Theory and Models of Change Management

Change Management

Change Management is a structural approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations for a current state to a desired future state. It includes both organizational change management processes and individual change management models, which together are used to manage the people side of change.

Change Management principles: When leader and managers are planning to manage Change, there are five key principles that need to be kept in mind-
1.    Different people react differently to Change
2.    Everyone has fundamental needs that have to be met

3.    Change often involves a loss and people go through the “loss curve”
4.    Expectations need to be managed realistically
5.    Fears have to be dealt with

Planning, implementing and managing change in a fast-changing environment is increasingly the situation in which most organizations now work.Dynamic environments require dynamic processes, people, systems and culture, especially for managing change successfully. Some key elements for success are as follows-

1. Plan long term broadly (a sound strategic vision)
2. Establish forums and communicating methods to enable immediate review and decision-making
3. Empower people to make decisions at local operating level-delegate responsibility and power as much as possible.
4. Remove from strategic change and approval processes and teams any ultra cautious or ultra-autocratic or compulsively interfering executives.
5. Encourage, enable and develop capable people to be active in other areas of the organizations via “virtual teams” and Matrix management.
6. Scrutinize and optimize ICT systems to enable effective information management and key activity team working.
7. Use workshops as a vehicle to review priorities and focus on Resistance Management
8. Adjust recruitment, training and development and coaching to accelerate the development of people who contribute positively to a culture of empowered dynamism.

Some Models of Change Management are-

1. Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze model by Kurt Lewin
2. PCI (People Centered Implementation) methodology by Changefirst
3. ADKAR (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement)

Thus to conclude, we can say that Organizations undertake Change in order to improve performance-through reduced costs, improved efficiencies, increased revenue, better utilized employees, reduced risk exposure, etc. To improve performances, changes must be made to the processes, systems organization structures or job roles-and ultimately these changes impact how people do their jobs. For these changes to be successful, they must be managed from a technical perspective using project management and from a people perspective using Change Management