All too often, change management is thought of as a few communications to announce a change, and the accompanying training to selected end users.\u00a0 This is not what change management is about.\u00a0 While communications and training are critical parts of change management, the organization\u2019s ability to create behavioral change in the group of end users is not secured by a few communications and training sessions that don\u2019t have measurable impact on attitude and behavior.<\/p>\n
The role of the change agent is simple: to be a leader and role model for change.\u00a0 McKinsey states it this way:<\/p>\n
Change agents are leaders who cut across the organization and its business units without regard to the traditional hierarchy. Often these men and women are freed from day-to-day tasks in order to focus solely on leading and driving change. Directly or indirectly, they implement new processes, train employees on new procedures, and act as role models to demonstrate new and better ways to work. For example, change agents might spend more than 50 percent of their time visiting areas undergoing change, auditing progress, or advising managers on how to improve performance.\u00a0 ((Arrata, Philippe, Despierre, Arnaud and Kumra, Gautam.\u00a0 2007.\u00a0 \u201cBuilding an effective change agent team.\u201d\u00a0 McKinsey Quarterly, 2007, Number 4.))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m sure there are many philosophies to identifying change agents, but I like McKinsey\u2019s:<\/p>\n
Identify credible candidates<\/p>\n
A useful litmus test when considering possible change agents is to anticipate the reaction from other staff members when an appointment to the new position is announced. Selecting high-performing people who are already well respected within the company sends a clear signal that management takes the program seriously. Moreover, a credible set of team members will be better able to drive change and implement recommendations.\u00a0 ((Ibid))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Change agents usually need to come from the end user community.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard for end users to trust someone they don\u2019t know who is outside their organization.\u00a0 Therefore, a well respected and senior person within the end user community is usually a good bet.<\/p>\n
Develop a compelling case for team members<\/p>\n
Potential change agents need to understand the explicit benefits and career opportunities that will be open to them as a result of joining the change effort. The best employees often hesitate to take an assignment that may last only 18 months\u2014which is usually the minimum amount of time required for a transformation\u2014fearing that it will damage their careers in the long run.\u00a0 ((Ibid))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Once the change agents are selected, it\u2019s equally important that you have their full buy-in.\u00a0 Change agents can destroy adoption as much as they can build it.\u00a0 Having a change agent who isn\u2019t completely on board can domino their doubts into all the other end users.\u00a0 There will absolutely be some challenges, but your change agents need to be willing to put up a good front to everyone else and come to the project team with the concerns, collaborating about the right answer before bringing it back to the end user population.<\/p>\n
As the authors say, \u201cchange leaders discover that an \u201c80 percent right\u201d solution embraced and implemented by line managers beats the \u201c100 percent right\u201d solution that fails to win their acceptance. This buy-in rate is a critical indicator of success for a change program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All too often, change management is thought of as a few communications to announce a change, and the accompanying training to selected end users.\u00a0 This is not what change management is about.\u00a0 While communications and training are critical parts of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-change-management","category-strategies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/systematichr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}