PHASE ONE OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS.
Everything You Need to Know About the First Phase of Change Transformation Management
OCM Phase 1 | By Ogbe Airiodion
The Change Management Process
Organizational change management (OCM) involves helping an organization’s employees, customers, managers or external parties to accept, adapt and become proficient in a new solution that the organization is implementing. A new solution can include new business processes, new systems or technology, M&A, new products, company expansion, reorganization, new company vision, culture changes, etc.
The people that will be impacted by the new solution are referred to as impacted stakeholders or impacted end-users. These are the individuals and groups that need to be communicated with, engaged, trained, coached, educated and supported while the change is being implemented (and afterwards) to ensure that the change is successful, especially from a UX (user experience) perspective.
OCM Deliverables for Phase 1
The first phase in the change management process involves conducting a series of change assessments to understand the scope, scale, impacts and overall nature of the change, as well as identifying the stakeholders and employees that will be impacted by the change.
Your findings from this set of OCM assessments will allow you to develop the appropriate organizational change management strategies, techniques, models, and OCM plans.
Change Management Process: Phase 1
Complete the series of change assessments outlined in the checklist above (links below).
Your findings from these change assessments are essential, as they will provide output and insights for you to develop your change management strategies, tools, and plans for communicating and engaging with impacted end-users.
- Program / Project Assessment
- Stakeholder Assessment
- Change Impact Assessment
- Targeted Audience Assessment
- Organizational Readiness Assessment
- Change Risk Assessments
- Change Management Strategy (Strategic Playbook)
- Stand Up a Change Management Working Group
- Stand Up a Change Champion Network
1. Program / Project Assessment:
The first step in the assessment process is to understand and document the nature of the change that the program/initiative is looking to implement.
This involves assessing the scope, scale, objectives of the change program, and the factors driving the change at hand. It also includes understanding the program’s deliverables, milestones, problem statement, solutions, the risks of not changing, and the “why now?” Click here to read more.
(Instructions for Completing Your Program Assessment).
2. Stakeholder Assessment:
The stakeholder assessment will be used to identify key stakeholders (Executives, Leaders, Managers, etc.) that are needed to support the program. Your stakeholder analysis will also involve assessing each stakeholder’s level of commitment or resistant to the change, which will allow you to develop plans to enlist their buy-in and support. Click here to read more.
(Completing Your Stakeholder Assessment – Instructions, Samples & Templates).
3. Change Impact Assessment:
The change impact assessment involves understanding and documenting As-Is vs To-Be processes which will allow you to determine change deltas (a delta is a difference between what is being done today and what will be done in the future state). Using a business change impact assessment template, you can document the severity of the impacts for each impacted group, the timing of the impact, and the OCM requirements (for example: training, communications, and coaching) for each process that is changing….. read more.
(Completing Your Change Impact Assessment – Instructors, Samples & Templates)
4. Audience Analysis
Audience analysis involves identifying the list of names and contact information for all individuals (employees, customers, clients, partners, managers, leaders, and others) who will be impacted by the change. Click here to read more.
(Completing Your Audience Analysis – Instructions, Samples & Templates)
5. Organizational Change Readiness Assessment
A change readiness assessment involves analyzing each impacted group’s readiness to adopt the change. It allows you to determine how ready a group (for example, a Sales or IT department) is to transition from their current way of operations to the target state model. It also allows you to understand each group’s receptiveness (or lack of) to the transformation change. Click here to read more.
(Completing Your Change Readiness Analysis – Instructions, Samples & Templates)
6. Change Risk Assessment
A change risk assessment involves assessing, documenting and understanding the type of risks that the company may face while this change is being implemented. You want to ensure that you identify any known trouble spots or potential areas for resistance. Click here to read more.
(Completing Your Change Risk Assessment – Instructions, Samples & Templates)
7. Change Management Strategy (Strategic Playbook)
A change management strategy (“Strategic Playbook”) includes summaries of the change management objectives, scope, plans, and strategies that will be implemented to drive the people side of change for a particular program, project or initiative.
A change management strategy is often used to familiarize key stakeholders and program leads on the change management framework being leveraged for the program, as well as providing an overview (a read-out) of the results of your change impact assessment, stakeholder analysis, organizational readiness assessment, program and change risks assessment, targeted audience analysis and overall program assessment. Click to read more.
(Developing Your Change Management Strategic Playbook – Instructions, Samples & Templates)
8. Stand Up a Change Management Working Group
It is recommended that you stand up a Change Management Working Group to support the change project. Having such a group goes a long way in allowing you to get direct and quick input when designing, developing and implementing your change deliverables.
This group should include members of the program transformation team (Business Project Managers, Program Managers, IT Project Managers, Architects, UX, and Subject Matter Experts,) and other resources that might be needed to help implement change management deliverables…. read more.
(Instructions for Standing Up a Change Management Working Group)
9. Stand Up a Change Champion Network
Change champion networks are a powerful component of any change strategy. Change champions allow the change team to move ownership of the change to the business units and groups that will be impacted by the change. This decreases the magnitude and duration of productivity dips and also improves the chances of the change sticking long-term. Click to read more.
(Launching Your Change Champion Network – Instructions, Samples & Templates)
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