Common Factors For Managing Change

This week I am pleased to introduce a good friend of mine, Elisabeth Goodman who is the director of River Rhee Consulting Ltd.

Elisabeth runs many management training courses for science companies in the Cambridge area.

I was looking through her blog and I found her post 'The Common Factors Of Managing Successful Change and she has put together a number of really useful points for consideration.  Take a look at the list below and let me know which ones you agree with.

There are common factors in managing every type of change

These are just eight of them:

1. Involve and inform your stakeholders, especially those most directly affected by the change – and do so sooner rather than later
2. Two-way communication is key and your sponsors can help with this by being visible and accessible. They can also have a positive influence by role modelling the change
3. Use stakeholder analysis, and training needs analysis to understand the different perspectives and requirements of your stakeholders and to shape your approaches accordingly
4. Clearly articulate why the change is being introduced (the benefits), and get your sponsors and change agents or champions aligned on these and other key messages (what, who, when, where, how) to communicate about the change
5. Consider the context for the change:
   • What the change demands in terms of your stakeholders’ behaviours and time, and how that will relate to what else they are doing in their day jobs
   • What other changes are going on that might affect their receptiveness to this particular change (the bigger picture)
6. Think carefully about motivators and incentives and target them at the right level – they won’t necessarily be the same for everyone
7. Involve HR (and external consultants / contractors) as appropriate to support but not to lead the change – the sponsors should come from the business
8. Consider using pilots, and a gradual transition / evolutionary change as an alternative to revolutionary change to minimise the ‘pain’ for those involved, and to get things right