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7 Tips and Techniques for Tackling Change Management

11/2/2010 at 11:28 am by

Last month we touched on the fact that implementing a new ERP system is a foundation for Business Process Improvement, and process improvement is the key to value creation.

But we know that it’s really difficult to get people fired up about changing behaviors – particularly their own!!

However, the stakes are high and the rewards can be great. So for what it’s worth, here’s some tips and techniques that we have found helpful:

  1. Make it personal. Don’t start a big company-wide project. Talk to a couple of key individuals who are influential, and find some aspects of what they do that is repetitive and frustrating. Find a way to eliminate some of those frustrations to get them on board about a bigger initiative.
  2. Make it viral. Don’t jump too quickly to a bigger initiative. Find a way to talk up some of the small improvements you are making and how it is really helping shipping or purchasing or wherever you started. Getting people to start talking about how things are getting better for them is an important step toward changing business processes.
  3. Make it incremental. The best change comes about as a series of small steps. Then when you look back you can’t believe how far you’ve come. Take what you can when you can.
  4. Blame it on the system. Don’t talk about changing people’s behavior. Everyone likes to bash the system. So take advantage of this tendency. Fixing the system will invariably open up discussions about changing processes.
  5. Make it easy to swallow, literally.  I’m swamped. I’m too busy to talk about changing things right now. We all have people in our organizations who are constantly buried. There’s never a good time for them to do anything other than what they’re doing. So what do you do? Invite them in for coffee and donuts to chat. Have some of your influencers there. Give them the floor to air their issues. Empathize. You have one goal – establish a follow up time to talk about how to really help them.
  6. Find your champions and get them on a team. Every company has some people who actually like change – who embrace it, who are tired of doing things the same old way. You have to find them, and unleash their energy. Many of the naysayers are the late adopters. They won’t help you create change, but they will jump on board when someone else has it all laid out for them.
  7. Use the hammer to soften things up, not smash them to pieces! Change pushed from the top down invariably creates dissension and a desire to see thing fail. Top management can set the tone, and can talk about how important change is, but it’s crucial to allow the rank and file to embrace and participate in creating the changes you need.

So let management set the tone, start small, find your champions, and talk up a few examples – and the winds of change will start blowing.

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About the Author

Paul Sita, Ph.D is president and a principal of Innovative IT Consulting. Paul is a frequent writer, blogger, lecturer and contributor to industry groups and associations.

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