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Te Change
Management
Life Cycle:
How to Involve Your People to
Ensure Success at Every Stage
An ESI International
White Paper
2
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Table of Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 3
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4
Why Change? ......................................................................................................................... 5
The Elements of Change ..................................................................................................... 5
The Change Management Life Cycle ............................................................................... 7
Phase 1: Identify the Change ............................................................................................. 8
Phase 2: Engage the People ............................................................................................. 10
Phase 3: Implement the Change ..................................................................................... 12
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 14
References ........................................................................................................................... 15
The ESI Solution .................................................................................................................. 16
ESI International, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.
8
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Abstract
Every organization is afected by change. Still, organizational change initiatives fail at
an alarming rate. This is because most initiatives fail to consider how changes afect the
people in an organization.
To successfully implement change initiatives, organizational leaders must identify the
need for change and communicate it throughout the organization. They must also
engage people at all levels of the organization by involving them in the design of the
implementation strategy. Lastly, leaders must actively involve the people most afected
by the change in its implementation. This will help ensure employees at all levels of the
organization embrace the proposed changes.
This paper introduces a three-phase Organizational Change Management Life Cycle
methodology (Identify, Engage, Implement) designed to help organizations successfully
manage a change initiative. For each phase of the life cycle, the paper describes valuable
techniques for involving the people within an organization. It also discusses the
importance of developing a fexible, incremental implementation plan.
4
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Introduction
The statistics are undeniablemost organizations fail at change management. According
to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Executive Education Program on
Leading Organizational Change, researchers estimate that only about 20 to 50 percent of
major corporate reengineering projects at Fortune 1000 companies have been successful.
Mergers and acquisitions fail between 40 to 80 percent of the time. Further, they estimate
that 10 to 30 percent of companies successfully implement their strategic plans. (Leading
Organizational Change Course Page).
Why do organizations have such a poor track record of managing change? According to
the Wharton School, the primary reason is people issues (Leading Organizational Change
Course Page).
The consulting frm PriceWaterhouseCoopers supports that fnding. In a study entitled
How to Build an Agile Foundation for Change, PriceWaterhouseCoopers authors noted,
Research shows that nearly 75 percent of all organizational change programs fail, not
because leadership didnt adequately address infrastructure, process, or IT issues, but
because they didnt create the necessary groundswell of support among employees

(12).
Without understanding the dynamics of the human transition in organizational change,
change initiatives have a slim chance of success. If organizations, whether private or
public, cannot change and adapt, they will not thriveor worse, they may not survivein
todays dynamic environment.
This paper looks at the critical role that people play in the three phases of the
Organizational Change Management Life CycleIdentify, Engage, Implementand ofers
guidance on how organizations can minimize people issues during change initiatives.
ESI International, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.
s
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Why Change?
Todays business environment requires continuous improvement of business processes
that afect productivity and proftability. This, in turn, requires organizations be open to
and ready for change. Some of the common drivers of change include:
Adjusting to shifting economic conditions
Adjusting to the changing landscape of the marketplace
Complying with governmental regulations and guidelines
Meeting clients needs
Taking advantage of new technology
Addressing employee suggestions for improvements
Organizational changes happen regardless of economic pendulum swings. In an
economic upswing, for example, organizations examine diferent ways to extend
their capabilities to maximize previously untapped revenue streams and look for new
opportunities for greater proftability. Conversely, an economic downturn or recession
creates the need for more streamlined business processes within an organization, and a
right-sized staf to implement those processes.
Te Elements of Change
In every organization, regardless of industry or size, there are three organizational
elements that both drive change and are afected by change:
Processes
Technology
People
Technology supports the processes designed to respond to changes in market conditions.
Ultimately, however, it is the people who must leverage these processes and technology
for the beneft of the organization.
Lets look briefy at how each of these elements is afected by organizational change.

