Controlling change is becoming more and more important, as consumers, donors and employees expect a certain amount of transparency and accountability on the part of organizations; change can’t just be made on the whim of the CEO anymore – not in great organizations anyway. These five pointers can help you effectively plan and implement change:
- Risk Assessment, a lack of assessing risk increases the chances of potentially dangerous changes being introduced into the organizations environment.
- Test, try things out! A lack of testing or piloting increases the chances of incomplete changes being introduced into the organizations environment.
- Purpose, be mindful of the purpose of the organization when making change – introducing changes that do not achieve the internal expectations of the organization will damage the organizations reputation.
- People, using the wrong, or untrained personnel to manage will encourage a lack of personal accountability for changes being introduced – increasing the chances that a change will not be managed, resulting in damage to the organizations reputation.
- Monitor, lack of monitoring increases the chances that changes without value are introduced.
Change is a necessary part of adapting to unpredictable economic and social environments. Even needed changes can be met with resistance and result in unintended consequences. Change management should engage individuals at all levels of the organization to help them cope with the most difficult aspects of change, and embrace the positive outcomes that are brought about by those changes.
