Most organizations have shortened the time horizons for business forecasting and strategic planning due to the business environment’s volatility.
The business environment is changing, and the rate of change is accelerating. This change is driven by the global availability of information, technologies, and technology-based infrastructure, and the expanding global marketplace. Accurate, detailed forecasting over a long time horizon is not possible and cannot be used to develop long-term plans for a competitive position in the future. A robust change process is needed to succeed in the future, in order to continuously retune the organization’s processes and react to changes in the business environment.
Many leaders may dislike change and resist it. However, the alternative to change may be obsolescence or irrelevance.
Change Management is a cyclic, and structured approach for transitioning individuals, groups, and organizations from a current state to a future state with intended business benefits. It helps organizations to integrate and align people, processes, structures, culture, and strategy. Organizations evolve through purposeful strategies that anticipate, influence, and respond effectively to shifting external trends, patterns, and events.
Organizations need to embrace change in their strategy to compete and ensure long-term success. Strategic planning has to be an iterative and continually evolving process and it can no longer be an annual, top-down process. Organizations need to be strategically agile and effective at delivering change through portfolio, program, and project management.
External Drivers of Change
Competitiveness and success are earned by continually evaluating products and services for the benefit of customers, and rabidly responding to abrupt changes driven by the enterprise environmental factors such as:
Technological:
o Knowledge management
o Computational power
o Increasing capability
o Global communications
Cultural:
o Higher levels of education
o Social networking
o Cultural shift
o Social pressures
Socioeconomic:
o Global economy
o Growing population
o Shifting demographics
o New markets
o Legal/regulatory
Organizational Agility
Successful organizations aggressively reshape their culture and business practices by:
• Rigorous change management to adapt to frequently shifting market conditions
• Collaborative and robust risk management
• Use of standardized portfolio, program, and project practices
In addition to having the right technology and processes, an organization needs to create «change-ready» employees. However, constant change places enormous stress on the organization. Management needs to help stakeholders recognize that the change process will have measurable points of success.
Team Capabilities
In order to effectively manage change, an organization needs to incorporate the following functions:
Governance Board: A governance board provides oversight, sets direction and provides leadership. It ensures that the change process remains aligned with the organization’s strategic vision. It also deals with the business issues associated with the change and ensures the achievement of the change benefits.
Sponsor: A sponsor provides resources for the change and is responsible for the commitment of the senior management level. Therefore, the sponsor for a change should be someone who has sufficient authority and influence. The sponsor assesses and mitigates any resistance to the change and oversees the business issues that surface, incl. internal politics.
Leads: The leads ensure that the change management process addresses the requirements and scope of the project. The leads coordinate communications, business processes, workforce, infrastructure, and monitor risks. Leads may also escalate change-related issues to the governance board or sponsor.
Integrators: The investigator is responsible for preparation and integration of the change into the business. Investigators ensure that routine business activities are performed at a normal level during the change implementation and that diverse work processes remain aligned to the overall objectives.
Agents: Agents are active drivers of the change. They may be early adopters who see the business benefits of the change and they can come from any area of the business and all levels of the organization. Agents become a resource for integrating the change in respective environments.
Recipients: Recipients can be people directly or indirectly impacted by the change. Their input into the change process is critical and activities to help them understand the sense of the change are important. Active and targeted communications are essential to gain the recipients’ support. They require attention and monitoring as they may foster or hinder the integration of the change and its success.
