Change Management

Over the years of my career, I have been exposed to many different methods of change management. The first time I heard the phase “change management” we were given a book, “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson. This was to spur our thoughts about change and to help us all relate to the four mice looking for their cheese. I will tell you that our change management training didn’t go much farther than that. All we knew at that point was the changes would just keep coming and we needed to embrace them or get pushed out of the way.

Since that time in my career, I have been through many more changes and many more books being handed to me. To sum up what I learned about change management from my work career is this.

1.        Change is inevitable and is going to happen whether we want it or not.

2.        Change must happen if you or the company is going to grow.

3.        Change is consistent and just keeps coming. So, you just as well embrace it.

I then learned more from books, classes, videos, pod casts and real-life situations. I have watched and observed people during big company changes and found some interesting facts. One of the biggest examples that I talk about is the fear of the unknown. The first reaction I see with people when a company makes a major announcement is fear. There is a lot of chatter of what ifs, fears and should I find another job. The quicker that fear of the unknown is reduced the quicker the logical brain starts to think.

                  Now I am involved in, probably one of the biggest changes in my career, a company wide ERP conversion, with over 700 locations nationwide. This change has me again doing some personal searching for information on change management around ERP changes. I came across a site called Procsi and they gave an easy and quick snapshot of their process.

“Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are the backbone of large organizations. They orchestrate complex processes across critical departments, from finance to supply chain management. Unfortunately, many ERP systems are outdated, hampering the ability to reduce costs and drive revenue. 

Financial and IT executives are heavily involved in selecting and integrating new ERPs—but that’s only half the battle. Leaders often forget the role that change management plays in ERP lifecycles.

Technology changes begin with process changes. ERP change management is a structured approach that empowers employees to embrace the process changes and new systems faster and more efficiently. The result is that individuals, teams, and organizations move from the current state to your desired future state and then use the updated ERP systems in their daily work.”

This explanation along with this diagram helps make sense of the basic steps of making this type of change.

Procsi Change Diagram

                  I also came across a great article in Forbes, The Four Principles Of Change Management, that had some very good points. But the best thing I got from this article was the basic steps of Kotter’s eight step process, listed below.

"Kotter’s eight-step process for leading change within an organization includes:

1.        Create a sense of urgency. Rather than simply presenting a change that’s going to happen, present an opportunity that helps the team see the need for change and want to make it happen.

2.        Build a guiding coalition. This group of early adopters from among the diverse many will help communicate needs and initiatives to guide change.

3.        Form a strategic vision and initiatives. Draw a picture of what life will look like after the change. Help everyone see—and long for—the direction you’re headed, rather than focusing myopically on the steps in front of them right now.

4.        Enlist volunteers. You’ll need massive buy-in across the organization to effectively implement change. Use your coalition to keep up the momentum on the sense of urgency and continue to communicate the vision.

5.        Enable action by removing barriers. Learn where employees face challenges to implementing a change because of structural issues like silos, poor communication or inefficient processes, and break them down to facilitate progress.

6.        Generate short-term wins. Keep up the momentum and motivation by recognizing early successes on the path to change. Continue to recognize and celebrate small wins to keep everyone energized and aware of your progress.

7.        Sustain acceleration. Lean into change harder after the first few small wins. Use those successes as a springboard to move forward further and faster.

8.        Institute change. Celebrate the results of successful change. How do changed processes or initiatives contribute to the organization’s overall success? How do they continue to help employees contribute to the mission they care about?"

I could go on and on about how to move forward with change management or even how to move forward with a new ERP. But I think I have hit on some very key steps. The internet is just full of case studies, articles and best practices to help you.

I believe that a big step is the removing of the fear of the unknown and the best way to do that is to communicate, talk to the associates, explain the things they are missing and be honest. That right there will go a long way in gaining the confidence of the people doing the tasks every day.

In the Forbes article it talks about the select few and the diverse many. Most companies make the big decisions with the select few and then they push this decision out to the diverse many. If you notice the Procsi diagram, that even implies the same concept. Everyone in an organization will be affected with an ERP conversion and business process changes. Include the diverse many in the process and you will be surprised at what they may have to offer, and you will also reduce the amount of the fear of the unknown in one step. The more the leaders of any company engage, communicate and include the diverse many, the more you will see a culture form that will move the company to any level they want to achieve.