What is Change Managment?

What can we do to ensure that change is fully adopted by the people involved and benefits are delivered as a result?

Effective change management:

• Ensures that people are supported TO change:
• Increase the benefits delivered by the change

Optimise efficiency – effort not wasted on changes that aren’t fully adopted 

Ensures that people are supported THROUGH change:

• Minimise stress and reduce disruption/impact on productivity 
• Create a more agile and open culture for future changes

There is a clear business case for any project team to invest in change management. There is also a duty of care for employers to recognise the potential impact of change on their employees’ wellbeing and seek to mitigate it.

Even at the most basic level, change management is important because without helping people to change – they don’t. Resistance means that projects fail (partially or completely) and benefits aren’t delivered.

Change takes time and effort that can be hard to deliver alongside business as usual. Practically, this needs to be taken into consideration or employee and customer satisfaction will be impacted. But it is more than that – change itself isn’t easy. Even changes driven by your own ambitions can drain resources and raise emotions that can disrupt all parts of your life. Of course, everyone is different. Our reactions are shaped by our outlook, our previous experiences and our personal situation. We are, however, all naturally programmed (to a greater or lesser degree) to stick to the status quo, to question new ideas and to see even outwardly positive changes as potential threats on some level.