01-07-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Driving success through change: How effective change management fuels growth, resilience and competitive advantage
Organizational changes can be stressful when they affect employees, clients, customers and finances. Since COVID-19, for example, many companies have been impacted by multiple changes. Businesses had to be nimble, operations had to be innovative, restructuring occurred, and the economy was ever-changing. So it's crazy to think the World Uncertainty Index indicates a higher level of uncertainty in the global economy now than in 2020.
Getting ahead of a large organizational change by implementing organizational change management (OCM) best practices can save time, money and frustration. NYSTEC offers expertise in change management and can help with this process.
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What's OCM?
Change managers work in partnership with project teams, focusing on how an initiative will impact stakeholders (employees/customers), how stakeholders may influence your project and how engaging with them early and often could result in success.
OCM principles can be applied to any type of change, including system modernizations, policy/program roll outs and culture shifts, though hopefully not all at once.
Why invest in OCM?
Does the world feel like it's spinning faster? It isn't just you.
Research done by Kotter International Inc. indicates that the pace and rate of change and communication both continue to increase rapidly. You probably recognize this in your organization, with multiple changes happening simultaneously, and it can be a lot for people to absorb.
That's why investing in OCM when you initiate a change is valuable. The change manager is a stakeholder advocate on your team; they will help to support your project goals by identifying and remediating stakeholder impacts while there is still time to do so. Involving stakeholders early and investing in OCM saves money and time thanks to faster adoption, better product or system design, and less stakeholder pushback. Integrating change managers into your project team provides them with access to develop an OCM approach to reach stakeholders with the right information at the right time. Too soon and there's a false sense of urgency; too late and there's no time to prepare.
Establishing buy-in in your community takes time and is best done in phases. Harness the enthusiasm of your innovators to inspire your early adopters who will, in turn, give confidence to the early majority. You may recognize Roger's Law of Diffusion, which is a reminder that even with OCM, you will not persuade everybody.
Who's involved in OCM?
NYSTEC offers OCM services that include best practices for leaders, managers and stakeholders on how to handle change initiatives. We also help to answer the question, 'What's my OCM role?'
Leadership
Prioritize initiatives. Your stakeholders can only manage so much change at once.
Be vocal and visible. Clearly articulate how the initiative aligns with your organization's mission and future and don't forget to tell your stakeholders how they fit into that future.
Be transparent and authentic. Maybe you can't share all the details, but authenticity and transparency are more effective in building trust than a meticulously scripted announcement. If you don't tell the story, someone will create their own.
Trust is a two-way street and so is communication. Let your stakeholders in and use your OCM team to create feedback loops. Your stakeholders have ideas – sometimes the best ideas.
Be active during change but accept help and invest in an OCM team. They will help you minimize future challenges.
Change managers
Find ways to reduce the negative effects of the change on stakeholders. Establish their involvement to promote a positive experience and successful outcome.
Increase awareness, foster widespread buy-in and build necessary capabilities.
Enable leadership and project team agility by monitoring stakeholder engagement and sentiment. Enthusiasm can burn bright, but it can also burn out. Pivoting is expected.
Identify a change network of people who can positively affect adoption of the initiative. People who resist often care deeply about outcomes and can provide invaluable feedback and once included, they can become the strongest advocates.
Be creative to balance the needs of the project team, leadership and stakeholders.
Stakeholders
Participate in feedback sessions, surveys, testing and the change network.
Stay aware; read emails, newsletters and social media posts.
Talk to your colleagues, and make sure other people know what's happening.
Build your capabilities, attend training and ask questions.
Advocate for yourself, provide feedback and think critically about the change, but keep an open mind. Imagine your role in the future-state.
Even with OCM, change will generate anxiety, but if it's done well, you'll increase your likelihood of success and hopefully generate some excitement. Learn more about NYSTEC and how we can help your organization effectively manage change to fuel growth, resilience and a competitive advantage.
