Managing Organisational change

Organisational change is a reality of the modern world, and that reality isn't likely to change anytime soon. If anything, organizations can expect to face the need for even more change in the future, at an ever faster pace. Organisations have to deal with new technology, and with upgrades for existing technology. They have to cope with reorganisations, process improvement initiatives, and mergers and acquisitions.

So, with all that change going on, how are organizations managing to cope? Not very well. The reality is that relatively few of the organisations that institute change-or are forced into it - realize the benefits they had hoped for, and, in fact, end up worse off than they were before.

That doesn't mean it's impossible to engage successfully in change. Many organisations do succeed. How? They succeed by integrating any technical solution that was part of the change mix with a thorough and proactive orchestration of the non-technical human aspects associated with the change.

In other words, the organisations that succeed at change do so by considering the people who are affected by, will have to live with, and are often crucial to effecting the change in question. Even better, not only does managing the human aspects of an organisational change initiative help ensure the successful implementation and use of the technical solution, it sets the groundwork for implementing future solutions.

The Best Practices in Change Management Report

This presents comprehensive findings from 288 companies on their experiences and lessons learned in change management. Report findings include:

1. The #1 contributor to project success is strong, visible and effective sponsorship.
2. The top obstacle to successful change is employee resistance at all levels: front-line, middle managers, and senior managers.
3. Employees want to hear messages about change from two people: the CEO or their immediate supervisor (and these messages are not the same).
4. When asked what they would do differently next time, most teams would begin their change management activities earlier in their next project, instead of viewing it as an add-on or afterthought.
5. The top reasons for employee resistance are a lack of awareness about the change, comfort with the ways things are and fear of the unknown.
6. Middle managers resist change because of fear of losing control and overload of current tasks and responsibilities.

PM-Partners group Organisational Change Management Practice

PM-Partners group offer Education and Consultancy services in Organisational Change Management as well as project management.

Our education services provide a series of workshops for Organisational Change Management.

Our consultancy services are designed to help an organisation improve or establish Organisational Change Management Capabilities with advisory services, coaching and method development.