Managing change is a crucial part of continuous improvement within any organization. If change is not managed, organizations can be left exposed to increased costs and inefficiency.
Change and change management are critical to organizational development and growth. Uncontrolled change/growth within the human body has consequences. The same is true for any business entity. Let's take a look at some principles to promote healthy change and growth.
Principles for Healthy Change:
1. Identify opportunities for change by utilizing inputs from all levels within the organization: Top Management can adopt a "Ivory Tower" view. Unchallenged dictates from the Top Management can have adverse affects on the organization. Managers, supervisors, and other key personnel should be empowered to challenge constructively.
2. Prioritize the opportunities for change: Prioritize the opportunities. Consider the risk vs. reward of the opportunities that are identified. Opportunities should not be prioritized based solely on "opinions", but rather on a defined vision, strategy and associated tactics. IMPORTANT: Do not implement significant changes without preparing a risk assessment.
3. Plan the change: Implement significant change(s) with a plan, including communication plans. During the planning stage, be sure to identify implementation resources, change agents, timelines, communication lines and appropriate metrics to measure the impact of the change(s). Plan, plan, plan!
4. Measure the outcome of any given change and make sure to review the results at the management level: Do not implement any changes without the required planning and resources to measure the outputs of the change(s). PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT (PDCA Cycle).