5 Steps in the Change Management Process | Business: Explained

[MUSIC PLAYING] Businesses must constantly evolve and adapt to meet challenges from technology advancements, to updated laws and regulations, to shifts in economic trends. Failure to do so can lead to stagnation, or worse, failure. Research shows that half of all organizational change initiatives are unsuccessful.

It's vital for business leaders to know how to plan, coordinate, and implement change. Organizational change broadly refers to a business's actions to alter or adjust a significant component of how it's organized. This can include culture, internal processes, underlying technology or infrastructure, or hierarchy.

Change management is the process of guiding change to fruition from conception to resolution. Change processes have a set of starting conditions, point A and a functional endpoint, point B. What happens between is dynamic and unfolds in a series of five steps.

Step one is preparing for change. In the preparation phase, the manager helps employees recognize and understand the need for change. They raise awareness of the challenges or problems driving the change.

Gaining initial buy-in from employees can help reduce friction and resistance lighter on. Step two is crafting a vision and plan for change. The plan should detail strategic goals the organization should work toward, key performance indicators for measuring success, stakeholders responsible for implementation and sign-off, and project scope.

The plan should also account for obstacles that could arise during implementation that would require agility and flexibility to overcome. Step three is implementing change. During implementation, change managers focus on motivating and empowering employees to achieve the initiative's goals.

They should also try to anticipate roadblocks and prevent, remove, or mitigate them once identified. Reiterating the organization's vision is critical throughout the implementation process to remind team members why change is being pursued. Step four is embedding change within the company culture and practices.

This is particularly important for organizational change related to processes, workflows, and strategies. Without an adequate plan, employees can backslide into the old way of doing things, particularly during the transitory period. New organizational structures, controls, and reward systems are all tools that help change stick.

And finally, step five, reviewing progress and analyzing results. Just because a change initiative is complete doesn't mean it was successful. A project postmortem can help business leaders understand whether a change initiative was a success, failure, or a mixed result.

It can also offer valuable insights and lessons for future efforts. Key questions to ask during this step include, were project goals met? If yes, can this success be replicated elsewhere?

If not, what went wrong? If you've been asked to lead a change initiative or would like to oversee such projects in the future, it's critical to develop skills that equip you to do the job. Explore our online course, Management Essentials, and discover how you can use organizational processes to your advantage and lead change.