Effective change management is now a highly valued and accepted piece of every strategic project — providing long term sustainability and minimizing impact to the organization. Here is a quick change management checklist developed in collaboration by Kurt Johnson and Jennifer Foucher.
Important elements for any successful change management effort:
- Mobilize leaders to drive change through the enterprise. Visible and active leadership is essential.
- Ensure middle management is involved and rewarded for supporting the change.
- Mobilize an action-oriented, cross-functional team to manage the change with clear accountability for outcomes.
- Build new organizational competencies and execute a fair, well-managed workforce transition.
- Proactively manage risks. Don’t avoid them.
- Align performance management processes to drive desired behavior changes.
- Pay careful attention to process and organizational issues; the pace and sequence of initiatives; resource availability and constraints; and interdependencies with other change initiatives.
Additional words of advice:
Get It Right The First Time. Re-doing project work is expensive. Doing it poorly loses measurable value. Focus on the critical people aspects of change that may cause rework.
Be Focused And Accountable. Projects must meet objectives and must be on-time and on-budget. Prepare all employees to take ownership for project implementation and delivery of expected business case results.
Increase Speed And Flexibility. When there are heavy demands on a workforce, people tend to lose their motivation. Monitor and support employees’ commitment and motivation for change.
Improve Teams And Productivity. Unmanaged change often decreases productivity and creates missed outcomes. Maintain and improve project team work and productivity.
This article was developed collaboratively by Kurt Johnson and Jennifer Foucher — both are Managing Directors and Leadership Team members with Bender Consulting.
With more than twenty years of leadership and management experience in strategy, business integration, operations, product development, marketing, sales, information technology, analytics, and consulting, Kurt Johnson brings a unique set of capabilities and perspective. As a Senior Manager for Accenture and Senior Vice President for eLoyalty, he has delivered successful business solutions for Fortune 200 companies – receiving a Smithsonian Award for Excellence for one of his projects. As a COO and GM for financial services companies, he has successfully led corporate initiatives for product, marketing, and sales channel strategies, as well as launched new consumer product and services divisions. Business is complex, and Johnson leverages his diverse knowledge and experiences to ensure that engagements deliver their full value potential. He has worked in various industries including energy, financial services, consumer products, telecommunications, manufacturing, and government.
With twenty years experience addressing the human element of organizational change, Jennifer Foucher is an expert at minimizing the change adoption curve to ensure projects are sustainable. A former Senior Manager in Andersen Business Consulting’s global Strategy, Organization and People practice, Foucher provides practical solutions that help employees achieve tangible business results, while ensuring that leaders achieve their strategic, business and financial goals during transitions. She is known for her collaborative work style and passion for leading people through daunting organizational changes. Prior to embarking on her consulting career, Foucher taught English in the former Czechoslovakia and has continued to nurture her passion for experiencing diverse cultures by working with organizations as disparate as the Internal Revenue Service, AT&T and General Mills. Jennifer is a Bender Consulting Managing Director specializing in Change Management and Cultural Transformation.
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