TOP 5: Successful Organizational Change Management (OCM) Strategies
We are witnessing tremendous global, cultural, and business changes due to rapid technological advancements. The global marketplace is constantly evolving, so organizations have to be prepared to adapt. They often encounter new challenges and must explore new business areas and methods to maintain and thrive. It is true that organizations embrace technological, business, and structural changes, but unavoidable truth is that - people hate change. When poorly implemented, employees often show resistance to it, which leads either to a failed change implementation, operational delays or even both.
Organizational Change Management (OCM) helps minimize the potential for those negative outcomes. It is a framework used by business leaders to successfully implement radical changes in their organizations regarding its procedures, policies, culture, and employee responsibilities, skills, and roles.
Areas of OCM
The implementation of change in any one area within the company will often require the need to address changes in multiple or possibly all other functional areas. As much as organizations would like it to, change does not occur in isolation and for that reason, organizational leadership must be prepared to acknowledge and address all domains affected by the planned change.
There are four main areas of organizational change: strategy, organizational structure, organizational power, and technology. Every change Implementation requires appropriate analysis to identify how each of these areas will be impacted and to plan for the management of not only the areas of known change, but the potential unintended consequences that accompany every change initiative.
What Does a Successful OCM Strategy Include?
The approach to OCM has to be systematic because it requires people to learn new skills and adopt new behaviors. You need to set expectations and find ways to improve communication and reduce misinformation. Only then you will make a change without the accompanying discomfort, insecurities, or tension.
A successful OCM strategy includes:
• Strong leadership to communicate the vision. • A shared vision for change. • A strategy for educating your workforce about how their responsibilities will change. • A plan for measuring the success of the change implemented, as well as plans for both positive and negative results. • Incentives for encouraging individuals and teams for successful training in their new responsibilities and roles.
Resistance to Change
Whenever leaders try to implement change within their organization, they should expect to encounter some form of resistance. This resistance is normal because people are typically creatures of habit. Some actions have the potential to arouse resistance, and leaders should try to motivate their employees and encourage them to shake off their old habits. Normally, trying to manage change abruptly will only produce negative results. Change must take place naturally and the keys to minimizing negative reactions are communication and education. Hold individual discussions, group presentations, send memos and reports. Invite employee involvement and participation in the design and implementation phases of the organizational change.
Titanium Cobra Solutions has a rich history of helping clients through their change implementations; addressing organizational change concerns and the accompanying sensitivities with solid engagement plans and clear communications to motivate their employees. We tackle changes in parallel, avoid ambiguity around critical decision processes and roles, and deliver enduring success through organizational alignment.
The best way to deal with an organizational transformation is the proactive management of change. Organizations must optimize their future adaptability because change is natural, but they shouldn’t let it happen without being prepared for it.
