Navigating Change
We use a reality-based approach to what’s commonly called “Change Management,” but we think it’s more accurately described as “Navigating Change” because change can’t really be managed.
Prior to implementing a major company-wide change initiative, our company hired Parallax Consulting to train the entire management team in William Bridges’ Transition process. It made all the difference for those departments that applied the learning. ~ Mac Johnston, Enterprise Services Division Manager, PEMCO Insurance
70% of change initiatives fail (“Cracking the Code of Change” by Nitin Nohria and Michael Beer, HBR, 5/1/01). This percentage has remained steady for years. An understanding of our model, and using our process and tools, will improve the likelihood that your implementation is one of the 30% that succeed.
Change is constant and everywhere in our unpredictable VUCA world – so we use VUCA as context for all of our work. Understanding the dynamic of change and being able to navigate it successfully is a critical capability for both leaders and organizations.
Implementing a change initiative is more than a technical fix for your problems. It’s a significant shift in the way things happen in your business. How well the implementation is navigated is a strong indicator of future success and how many of the potential benefits your organization will actually experience.
Learn more:
- Preparing for Successful Change – This 3-page document provides an overview of the change model we use (it was developed as part of a collaboration).
- Preparing for Change Flowchart – We created these seventeen questions as a guide for organizations that are facing an upcoming change. Asking, and answering, them will take you a long way toward ensuring that you have thought through the various dynamics that are likely to show up in the process. It includes the questions themselves, the rationale behind selecting those questions, as well as possible suggestions for each one.