Typical examples
of compliance with
governmental regulations
and guidelines include
total quality management
eforts and standards and
practices such as Six Sigma,
lean manufacturing and
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
6
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Process
Business processes are defned by process maps, polices and procedures, and business
rules that describe how work gets done. These processes are redesigned or realigned as
new prospective customers or better ways to provide service to existing customers (both
internal and external to the organization) are identifed. This drives the adoption of new
technology.
Technology
Technology ensures greater organizational efciency in implementing the changes. It
is a means to process data with greater accuracy, dependability and speed. Therefore,
essential to any change process is a plan for introducing and systematizing the technology
required to execute the intended changes.
People
Generally, organizations excel at designing new or improving existing processes. They also
do well at identifying or developing technology to realize the power of new processes.
However, most organizations fail to focus sufcient attention on the role people play in
the processes and technology used to accomplish the desired organizational change.
As noted in the introduction to this paper, the overwhelming percentage of organizational
change eforts fail because people are not sufciently considered at the outset of
the initiative. It is the people within an organization, after all, who are responsible for
developing and implementing new processes, which will in turn require new technology.
It is also the people who must specify, recommend, purchase and use the new technology.
At the most basic level, people must acknowledge and buy into the need for change. An
organization cannot even begin to introduce change unless its people understand and
support the reasons driving the change. This acceptance of change is known as the frst
step in human transition.
An organization cannot
even begin to introduce
change unless its people
understand and support the
reasons driving the change.
ESI International, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.
1
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Change management is a cyclic process, as an organization will always encounter the
need for change. There are three phases in the Organizational Change Management Life
Cycle (Figure 1): Identify, Engage and Implement.
The elements of change (processes, technology and people) and the phases of the
Organizational Change Management Life Cycle are closely linked, and their intersection
points must be carefully considered. By paying close attention to how people are engaged
in each phase, an organization can manage that change to adapt to any business or
economic condition.
Figure 1: ESIs Organizational Change Management Life Cycle
Engage:
Top-down and
bottom-up
dialogue on need
for change and
areas for adoption
Identify:
Declaration of
current state versus
desired future
organizational state
Implement:
Agreement on and
delivery of the
processes and
technology to
realize the desired
future state
Desired
Future
State
Current
State
8
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Phase 1: Identify the Change
In the Identify stage, someone within an organizationtypically a senior executive
spearheads an initiative to change a current process. A single voice at a very high level is
often the frst step in establishing the need for change. This need is then presented to the
organization with a general description of the current state of afairs, ofset by a high-level
vision of the desired future state.
While it seems obvious, identifying the change is an absolutely fundamental frst step
in successful change adoption. It is important that the changed condition be described
in a common, consistent language. However, organizations often fail to identify and
communicate the need for change in a way that is understood and embraced by people
working at all levels of an organizationfrom the executive suite to the individual
workstation. Many leaders do not adequately consider how a proposed change (or even
the rumor of one) may be receivedat an intellectual, emotional and neurological
levelby the people it will impact the most.
Identify:
Declaration of
current state versus
desired future
organizational state
Te Neurological Roots of Resistance to Change
The prevailing contemporary research confrms that, while change is personal and emotional, it is neurological as well. Heres
what researchers now know about the physiological/neurological response that occurs when an individual encounters change:
A new condition (a change) is created, introduced and transmitted.
The pre-frontal cortex region of the brain receives the transmission through one or more of the physical senses.
The pre-frontal cortex compares the new condition to the current condition by accessing another region of the brain, the
basal ganglia, which stores the data we receive and contains the wiring for the habits we have.
If a diference between the new condition and the existing condition is detected, an error signal is produced and sent
throughout the brain.
The error signal is received by the amygdala, the prehistoric part of the brain that tells us to be wary of a saber-toothed
tiger.
The amygdala places a value to the changed condition and sounds an alarm, producing the emotion of fear.
The pre-frontal cortex receives the fear signal from the amygdala and creates what it believes to be a necessary response.
The new condition is resisted by the pre-frontal cortex and, by extension, the person.
(Schwartz and Rock, 71-80)
If the disturbance that is produced by a change isnt adequately addressed through some alignment intervention, this
resistance to change is prolonged and can be damaging to the change initiative.
