Change South Africa 2024: Key Insights and Integration

By Dima Baltagi,MBA, CICM®, AIM®, Prosci®

Change South Africa 2024, held in Johannesburg on November 13 and 14, brought together leading voices in change management, each offering unique perspectives and actionable insights to navigate transformation in organizations. This summary consolidates key messages from the conference, weaving them into a cohesive narrative that emphasizes their alignment with foundational change management standards as outlined by the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP).

Holistic Leadership as Change Enablers

Willie Jooste emphasized the criticality of engaging leaders at all levels as active enablers of change. This approach bridges strategic vision and operational execution, fostering accountability across the different management levels.

Luis Luarca explored how leadership styles—particularly transformational leadership—are pivotal in galvanizing teams toward shared goals. He underscored that leaders must prioritize communication and authenticity, aligning their vision with employees’ intrinsic motivations. As noted, leadership is a human endeavor first, one that thrives on trust and transparency.

Elmé Selesho highlighted the need for adaptable leadership that fosters mental flexibility within organizations. Selesho’s metaphor of “going beyond braids” emphasized cultivating resilience and challenging mental rigidity to achieve cultural and strategic transformation.

The Power of Motivation

Motivation, as detailed by Luis Luarca, is deeply rooted in addressing human needs. Drawing on Maslow’s hierarchy, he described how addressing employees’ safety, belonging, and self-actualization fosters commitment and long-term engagement. Leaders must ensure employees see the "why" behind change, transforming resistance into shared purpose. In my session, I also shared how this motivation will lead to creating a sense of ownership, to drive successful change adoption at all levels. Ownership fosters accountability, motivation, and commitment, ensuring that stakeholders are actively engaged and take responsibility for their roles.

Navigating Change in the Era of Cancel Culture

While cancel culture is the public backlash faced by brands who contradict societal values, to avoid it, organizations should be transparent about their values, ensure their actions align with these values, and have strategies to address potential controversies effectively. By proactively addressing these factors, organizations can mitigate the risk of being canceled and maintain positive relationships with their audience.

Coaching Mindset and SCARF Framework

Dharmita Babu introduced the SCARF model (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness) to manage resistance and foster a coaching culture within organizations. By equipping leaders at all levels with coaching tools, organizations can empower employees to transition from passive observers to active participants in change. This aligns with the emphasis on leadership agility and the importance of trust-building across the different levels.

Adaptability as a Core Competency

Rory van der Merwe's trauma-informed session on well-being introduced the Adaptability Quotient (AQ) as a measure of resilience and agility in navigating change. By embracing adaptability, leaders and individuals can transform hurt into healing, empowerment, and growth, fostering a renewed capacity to navigate complexity and uncertainty with purpose and strength. Rory's focus on "hope science" revealed how fostering optimism can help organizations and individuals thrive amid uncertainty.

 Strategic Change Marketing fueling change adoption

Kevin Liebenberg of The Actuate Group brought attention to the role of strategic change marketing as a driver for adoption as it focuses on aligning people, processes, and culture to drive meaningful and lasting change. It goes beyond communication by creating shared journeys, crafting compelling narratives, and ensuring active engagement at every level. This approach leverages adaptability and collaboration, helping organizations navigate complexity while inspiring adoption and commitment to the change vision. By positioning change as a compelling narrative, organizations can inspire stakeholders to embrace transformation, mitigating resistance and fostering buy-in.

Middle Management: Deal Makers or Breakers

As Leanne Douglas and I both emphasized, middle management plays a critical role in bridging strategy with execution. They are highlighted as pivotal change enablers, balancing top leadership vision with front-line expectations and managing 70% of organizational resources. Coaching, training and equipping these managers to act as changemakers is crucial to maintaining momentum, achieving sustainable transformation and essential for success.

Simplification and Focus

Leanne Douglas and Amy Clem championed a simplified approach to change management, challenging rigid methodologies with adaptable strategies. Their mantra, “break the rules,” encourages organizations to focus on outcomes rather than exhaustive processes. Simplification allows for flexibility and responsiveness while staying grounded in ACMP standards.

Integrating Insights with a Holistic Framework

All the above insights coalesce within the Own, Build, and Implement (OBI) Framework, I developed, and which underscores the importance of creating ownership, building capacity, and embedding change sustainably. This framework respects the ACMP’s standards, ensuring ethical, human-centered change practices. By integrating leadership coalitions, motivation theories, SCARF coaching, simplicity, and communication strategies, the OBI Framework serves as a comprehensive guide for transformation.

Innovative Tools for Change Management

The introduction of Prosci’s Kaiya, a new product designed to streamline change adoption, marked a significant advancement in equipping organizations to manage transitions effectively. This tool aligns with the broader theme of leveraging technology to enhance change processes, as Tom Marsicano later demonstrated by exploring AI's potential to guide organizational growth.

Closing Reflections: Change Makers and Global Impact

The conference celebrated change practitioners as "Magicians" of transformation, blending emotion, logic, and creativity. As highlighted by all speakers, change is inherently personal, requiring respect for individuals and a commitment to building inclusive, resilient organizations.

By staying focused, human-centered, and aligned with ACMP standards, the lessons from this conference empower change makers to drive transformation with integrity and impact on a global scale.

About Dima Baltagi,MBA, CICM®, AIM®, Prosci®

Dima is a highly accomplished leader with more than 15 years of global business experience translating strategy into successful implementation for clients in diverse industries. She managed numerous transformation projects in healthcare, oil and gas, utilities, UN agencies, NGOs, aviation, and customs spanning both private and government sectors in six countries: Canada, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Egypt, and Lebanon.

Dima is also a corporate trainer and former university instructor (MacEwan University – Canada, and Haigazian University - Lebanon) specializing in leadership, communication, organizational effectiveness and change management. She has trained over 1900 people worldwide.

Dima’s extensive experience in various in-house change management positions, coupled with her work in global consulting firms, positions her perfectly to deliver practical solutions for organizational and people transformations. She is a Certified International Change Manager, licensed PROSCI Change Management Practitioner, accredited in AIM Change Management Methodology, and holds a Master of Science in Strategic Management.

She currently holds the position of Director, Change Management Consulting at Tawazun Planning – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.