How do you and your organisation describe your change programmes? Organisations tend to use different terminologies when communicating change internally and externally; ‘we’re transforming’, ‘we’re improving’, ‘we’re evolving’, and ‘we’re innovating’ are all phrases we hear a lot.
Is each of these terms equal? On the one hand, they are because the actual words used are subjective to each organisation, but on the other hand, the nomenclature of change can complicate matters when looking outwards at peers for ideas, inspiration and support.
Different stages of change
There’s a natural progression to change, and we’ve found it simpler and best to use four words to distinguish the different stages of change:
- Improvement – what you do now, but better;
- Change – what you do now, in different ways;
- Transformation – what you do now, in ways you’ve never done them;
- Innovation – doing new things in new ways.
Regardless of what stage of change you’re in, it’s hard work and can be difficult to deliver. In our experience, there are seven steps to the successful delivery of any programme or project, no matter what the work is:
- Know why – continually question why you do what you do and confirm why you’re going in your chosen direction, and be sure that your entire organisation knows this too.
- Get a helicopter view – see what’s happening across your organisation around people, processes and technology. Use this to address problem areas and build your work programme to provide assurance that you’re doing the right things.
- Initiate the work – approve, plan and resource it. Define clear responsibilities for everyone and develop realistic and achievable plans.
- Control and deliver the work – change delivery must be flexible, not bureaucratic, and have only the controls in place that allow you to move forward with pace, without red tape and which safeguard your projects.
- Assess the work – provide assurance via regular reporting.
- Transition to BAU – ensure your new systems and processes are working end-to-end and that the business and its people are ready before you bring new initiatives into your normal operations.
- Closure – ensure business ownership of the benefits and outcomes so that they can be measured and realised long after a project has been completed.
Changing is hard but hopefully this article will help you to look at your programmes of work and assess how you might improve them.
Caithlin Knox is the client relationship manager at One Consulting.
