Six Steps To Effective Organizational Change Management

Six Steps to Effective Organizational
Change Management
Most organizations today are in a constant state of flux as they
respond to the fast-moving external business environment, local and
global economies, and technological advancement. This means that
workplace processes, systems, and strategies must continuously
change and evolve for an organization to remain competitive.
Change affects your most important asset, your people. Losing

employees is costly due to the associated recruitment costs and the
time involved getting new employees up to speed. Each time an
employee walks out the door, essential intimate knowledge of your
business leaves with them.
What is effective organizational change

management?
A change management plan can support a smooth transition and
ensure your employees are guided through the change journey. The
harsh fact is that approximately 70 percent of change initiatives fail
due to negative employee attitudes and unproductive management
behavior. Using the services of a professional change management
consultant could ensure you are in the winning 30 percent.
In this article, PulseLearning presents six key steps to effective

organizational change management.
1. Clearly define the change and align it to business goals.
It might seem obvious but many organizations miss this first vital step.
It’s one thing to articulate the change required and entirely another to
conduct a critical review against organizational objectives and
performance goals to ensure the change will carry your business in the
right direction strategically, financially, and ethically. This step can also
assist you to determine the value of the change, which will quantify
the effort and inputs you should invest.
Key questions:
• What do we need to change?
• Why is this change required?
2. Determine impacts and those affected.
Once you know exactly what you wish to achieve and why, you should
then determine the impacts of the change at various organizational
levels. Review the effect on each business unit and how it cascades
through the organizational structure to the individual. This information
will start to form the blueprint for where training and support is
needed the most to mitigate the impacts.
Key questions:
• What are the impacts of the change?
• Who will the change affect the most?
• How will the change be received?
3. Develop a communication strategy.
Although all employees should be taken on the change journey, the

first two steps will have highlighted those employees you absolutely
must communicate the change to. Determine the most effective means
of communication for the group or individual that will bring them on
board. The communication strategy should include a timeline for how
the change will be incrementally communicated, key messages, and the
communication channels and mediums you plan to use.
Key questions:
• How will the change be communicated?
• How will feedback be managed?
4. Provide effective training.

With the change message out in the open, it’s important that your
people know they will receive training, structured or informal, to teach
the skills and knowledge required to operate efficiently as the change
is rolled out. Training could include a suite of micro-learning online
modules, or a blended learning approach incorporating face-to-face
training sessions or on-the-job coaching and mentoring.
Key questions:
• What behaviors and skills are required to achieve business results?
• What training delivery methods will be most effective?
5. Implement a support structure.
Providing a support structure is essential to assist employees to

emotionally and practically adjust to the change and to build
proficiency of behaviors and technical skills needed to achieve desired
business results. Some change can result in redundancies or
restructures, so you could consider providing support such as
counseling services to help people navigate the situation. To help
employees adjust to changes to how a role is performed, a mentorship
or an open-door policy with management to ask questions as they
arise could be set up.
Key questions:
• Where is support most required?
• What types of support will be most effective?
6. Measure the change process.
Throughout the change management process, a structure should be

put in place to measure the business impact of the changes and ensure
that continued reinforcement opportunities exist to build proficiencies.
You should also evaluate your change management plan to determine
its effectiveness and document any lessons learned.
Key questions:
• Did the change assist in achieving business goals?
• Was the change management process successful?
• What could have been done differently?
Is your business going through a period of organizational

change? PulseLearning can assist in managing the change process to
meet business goals and minimize the associated
impacts. PulseLearning is an award-winning global learning provider
experienced in change management consultancy and developing
engaging and innovative eLearning and blended training solutions.
References:
1. Torbenrick – Change Management
How AI Is Changing
The Way Companies
Are Organized
Artificial intelligence tools are only beginning to penetrate the workplace, but are
causing leaders to rethink how their businesses run.
Source photo: Library of Virginia via Wikimedia Commons
•
•
BY JARED LINDZON4 MINUTE READ
Artificial Intelligence may still be in its infancy, but it’s already forcing
leadership teams around the world to reconsider some of their core structures.
Advances in technology are causing firms to restructure their organizational

makeup, transform their HR departments, develop new training models, and
reevaluate their hiring practices. This is according to Deloitte’s 2017 Human
Capital Trends Report, which draws on surveys from over 10,000 HR and
business leaders in 140 countries. Much of these changes are a result of the
early penetration of basic AI software, as well as preparation for the
organizational needs that will emerge as they mature.
“AI is definitely not eliminating jobs, it is eliminating tasks of jobs, and creating
new jobs.”
“What we concluded is that what AI is definitely doing is not eliminating jobs, it