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ESI International, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.
9
Te Change Management Life Cycle
To ensure successful change, organizations should introduce a change efort during the
Identify stage using the following techniques:
Get Their Attention: Since change is disturbing and distracting to human beings,
its important to get their attention about the change. Getting people out of their
daily routinesat an of-site location, if possiblehelps them create a shared
sense of urgency for change and concentrate on the change message, thereby
internalizing it more deeply.
Align Their Disturbances: Neurologically speaking a disturbance is a confict
between a persons current mental model (the way they think about something)
and the mental map needed to operate in a changed state. To align disturbances
means to create a common disturbance among the minds of the people in the
organizationto create agreement between the gap that people have between
their individual current mental model and the mental model needed to operate in
a changed state. When these gaps arent in alignment, everybody will respond to
the change diferently, and wont be able to agree on the direction and intent of the
organizational response needed. An important technique for aligning the potentially
broad spectrum of disturbances is for leaders to craft and continually communicate a
compelling vision of what the future will look like when the change is implemented.
The best way for leaders to make a compelling case for change is to consider the need for
change at every level in the organization, not just at the top tier. The top-level need for
change is almost always driven by bottom-line goals, and does not touch the day-to-day
work experience of the organizations staf.
For instance, a fnancially oriented statement, such as our organization must realize a
20 percent reduction in operating expenses will likely be met with fear, uncertainty and
skepticism in some levels of the organization, and with ambivalence and apathy in other
levels. Ultimately, it is imperative to align these varying disturbances with a clarifying
vision.
Some additional people-related items to consider when identifying change opportunities
include:
Possible frustrations in performing (new) work
Clear job defnitions
Job defnitions and metrics that match the process
Understanding of the end-to-end process
Cultural dynamics within the organization that may inhibit people from moving to a
new, changed state
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Te Change Management Life Cycle
Phase 2: Engage the People
Once the need for change has been identifed and communicated, the next critical
step is to engage people in planning for the organizations response to the change.
Successive levels of the organization must be included in a dialogue to help design an
implementation plan. People within an organization must be allowed an opportunity for
intellectual, emotional and psychological reaction to the desired change. Providing this
opportunity enables people to become accustomed to the idea of change and to align
their thinking in ways that will help both identify potential problem areas and contribute
substantively to process improvement.
Consider this example: In a recent process change efort, an external consultant developed
a new process, down to a very detailed level (with little input from the organization, and
many requirements from executives), and proudly handed over the process design and
documentation to the team responsible for implementing the new process.
The results were not surprising. The user team passively accepted the process, then
aggressively refused to implement it. The user team had no energy or enthusiasm to
implement something in which it had no emotional buy-in. In fact, team members told
executives in the project post-mortem that they actively sabotaged the new process
because the consultants developed the process, even though we are the experts.
Engage:
Top-down and
bottom-up
dialogue on need
for change and
areas for adoption
InsightsTe Antidote to Resistance to Change
An important contribution of modern neuroscience to helping us be more efective as leaders concerns the phenomenon of
insightssometimes called an epiphany or an ah ha moment. Heres how insights help overcome resistance to change:
During change, the disturbance an individual feels is produced by competing mental models (a confict between various
parts of the brain).
Individual can either allow the confict to continue, producing resistance to change (the old model wins out over the new
model), or they can take active steps to move past the dilemma.
If individuals (or their leaders) choose to move beyond resistance, refectionquieting external stimuli and using the
unconscious brainwill help prepare them for insights.
When an insight occurs, new neural connections are made across the brain and adrenaline is released, producing a surge
of energy. This energy creates the momentum to overcome the resistance circuit, and allows an individual to commit more
readily to change.
(Rock, 105107)

ESI International, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.

11
Te Change Management Life Cycle
General George Patton of the U.S. Army is quoted as saying, Never tell people how to do
things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. Wise leaders
know that successful change adoption depends on engaging the hearts and minds, as
well as the bodies, of the people facing a changed condition. Organizational leaders need
to engage the energy and enthusiasm that comes from people having their own insights,
for this is where true commitment to change comes from, and where the ownership of
results are truly developed (Koch).
