Before you embark on a change management project, ask yourself these questions. They will help you identify what you need to achieve ongoing sustainable change in your organization.
Is it achievable?
This is not about whether the change can be implemented. It’s about whether your people will change. For example, most technology-driven change pushes efficiency and people savings. They redirect people to higher value activities or reduce the number of people needed to do the work. But, if your people don’t use the system the right way, there are no savings. In fact, you might wind up worse off than you were before the system was in place. These are the change management questions we ask our clients when we start working with them.
- Does leadership believe that this is the right thing to do?
- Are your people ready, willing and able to make the change?
- Are customers going to feel the change?
- Are we ready to communicate the change to different audiences?
Is it financially sound?
With all of the upheaval that change projects bring, we need to make sure it’s going to deliver a return on investment. Sometimes it’s about business survival, but most often it’s about improving people efficiency. Regardless of the change driver, we ask these questions to learn how prepared you are to manage the people transition.
- Are your leaders ready to manage the people impact of the change?
- Are there resources to support business continuity and people transition?
- Are there defined metrics to measure success?
- Is there a positive return on investment? How long will it take to get there?
If you answered “No”, or “I don’t know” to any of these questions, then you may not get to where you need to go.
Further reading:
Building Engagement from the Inside