is eliminating tasks of jobs, and creating new jobs, and the new jobs that are
being created are more human jobs,” says Josh Bersin, principal and founder
of Bersin by Deloitte. Bersin defines “more human jobs” as those that require
traits robots haven’t yet mastered, like empathy, communication, and
interdisciplinary problem solving. “Individuals that have very task-oriented jobs
will have to be retrained, or they’re going to have to move into new roles,” he
adds.
The survey found that 41% of respondents have fully implemented or made
significant progress in adopting AI technologies in the workforce, yet only 15%
of global executives say they are prepared to manage a workforce “with
people, robots, and AI working side by side.”
As a result, early AI technologies and a looming AI revolution are forcing
organizations to reevaluate a number of established strategies. Instead of
hiring the most qualified person for a specific task, many companies are now
putting greater emphasis on cultural fit and adaptability, knowing that
individual roles will have to evolve along with the implementation of AI.
On-the-job training has become more vital to transition people into new roles
as new technologies are adapted, and HR’s function is quickly moving away
from its traditional evaluation and recruiting function—which can increasingly
be done more efficiently using big data and AI software—toward a greater
focus on improving the employee experience across an increasingly
contingent workforce.
The Deloitte survey also found that 56% of respondents are already
redesigning their HR programs to leverage digital and mobile tools, and 33%
are utilizing some form of AI technology to deliver HR functions.
PRESENTED BY EY
Don’t skimp on your company’s operations—an oft-overlooked engine for
innovation
In a market where experience rules, organizations that let operations languish do so at their own
risk. Here’s why a 'strategic' approach is required.
The integration of early artificial intelligence tools is also causing organizations
to become more collaborative and team-oriented, as opposed to the traditional
top-down hierarchal structures.
Related
▪ HR Is Broken. Here’s How To Fix It
▪ The Top Five HR Trends For 2017
▪ Welcome To The New Era Of Human Resources
“To integrate AI, you have to have an internal team of expert product people
and engineers that know its application and are working very closely with the
frontline teams that are actually delivering services,” says Ian Crosby,
cofounder and CEO of Bench, a digital bookkeeping provider. “When we are
working AI into our frontline service, we don’t go away to a dark room and
come back after a year with our masterpiece. We work with our frontline
bookkeepers day in, day out.”
In order to properly adapt to changing technologies, organizations are moving

away from a top-down structure and toward multidisciplinary teams. In fact,
32% of survey respondents said they are redesigning their organizations to be
more team-centric, optimizing them for adaptability and learning in preparation
for technological disruption.
ADVERTISE MENT
Finding a balanced team structure, however, doesn’t happen overnight,

explains Crosby. “Very often, if there’s a big organization, it’s better to start
with a small team first, and let them evolve and scale up, rather than try to
introduce the whole company all at once.”
Crosby adds that Bench’s eagerness to integrate new technologies also

impacts the skills the company recruits and hires for. Beyond checking the
boxes of the job’s technical requirements, he says the company looks for
candidates that are ready to adapt to the changes that are coming.
“When you’re working with AI, you’re building things that nobody has ever built
before, and nobody knows how that will look yet,” he says. “If they’re not open
to being completely wrong, and having the humility to say they were wrong,
we need to reevaluate.”
As AI becomes more sophisticated, leaders will eventually need to decide
where to place human employees, which tasks are best suited for machines,
and which can be done most efficiently by combining the two.
“It’s a few years before we have actual AI, it’s getting closer and closer, but AI
still has a big problem understanding human intent,” says Rurik Bradbury, the
global head of research and communication for online chat software
provider LivePerson. As more AI software becomes available, he advises
organizations to “think of those three different categories—human, machine,
or cyborg—and decide who should be hired for this job.”
While AI technologies are still in their infancy, it won’t be long before every
organization is forced to develop their own AI strategy in order to stay
competitive. Those with the HR teams, training program, organizational
structures, and adaptable staff will be best prepared for this fast-approaching
reality.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That

Matter Awards before the final deadline, June 7

Six Steps To Effective Organizational Change Management

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Six Steps To Effective Organizational Change Management

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Six Steps To Effective Organizational Change Management

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Six Steps to Effective Organizational

Change affects your most important asset, your people. Losing

What is effective organizational change

In this article, PulseLearning presents six key steps to effective

Although all employees should be taken on the change journey, the

4. Provide effective training.

Providing a support structure is essential to assist employees to

Throughout the change management process, a structure should be

Is your business going through a period of organizational

Source photo: Library of Virginia via Wikimedia Commons

BY JARED LINDZON4 MINUTE READ

Advances in technology are causing firms to restructure their organizational

“What we concluded is that what AI is definitely doing is not eliminating jobs, it

In order to properly adapt to changing technologies, organizations are moving

Finding a balanced team structure, however, doesn’t happen overnight,

Crosby adds that Bench’s eagerness to integrate new technologies also

Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That

You might also like