One technique to encourage peoples adoption of a change is to conduct organization-
wide response/adoption alignment workshops. When practiced efectively, these sessions
allow people to contribute their own ideas about how a deliverable should be used
within the organization. Once these contributions are alignedthrough multi-party
conversations (where much thrashing may occur!)an aligned approach for managing
and adapting to the change will emerge.
When reactions have been aligned and individuals within an organization are asked to
be involved in responding to change, typical human behavior moves to addressing the
problemcreating a desired direction to facilitate change.
The implementation strategy for responding to the change is then developed at a high
level. The people who will be executing the strategy, as well as the people who will be
impacted by the strategy, should be included in the strategy development. This high-level
strategy is important for aligning and clarifying the intent of the change, as well as for
establishing a direction that the change implementation will take. The strategy needs to
be seen by all as a fexible plan so that the organization can adapt to changing conditions
once implementation of the strategy is initiated.
Never tell people how to
do things. Tell them what
to do and they will surprise
you with their ingenuity.
12
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Phase 3: Implement the Change
In the Implement phase, change strategies developed during the Identify and Engage
phases are translated into tactics, or actions, for moving toward the desired future
organizational state. Here again, people are critical to how processes and technology
are created and implemented. They have direct, daily experience with these processes
and technology and, consequently, they are most knowledgeable about how these
components must be customized for the best results.
Most organizational change failures occur because insufcient time and attention was
given to the frst two phases of the life cycle: Identify and Engage. On the other hand, most
organizations spend the majority of their time, efort and attention here, in the Implement
phase. But, as weve already discussed, without the proper alignment of peoples
disturbances and their response to a changed condition, successful adoption rarely occurs.
During implementation, employees throughout the organization need to remember why
they are working so hard on implementing a change. Therefore, change leaders should
continually remind people, using multiple media (formal e-mails, progress celebrations,
informal conversations) what the change is and why it is so important.
Additionally, organizational leaders should ask themselves the following people-related
questions to help ensure successful implementation:
Does the individual have the ability or desire to work in the new environment?
Are additional skill sets needed to transition to the new job?
Are changes to job descriptions needed?
Are job grades or pay impacted by this change?
Does the change impact short-term productivity? If so, will additional support be
needed to ensure business success?
If organizations successfully complete the frst two phases in the change management life
cycle, the implementation phase becomes essentially a monitoring activity for leaders.
They should assure that:
Change-oriented tasks are being accomplished as planned
Energy and enthusiasm are present
Alignment still exists among the people

Implement:
Agreement on and
delivery of the
processes and
technology to
realize the desired
future state
ESI International, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.
18
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Prototyping: A Fluid Implementation Strategy
As previously noted, for change eforts to be successful, the implementation strategies
must be fuid. Instead of a grand plan, sufcient fexibility in process and execution tactics
must exist to respond to shifting circumstances such as market or business conditions.
These mid-course corrections often take the form of rapid prototyping or alternative
responses to what-if scenariosconsiderations that are not typically included in a
detailed master plan.
Prototyping monitors the thinking and activities of peopleboth users and
implementersas processes and technology are put into action. Its purpose during the
implementation phase is to help organizations avoid getting mired in highly detailed
plans that have the potential to stall change eforts.
Essentially, prototyping is another way to get people involved in the change as opposed
to being recipients of the change. It gets the change underway, in small increments,
rather than waiting for the master plan to be identifed. Prototyping is critical to successful
change management. It is virtually impossible to plan for all contingencies in the
development of an overarching strategy and, yet, any successful strategy for change must
be able to accommodate unforeseen challenges.
The benefts of prototyping can be seen at every level within an organization. Executives
beneft from a greater likelihood of adopting change (through incremental buy-in), while
staf members beneft because, as a result of prototyping, the best approach will likely
be used in implementing the change. Overall, an organizations people will have greater
ownership of the change because their insights, ideas and actions are used in building the
response to the change.
