What Is Change Management?

Change management is the institutionalization of either large- or small-scale change throughout an organization. This change can affect anything from software updates and work protocol to large-scale shifts in overall organizational goals and purpose.

Change is a big thing. Change management is, therefore, a big job.

The change management definition is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s the overseeing of all organizational updates as they relate to: 

• Individual employees at all levels
• Project teams
• Executives and investors

Organizational heads may opt to make changes to modernize a company’s extant protocol or to make it more competitive in an increasingly crowded market. Some just see change as good in itself. 

Management often looks to make changes regarding:

• Operational protocol
• Hierarchical organization
• Compensation and benefits
• Relationships with other companies

The Four Factors of Change Management

Around 99% of companies have made major organizational changes in recent years.

There’s no one right way to initiate change. But whatever you do, you’ll have to plan carefully. Sometimes management’s focus is too scattered to effect change successfully. And if goals and methodologies aren’t made transparent to everyone, management is likely to meet with resistance all along the chain of command.

It’s increasingly common for change agents to rely on a change management system based on duration, integrity, commitment and effort — DICE for short. 

Duration

It’s important to establish a change management timeline. 

A project should have a solid start date and an anticipated end date. Either of these can be placed many years in the future, but no project should proceed with an “indefinite” end date. 

Mini goals are important in change management. Celebrate reaching certain milestones all along an organizational change project’s life cycle.  

Regular reviews are important, too, especially when it comes to long-term projects. 

Integrity

Integrity here means measuring the skills and abilities of the employees who will be implementing changes and gauging the likelihood of their being able to achieve change milestones punctually. 

This goes for everyone: From CEOs to managers to entry-level employees and contractors, everyone’s skillset needs to be audited before a data-driven organizational change management framework can be drawn up.  

Commitment

Change is more likely to succeed when management shows enthusiasm for, and commitment to, upcoming changes.

Keep in mind that these changes are made by a relatively small number of top-level leaders and are imposed on the majority of employees. 

Employees will want some explanation as to why changes are being made to feel fully involved with their organization’s new goals. Ideally, management can explain the benefits, as well as the anticipated challenges, of upcoming organizational changes, pacifying employees’ fear of change. 

Managers need to bring considerable emotional intelligence to make sure everyone’s on board. And even then, you can’t convince everybody and just have to hope that skeptical employees have trust in the management team. 

Effort

Quantifying how much additional work employees will have to put in is key to any change management framework. So is communicating new expectations to employees. To affect the best change, an employee’s workload should increase by no more than 10%. 

Certain prior responsibilities will organically be eliminated during the change process, freeing up room for new tasks. That’s the point of organizational change. 

Creating the Framework

Change is expensive. And statistically speaking, making major organizational changes is betting against the house. Seventy percent of change management endeavors fail, according to McKinsey and Company.

They fail for a variety of reasons, including: 

• Low initial expectations, aspirations and goals
• Organizational disengagement
• Insufficient investment efforts

Success is never guaranteed when it comes to change management. But by assiduously developing a change framework, your company stands a better chance of reaching its goals.

When designing your change management plan, Christina Charenkova, change coach and LinkedIn Learning Instructor, advises connecting the familiar with the new, as if you’re bridging a gap. 

In her course “Change Management: Roadmap to Planning”, she says, “Now, imagine your change plan is just that, the bridge between the current and future state. The change plan outlines the activities which enable the stakeholders to cross the bridge.”

Aim to illustrate your framework in a way that connects your company’s or team’s current state to the future.

Applying the Framework

There is no set number of change management application frameworks. Consulting firm Remesh lists a few common ones: 

1. Kotter 8-Step Process for Leading Change: Create, Build, Form, Enlist, Enable, Generate, Sustain, Institute
2. McKinsey & Company’s 7-S Framework: Style, Skills, Systems, Structure, Staff, and Strategies = Shared Values & Goals
3. Kurt Lewin’s Change Model: Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze
4. ADKAR Model: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement
5. The Kübler-Ross Model: Shock, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance
6. Satir Change Management Model: Late Status Quo, Resistance, Chaos, Integration, New Status Quo
7. William Bridges’ Transition Model: Ending, Neutral Zone, New Beginnings

The framework you use depends on your goals. For instance, career success coach and LinkedIn Top Voice 2020 Jenn Tardy notes that many companies are pushing diversity, equity and inclusion endeavors without seeing much improvement. 

She explains that a goal without a training framework won’t be successful in this instance. 

“Effective training goes far beyond where and how to source for talent and includes additional important elements like understanding effective language to use, cultural competence, and working through one’s own resistance to people who are unique to them.”

In other words, failed DEI efforts aren’t falling apart in the planning stage. They’re just insufficiently organized. Companies that find themselves in this sort of situation may benefit from the awareness-centric ADKAR Model, which foregrounds careful action and the reinforcement of successful protocols.  

Understanding Change Management

Change is hard, which means organizational change management is hard. 

But careful planning and the implementation of a well-considered change framework do much to smooth the road. LinkedIn Learning has some helpful resources for change management training, including courses like “ Change Management Foundations” and “Change Management Tips for Leaders”.

And bear in mind that organizations choose to change for a reason. 

“Underrepresentation is not a coincidence,” Tardy says. “It is not happenstance. It is not even an accident … [the] same way that we did not just get here accidentally, we are also not going to change the outcome without some intentionality too.”

Top Takeaways

What Is Change Management?

• Organizational change management takes place at every level.
• Change management should be viewed as a bridge that is closing a gap.
• There are many ways to institute change, but all methods must take into account the duration of the change project, milestones to complete along the way, and employee responses to change. 

(Reporting by NPD and Mariah Flores)