One of the first action steps in implementing change is to create a sense of urgency.  Employees need to be energized by a feeling that change is needed—now!  This is what creates the energy that empowers people to make a change and embrace the change as it is implemented.

Organizational change management (OCM) principles have their roots in research done as far back as the early 1950s when psychologist Kurt Lewin developed his three-stage model for planned change.

Understanding the culture around us

The way people interact within your company – expectations, norms and taboos are a result of years of interactions between people, management styles and organizational structure.  Changing the status quo of an established corporate culture is not an easy task.

The physical distance you keep between yourself and others during social situations is your personal space.  In normal conversations we don’t give our personal space much thought; it’s a natural distance that we grant between ourselves and others based on our culture, gender and personality.  However, when you enter into a cross cultural conversation, you may want to keep your personal distance in mind.

In American culture we value the clock.  We punch the clock to mark the time we are and are not working.  While on the job, we generally dedicate one block of time to one specific task.  Meetings are scheduled precisely with expectations that everyone will attend at the appointed time.  We see projects and tasks on a timeline.  We are a monochronic society.

Negotiating across cultures is a at best a challenge, and at worst, a nightmare.  Even if you are in a homogeneous culture, the negotiation process is full of communication pitfalls.  Hand gestures, posture and tone of voice all impact the way your message is received.   

As the role of a company in the market changes, so does the corporate culture.

So much of what makes a company successful lies in the culture within it.  This is why when a change is made, even if the change is from an external force; we need to closely manage how the change impacts employees.

Over 30 years ago, Dr. Virginia Satir brought us a model for change that simply yet elegantly summarized the way a change impacts the performance of an organization. 

As pictured here, the Satir change model shows how immediately after a change is introduced into an organization, the change is met with resistance.  The conflict that is a normal part of resistance throws the organization into chaos.  The group eventually integrates the change ultimately creating a new (and hopefully more productive) status quo.

Another important model to discuss is Prosci’s ADKAR model for change management.  ADKAR stands for:

There is a great wealth of communication tools available for managing change.  From town hall meetings to individual coaching sessions, the biggest challenge is selecting the right tool for the job.  It’s common for project managers to get the process backwards—selecting a communications tool inside a project plan before actually understanding their audience or the type of information that needs to be addressed.