What do you do if your change management tasks are overwhelming and time-consuming?

One should not underestimate the power of stepping away and then breaking down tasks on hand by order or importance, urgency and or complexity. This often paves the path or paths for next steps. With that said it is also important to remain focused on what the desired end result is.

You are important. Keeping your attention to what is important is essential. Here are some things you could try (pick just a few that sits well with you): Simplify complex tasks into smaller, actionable steps to ease the workload. Set SMART goals. Leverage tech tools for efficient task management and team collaboration. Assign tasks based on skills and capacity, enhancing team productivity. Integrate short breaks to maintain energy and prevent burnout, boosting overall efficiency. Adapt work hours to fit team needs, supporting work-life balance. Cultivate an environment of mutual support, reducing stress and fostering teamwork.

When overwhelmed by change management tasks, break them into smaller parts, prioritize based on urgency and importance, and delegate responsibilities. Utilize technology for efficiency, set realistic deadlines, and maintain open communication with stakeholders. Seek support and collaborate with others, be flexible to adjust plans as needed, and don’t forget to take care of yourself by taking breaks and resting. Celebrate progress to boost morale. These strategies help manage workload effectively, ensuring both personal well-being and the success of change initiatives.

Capture data for time consumed, hours lost, potential costs, number of repetitive tasks etc and present it to the management. After all time is money & data will surely help in accelerating decision- making and better prioritization.

Prioritize your tasks in the backlog and use a kanban board to manage them during the change. Kanban boards can easily be managed via Post Its on a wall, but also in different tools like MS Teams, Jira, Miro, etc. But not just tools can be of use, also a team around you helping with the prioritization and delegation of tasks to them.

To make your change management tasks manageable, break them into smaller, specific steps to lessen complexity and improve trackability. It is important to ask WHY and understand this thoroughly yourself. Employ the SMART method (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to clearly define tasks, setting realistic expectations for yourself and your team. Share this with your stakeholders. The awareness creates relatability, transparency and trust. This approach simplifies tasks, ensuring they are straightforward and achievable, while fostering clarity and focus in your change management strategy.

Prioritize tasks, streamline processes, and delegate where possible. Communicate openly about challenges and seek support. Remember, efficiency is key to managing change successfully.

Effective communication is crucial in change management to align vision, goals, and actions with stakeholders and address concerns. This creates awareness, as we always have people who would not care about things around them. It can be overwhelming due to various audiences, channels, and formats. Plan your strategy, tailor your message, tone, and medium for your audience, and use clear, concise language. Know your audience and your objective well. This would change the way your content is being seen. Avoid jargon, acronyms, or technical terms to prevent confusion. Make it SIMPLE with easy to understand DATA. This approach ensures your communication is impactful and accessible, facilitating smoother change management processes.

Communication is key in change management. People are in an insecure state in such a phase, thus often fishing for more information. If not given to them proactively, quickly rumors and speculations can put your change initiative at risk. Even though along the process not everything can be shared, I use to communicate as timely and transparent as possible. There is, however, always the right to say "I will check and come back later" or "This is not ready to communicate yet".

In change management, delegating and collaborating are key to reducing workload, boosting efficiency, and enhancing outcomes. Entrust tasks to those with more expertise, experience, or resources, and join forces with allies aligned with your vision and goals. Effective delegation and collaboration require trust, empowerment, and clear communication of expectations, feedback, and appreciation. This strategy not only lightens your load but also leverages diverse skills and knowledge for better results. You are creating advocates to join your ship. Ensuring some advocates come from the business team will add to your winning team.

Go a level below. Seek support from interested parties operating at a lower level, like operators, entry clerks, customer service, and give them small, meaningful tasks. Where projects often fail is, the company nominates manager-level and above as project contributors and they don’t put forth the effort to support the team. They assume someone else will do the work. Where lower-level staff are often interested in contributing and feeling included. If you aren’t making progress with your team, ask those with employees to nominate someone in their behalf. You may make more progress.

Implement change with people. Perform stakeholder analysis, identify stakeholders based on their roles, influence, impact, and style, and engage them in the change phases accordingly. -Recruit a change agent who will support bringing the change throughout. -Have the influencers share communication and influence the impacted groups. -Engage the sponsors to fund and provide the need for change. -Pursue a trainer to help adopt the change practically/technically. -Engage the impacted groups and empower them to adopt the change.

Taking care of yourself, consider: 1. How do you open time in your existing work day to deal with the demands of change. 2. If possible relate the change to your values and purpose. 3. Be realistic, i say again Be Realistic with the time frames in which you will meet your deadlines. 4. Celebrate all wins, yours and the team. Remember these when things get tough. 5. Balance is everything - spiritual, physical, work / life etc. Take care Tony

Caring for yourself is just NOT negotiable. Imagine leading a change initiative without energy, feeling drained and no enthusiasm... How would this sell? Change Management requires loads of energy, creative thinking and an open mind. Tough when your body is craving and telling you otherwise. Take a day off when you need to. Don't feel bad leaving things for awhile. Don't do this to run away though :( Meditate each morning before you start your day. Give your head a rest, align your mind and thoughts. Ask: What is important for today? If you don't have a clear answer, go back to you key decision making stakeholders. Eat and sleep well. Always have something you utterly love to do as a back up for tough days :))

Tips and tricks to manage the change management tasks that are overwhelming and time-consuming: -Use change management tools to help implement change. -Automate change-related tasks when and where it's possible. Automation will ease the manual effort for the impacted groups and the change person implementing the change. -Communicate frequently and collaborate effectively. -Engage and empower people to support the change. -Support and empower impacted people. -Celebrate small wins with the people who are changing and managing change.

Not all change management tasks are imperative to an initiative's success. Consider what from your project can be done later after implementation or even if the task is needed at all. While it's helpful to follow frameworks for change management, not all project tasks are needed for every project.

There are nuances in dealing with CM tasks especially when they become overwhelming. Prioritization works but you have to factor in cycle or throughput time. Even when tasks are broken down, the magnitude of the value might not be realized until the entire deliverables are fully completed. So, I sometimes mix tasks (low-hanging fruits vs high-hanging fruits/heavy hitters) to balance the overall effect on the business. We have to trust the process and adapt as the need arises. It's never a defined process but a mixture of them. What is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander.

Time management: use time management techniques such as Pomodoro technique or time blocking to structure your day and dedicate specific time slots to specific tasks