Change Management
UOW IACT418/918 Spring 2001
Bob Brown
Preface
Some claim that almost any change is a
good thing simply because it is a change !
Can’t have changes without consequences.
So, WHO benefits from the consequences
of the change ?
Will these benefits be for the organisation as
a whole or for individuals’ private agendas ?
Overview
Your network does not exist in a vacuum.
The influences (internal & external) on your
business and its network will require that
you make changes, or respond to changes
imposed upon it.
Change Management is what happens when
an organisation attempts to control changes
and their consequences.
It is not a simple thing to define…
Three Basic Definitions
At least three broad areas need to be
considered when trying to define what
‘change management’ is:
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The task of managing change
An area of professional practice
A body of knowledge
The Task of Managing Change
This definition has two meanings:

Making deliberate planned changes
 Implementing new systems and/or methods
 These are “internal” changes

Responding to unplanned changes
 Adapting, coping, responding
 These are “external’ changes




Legislation (standards, regulations, tax etc)
Social/political change
Actions of competitors
Technological innovations
Change Management as a
Professional Practice
Claimed to be a profession, usually made up
of consulting “Change Managers” or
“Change Agents”.


Some claim to help clients manage they
changes happening TO them
Some claim to help clients MAKE changes
Professional Change Agents tend to treat the
PROCESS of change separately from the
specifics of the situation

[is that a good thing?]
Change Management as a
Body of Knowledge (paradigm)
Can be considered to be a set of

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Models
Methods & Techniques
Tools
Skills
Drawn from psychology, sociology, business
admin, economics, industrial/system
engineering etc.
THERE IS NO SINGLE BEST METHOD !!
Problem Solving
Planned Change model:


Concerned with moving from a
problem state to a solved state
Concerned with ENDS and MEANS
“problem” or “opportunity” ?
lets just say that a ‘problem’ is simply a situation
requiring action, where the required action is not
yet known
Problem Finding
2nd part of the Planned Change model
Searching for situations requiring action
Perhaps to avoid or cope with something
‘bad’ or to change direction to take best
advantage of the environment
Identifying and settling on a course of
action that will bring about some desired
and predetermined change in the situation
The Change Problem
Move from ‘old state’ to ‘new state’ by
meeting three goals:

TRANSFORM GOALS
 Identify differences between the two states

REDUCE GOALS
 Determining ways of eliminating the differences

APPLY GOALS
 Taking the steps and setting up the processes that
will eliminate these differences
The Change Problem II
Define the outcomes of the change effort
Identify the changes necessary to produce
these outcomes
Find and implement ways and means of
making the required changes
The Change problem can be treated as
smaller problems of HOW, WHAT & WHY
“How” Problems
Initial formulation of the change problem
Means-centred
Diagnosis is ignored or at best, implied
The goals are more or less implied
Examples:
 How do we get staff to be more productive?
 How do we introduce self-management teams?
 How do we move to e-commerce?
 How do we minimise user errors?
“What” Problems
Since ‘how’ problems don’t conduct
diagnosis, they don’t concentrate on the
‘ends’
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACHIEVE

ie: what are the ‘ends’
Typical WHAT questions:
 What changes are necessary?
 What standards apply?
 What indicators tell us we have succeeded?
 What performance measures are we trying to affect?
‘Why” Problems
Means & Ends are relative
Need to trace sets of ends-means
relationships to find the real ends of change
WHY questions determine the ultimate
purpose of functions and reveal new ways
of performing them.

Why questions can also get into the ‘politics’
and motivations of those driving change
Managers’ Mindset
A person’s position within the organisation
often defines the scope, scale & kind of
changes they’re involved with.
Sometimes changes with fundamentally
restructure the whole organisation
Some organisations are designed to protect
core operations from change turbulence and
have ‘core’, ‘buffer’ and ‘perimeter’ units.
Managers’ Mindset II
Core units (systems, operations) stick to standard
procedures and tend to ask “HOW” questions
Buffer units (upper mgmt, support) responsible for
performance, tend to ask ‘WHAT” questions
Perimeter units (sales, customer service etc) coordinate and ask “HOW” & “WHAT”
“WHY” is asked by people with a ‘top-down’
view, not concerned with day-to-day operations,
ie: Senior Management

[should “WHY” questions be the sole province of senior
management? Does involvement in day-to-day
operations prevent you from asking WHY?]
“Unfreezing, Changing
& Refreezing”
Another Change Management ‘model’
Usefully, this model gives rise to a ‘staged’
approach, look before you leap
However, too reliant upon ‘stasis’ at the
beginning and end of the change
Cannot cope well with highly flexible
environments (such as I.T.?)
Too much internal stability can stifle growth
Skills Required for
Change Management
Political Skills
 Change Agents must not get stuck in internal organisational
politics, but MUST understand them!
Analytical Skills
 Clear analysis will overcome many objections
need financial analysis & workflow operations / systems analysis
People Skills
 Communications & Interpersonal skills. Ability to listen & speak
with all sections, and reconcile conflicts.
Systems Skills
 Arrangement of resources and routines. ‘Systems analysis’ &
‘General Systems Theory’
Business Skills
 How businesses work: Money, Market, HR, R&D, IR, EEO etc.
Four Basic Strategies
Rational
-Empirical
Normative
-Re-educative
Power
-Coercive
People are rational and follow self interest
change based on communication of information and
offering incentives
People are social beings and follow social norms
change based on redefining and reinterpreting existing
norms, & developing commitment to new norms
People are mostly compliant, do as they’re told
change based on the exercise of authority and the
imposition of sanctions
People oppose loss/disruption but adapt readily
Environmental
change based on building a new organisation and
-Adaptive
gradually transferring people to the new one
Factors in Selecting Strategies
There is no single perfect strategy …
please consider:
1.
Degree of Resistance
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2.
Target Population
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3.
Strong: Power-Coercive & Environmental-Adaptive
Weak: Rational-Empirical & Normative-Re-educative
Large populations need all four strategies in a mix
‘something for everyone’
The Stakes

High stakes need all four strategies in a mix
‘nothing left to chance’
Factors in Selecting Strategies II
4.
The Time Frame
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5.
Expertise
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6.
Short: Power-Coercive
Longer: Rational-Empirical & EnvironmentalAdaptive & Normative-Re-educative
Mix the strategies according to the expertise of the
Change Agents
Dependency
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If organisation is dependant on its people,
managements ability to lead is limited
If people are dependant on the organisation,
their ability to resist or oppose is limited
Mutual dependency requires negotiation
How to Manage Change
Jump in, get into the scenario
Clear sense of mission (simpler
the better)
Build a team
Flat organisational structure,
keep the information flow
informal & flexible
Pick people with relevant skills
and high energy levels
Throw out the rule book, new
circumstances mean old
procedures are out of date
Action-feedback model, short
plan-action intervals
Flexible priorities, must be able
to shift your focus to an urgent
issue
Treat everything as a temporary
measure
Ask for volunteers
Set up a good team leader and
let them do their job
Give team members everything
they want - EXCEPT authority
Concentrate dispersed
knowledge – keep an issues
logbook, let anyone speak to
anyone
Bring order to chaos, don’t
pretend it’s already well
organised !