At the very least, an organization should adhere to the spiritif not the letterof
prototyping to ensure that the organization is adequately equipped to handle new
developments and make adjustments on the fy.
Any successful strategy
for change must be
able to accommodate
unforeseen challenges.
14
Te Change Management Life Cycle
Conclusion
At the highest level, business leaders are driven by fnancial goals and government leaders
are driven by legislative mandates. Their urgent need to meet these objectives may lead
them to impose change unilaterally, rather than engaging the people to fnd the best way
to meet a more generally understandable desired future state.
Executives who neglect the human transition required in change management will be
less successful at implementing change. Successful change management boils down to
improving the relationships between people in the organization in the attainment of a
mutually desirable end state. An organization that is too focused on objectives runs the
risk of losing sight of personal relationships.
For a change initiative to be successful, an organization must understand and address the
three phases of the Change Management Life CycleIdentify, Engage and Implement.
Organizational leaders must ask themselves these questions:
Has the organization thoroughly identifed and communicated the impending
change?
Are disturbances acknowledged and aligned?
Has the organization engaged all of its stakeholdersat every level of the
organizationin the change that will need to be adopted?
Is the intent and direction of this change aligned throughout the organization?
Has the organization developed a fexible plan for implementation that allows for
prototyping to move continually toward the desired future state?
Are the organizational responses aligned and institutionalized?
The human transition that is required to move from a historically acceptable way of
working to one that is completely new or radically diferent is not to be underestimated.
Good leaders will make the reasons for change personal for everyone, not just for
executives or shareholders. End-user benefts, down to the day-to-day experience of the
individual worker, will create a more receptive environment for fostering new ideasand
a receptive environment is essential to creating any lasting, positive change.
If an organization can answer yes to each of the questions above, chances are good that
its change initiative will be a success.

Successful change
management boils down to
improving the relationships
between people in the
organization in the
attainment of a mutually
desirable end state.
ESI International, Inc. 2008. All rights reserved.
1s
Te Change Management Life Cycle
References
Koch, Christopher. Change ManagementUnderstanding the Science of Change.
CIO 15 September 2006. 20 June 2008 <http://www.cio.com/article/24975/Change_
Management_Understanding_the_Science_of_Change>.
Leading Organizational Change Course Page. 2008. Wharton Executive Education,
University of Pennsylvania. 20 October 2008 <http://executiveeducation.wharton.
upenn.edu/open-enrollment/leadership-development-programs/leading-
organizational-change-program.cfm>.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers. How to Build an Agile Foundation for Change. February 2008.
20 October 2008 <http://www.pwc.com/us/eng/advisory/agility_foundation_for_
change.pdf>.
Rock, David. Quiet Leadership. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
Schwartz, Jefrey and David Rock. The Neuroscience of Leadership. Strategy + Business
June 2006: 71-80.
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Te ESI Solution
ESI International understands the challenges organizations face while trying to implement change. We ofer
the training and support your organization needs to ensure successful change initiatives. Our Taking Charge of
Organizational Change and Leading Complex Projects courses teach the essential skills necessary for implementing
successful change initiatives. Also, in an ongoing efort to help client organizations make the most of the knowledge
gained in our various courses, ESI provides change management and improvement adoption assurance services.
ESI delivers continuous learning programs that help technical and specialized professionals manage their projects,
contracts, requirements and vendor relationships. Our high-quality training and professional services include more
than 100 cross-functional courses, as well as assessments and coaching and mentoring services. Our extensive global
infrastructure, proven operational excellence and results-oriented philosophy allow our corporate and government
clients to develop their employees skills, consistently implement strategic plans and increase the efectiveness of
their internal systems and processes. With the support of our academic partner, The George Washington University,
ESI has served more than 950,000 professionals and 1,000 clients worldwide since 1981.
Jonathan Gilbert, PMP, ESIs Director of Client Solutions, was instrumental in the production of this paper.
For more information about how ESI can help your organization, call us at
(877) 766-3337 or +1 (703) 558-4445 or visit our Web site at www.esi-intl.com.