Before asking yourself the right questions to evaluate and situate your change management in your company, let's start by talking about "change management" in everyday life. You will see that this type of management is present more often than you might think.
Change management, a real show!
When you look at the great sports teams at work, such as in soccer, what charms you are the aestheticism that emanates from the apparent synchronicity between the players. Each player knows his position and knows how to contribute to the efforts of the whole, just as the whole know-how to contribute to the efforts of each player. After a series of passes and individual virtuosity, comes the opportunity to score... a decisive moment for the ensemble.
You the spectators, not being in the secret of these gods of the field, unfortunately, could not appreciate this fact: if the coach had not insisted that this player train hard to perfect his free-kick, he would not have been able to make such a beautiful pass and thus allow his teammate to use his skills to thwart the opposing goalkeeper. What a spectacle!
Team's synchronization allows fluidity of movement
You are willing to pay a very high price to dress yourselves in your finest attire, to sit in a sumptuous auditorium simply to marvel at the perfect synchronization of the movements of a ballerina's limbs, to the rhythm of a symphony written by a German who died a long time ago. She moves around the stage with great ease as if every part of her body knew its role and knew how to contribute to the symphony's harmonics, just as the symphony seemed to contribute just as much to the movements of her anatomy.
Her team, in other words, her head, neck, torso, fingers, arms and legs, all in unison and effortlessly perform a breathtaking arabesque, as predicted by Ludwig and his artistic director. Aesthetics here are only created when the elements, such as movements and sounds, are synchronized to perfection.
What a show once again! Encore!
Change management from a professional's perspective
And you, the audience please don't tell these professionals about how lucky they are to be so good! Because they will be insulted if you ignore their determination in training. You ignore the hard work, sweat, injury and all the obstacles they have had to overcome to train day after day for so many years.
Their well-coordinated gestures and fluid movements are the results of an unimaginable amount of repetition that has taken them from novice to professional for which you have graciously paid to contemplate.
So please do not refer to luck. If you want to do well with these professionals, ask them about their change; that is to say, passing from an amateur to a professional state.
For example, what was your motivation for wishing for this future state of professionalism, which has now become present? What was it like to be a novice? Tell me about your pitfalls, your tears, your toil and your victories. Who helped and supported you during this transformation? Don't be afraid to ask these questions, because I guarantee that you will address those things that make up their change and that now have value to them.
It's quite simple: everything in life goes from a present state to a future state
On a field, on a stage, at home, at school, in an office tower, or even in a tropical forest, change is experienced according to the same basic principle: moving from a present state to a future state.
Organizations are a bit like sports teams or ballet companies, they are made up of individuals called professionals who are paid to move together.
The art of managing change is a concept well known to coaches, artistic directors and our good leaders; it is the harmonious movement of individuals within a group. It must be conscious and desirable. And this voluntary desire must be nurtured with knowledge and rehearsal of any number of times for the benefit of the audience.
The more the synchronization of the movement of the forms is correctly done, the more the change seems to happen by itself with fluidity, without apparent effort. What a show! Change itself is a movement that is created when one becomes aware of a future state that is desirable for oneself.
What we can really manage, or rather synchronize, with their agreement, are different harmonics of the concerted efforts of the individuals in the team; but for this, we must be able to communicate with them and take them as they are, with their strengths and weaknesses, without judgment or bias.
And with only one promise: I will accompany you to overcome your weaknesses in order to perfect your movements by using only your strengths to allow you to live, with your peers, this harmony of change as professionals.
5 questions to evaluate change management status in your organization:
- What percentage of your projects had a change management framework?
- How many organizational changes have you achieved with all the expected benefits?
- Are you able to anticipate areas of resistance in your projects and take advantage of them?
- Who in your organization supports leaders in their role as project sponsors?
- Do you find that your leaders are sufficiently involved in your projects?
To discuss your answers to these questions with change management experts and get guidance on the right next steps, you've come to the right place.
Ronald Isaac
PROSCI Certified
Strategic Consulting Services Consultant
IN-RGY