Jasmeet Kohli

Sunday 4 November 2018

Change Management : Essential Ingredients

Change is an essential part of nature - every day we see it with day & night & every year we see in forms of changing seasons. But still change is feared as it requires adapting to the changed conditions. Same is the case with the business organizations & people managing them as ever-changing market conditions & business environment requires making regular changes which often needs stepping out of comfort zones, for which many are not ready & when forced to change, are often left clueless & wondering how to do it.

Change Management is a dynamic approach which helps the organizations manage this confusion & provides a structural way for it to adapt itself successfully to not only to implement change in all its processes & activities but also to "embrace it enthusiastically" by making it a part of its culture & working methods. But its easier said than done & is often a very complex exercise as it not just implementation of certain tools but also dealing with the human element which can be unpredictable & requires making painstaking efforts to manage it.

The essential ingredients of running a successful business are People, Process & Technology. All three have to work in close coordination & should be in sync with each other for achieving the greater goals of the organization., Some essential steps in doing it are: 
  • Overall success of the change management depends on the people managing the organization, starting with the top management as they are running the show. Its very important to get them on board & commit to the required adaptations & then filtering this down to the lower levels of management as they are doing the day-to-day running of the organization. Required job roles with responsibilities would need to be decided & people with the required skills & qualifications would have to be selected to manage them. 
  • A suitable strategy would have to be formulated, supported by robust & flexible processes which help in implementing the change management in the organization, Timelines & goals would have to be fixed after careful analysis to help in achieving the pre-determined goals. Of course, only willingness is not sufficient as close monitoring would also have to be done at appropriate levels to see the changes being implemented & deal with any issues & problems that may arise from time to time.
  • Suitable technology (as per affordability of the organization) would have to be deployed to bring together the people & the processes & keep them in alignment in pursuit of the goals. People, process & technology working in sync with each other can help the organizations immensely becoming lean, be more responsible towards meeting their compliance requirements, reduce their operational costs & waste, & most importantly be more responsive to the customer needs & market conditions & continue to be relevant even when many of their competitors have ceased to exist long ago. 

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