect resistance from individuals, particularly when they feel insecure and threatened in a changing environment. Addressing such resistance effectively is necessary for successful change management.

The participation of top management, frequent communication and team effort are central to effective change management. An internal champion who creates the vision and a change agent, who translates this vision into action through team effort, play a crucial role in the process. A well-defined communication strategy, including a platform for facilitating open communication make it more likely that the change is successful.

The Change Management Learning Center's ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement) model is an effective framework for both leaders and individuals to navigate the change process. It helps individuals understand the change process, and it helps leaders identify and address areas of resistance, in a structured fashion.

The ADKAR model has five steps

1. Awareness of the need for change: Focus on building awareness across the organization on what the change is, the need for it and the risks of not implementing it.
2. Desire to make the change happen: This is a critical step in the entire change management process. Build a desire amidst employees for the change by presenting a compelling vision and through continuous involvement.
3. Knowledge about how to change: Assess the employees' current knowledge levels and skills, their needs after the change, and their ability to pick up new knowledge and skills. Factor these into a coaching plan to bridge any gaps.
4. Ability to implement new skills and behaviors: As individuals implement new skills and practice new behaviors, provide a safe environment for them to practice these.
5. Reinforcement to sustain change: Celebrate successes and achievements to reinforce positive behavior after the change.

These steps should be fine-tuned and revisited depending upon individual abilities and the progress made during the transition. Though the ADKAR model is linear, leaders should recognize that different individuals will be at different stages of the ADKAR process as the change process unfolds, and factor this into the review process.

Professor Nayana Tara cautions that any change implemented in isolation is unlikely to succeed or may have undesirable consequences elsewhere in the organization. Peripheral Vision or the ability to monitor and comprehended seemingly unrelated developments externally or in other parts of the organization, helps mitigate this risk significantly. Successful change managers have a whole systems perspective and synthesize developments within and outside the organization.

In summary, successful change management involves the participation of top management, team effort, and continuous communication aided by tools such as ADKAR and Peripheral Vision.

The original article MANAGING PERSONAL CHANGE by Professor S. Nayana Tara, was presented at the Workshop on Institutional Effectiveness: Dimensions Empowering Educational Leaders in Higher Education organized by Christ College, Bangalore, 28.05.2008.