“The great person is ahead of their time, the smart make something
out of it, and the blockhead, sets themselves against it.”

-Jean Baudrillard

Change Management REDEFINED:
Suddenly doing the things you should have been doing all along but were able to skip because times were changing slowly and your competitors were behind you!

Below is a five part list of good management practices. Below is also a five part list of Change Management practices. Same list! Check it out! 

1. Where are we?

• Assessing the state of the business: finances, market, competition, competencies, process stability, product quality, facilities, knowledge management and growth, employee development and morale, etc.
• Determining what is working
• Determining what isn’t working

2. Why?

• Defining problems carefully
• Using root cause analysis to get to the heart of a problem
• Using metrics to make data driven decisions

3. Where do we want to be?

• Establishing clear objectives
• Biting off no more than you can chew (setting priorities)
• Communicating clearly

4. How are we going to get there?

• Aligning employees throughout the organization behind objectives
• Translating objectives into specific actions at each level of the organization that address multiple aspects of a problem: processes, people, technology
• Involving employees in developing solutions to problems
• Adjusting plans as needed

5. Are we supporting employees so they can excel?

• Giving employees at all levels a chance to digest, understand and question the consequences of business decisions
• Developing employee understanding, skills, attitudes and behaviors through training, coaching and varied assignments and experiences
• Treating employees fairly and with respect
• Empowering employees to solve problems and exercise judgment
• Celebrating and rewarding successes

So how can there be one list for both “good management” and “Change Management” when everyone knows that Change Management is a big and scary thing?

Good Management
If you manage your business well and do the things on the list regularly, you probably will never have to worry about change management. Informed, active, sound management practices will likely allow you to address most problems through incremental change. And if you DO encounter a need for large scale change, probably due to external pressures, you will likely have the skills, behaviors and systems in place already that you will need to manage the big change. An organization that really knows how to maintain alignment all the way from the top to the bottom will handle both incremental and large scale change relatively easily.

Change Management
If you don’t manage your business well, small issues will erode profits, quality and morale, but you may never even know this is occurring. Then suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, a large issue appears. Your very existence may be threatened. Unfortunately, the company that was a little out of control due to a lack of good management, becomes very out of control when faced with a need for big changes. This is when Change Management, with a capital C and capital M, becomes necessary. The Change Management cure is a complicated process of methodically instilling and exercising effective management capabilities and practices that could have been there all along. It is complicated because everyone is involved and everyone needs to learn new skills, new patterns and new behaviors. It feels even bigger and scarier because it adds work and urgency to a problem that walked in the door demanding work and urgency!

The Bad News
The bad news is that people get so distracted by the big, scary, exotic process of Change Management, that they miss the real issue: the importance of on-going good management. Once the emergency is over, the pressure eases, old habits return, and life goes on until the next emergency throws everyone into another frenzy. Wouldn’t it be easier to improve those management skills when things are relatively calm?

The Good News
Ready for the good news? If you are a manager, at any level, in any organization, you can start practicing any of the good management skills listed above, at any time and in any order, and your business will benefit. But remember: Don’t bite off more than you can chew!

Sound Too Simple?
Think about it. Managing your business well is simply about managing your business well, whether you do it on a regular basis or try to play catch-up. It isn’t easy, but isn’t rocket science either. You can fight fires and live from emergency to emergency, or you can get things under control by developing good, sound management skills and practices.