Top 7 change management best practices

Change management is a structured set of tools, procedures, and strategies that allow organizations and individuals to surf the tides of inevitable change smoothly. However, implementing it is not an easy task. If you want to rise to the coveted ranks of successful change managers, continue reading to understand the best practices in change management.

What is change management?

A change management process entails a collection of models and measures you can embrace to navigate the shifts that come one's way. It is a methodical approach encompassing the planning, execution, and supervision of organizational changes to guarantee their seamless and efficient implementation.

It consists of all the procedures, tools, and tactics essential to guide teams or a company through transitions. The fundamental objective of the change management model is to cultivate adaptability, minimize disruptions, and optimize the likelihood of success throughout the evolutionary process.

Overview of change management best practices

Crafting an OCM strategy poses its challenges, but you can navigate the process with the aid of these proven practices:

• Evaluate and comprehend your company's risk tolerance, tailoring your plans accordingly. Recognize that there is no universal solution in OCM; grasp your company's culture, regulatory requirements, and other aspects to integrate them seamlessly into your chosen OCM strategy.

• Stay ahead of escalating employee and customer demands by harnessing the power of automation and AI technology. Propel the management process with data-driven insights from generative AI systems, mitigating repetitive manual processes susceptible to human errors.

• Prioritize collaboration by communicating your goals with your team and key stakeholders. Through streamlined and unified communication channels, effortlessly prevent task repetition and redundancies.

• Revamp your CAB model to align with modern companies. Liberate yourself from slow and bureaucratic CAB processes, seek CAB approvals exclusively for the riskiest changes, and leverage OCM tools to virtualize and make CAB real-time. This eliminates the need for in-person meetings with prolonged wait times.

• Select familiar tools and applications that are comfortable for your development team and seamlessly integrate them into your chosen OCM tool.

Understanding the change process

This is the first step on your journey to bring about the change in a controlled manner. This is the part where you begin to understand why the prospective change is necessary and how to plot a safe course through the process effectively. Only by having a comprehensive grasp of the nuances and subtleties of the oncoming change can pave the way for strategies to be formulated, implemented, and adapted. Do not ignore this aspect, as it lays the foundation on which your pillars of change will stand.

Identifying drivers for change

This phase of change management strategy entails enumerating every factor necessitating organizational change. This proves challenging due to the myriad reasons prompting such shifts. Some prevalent catalysts for organizational change encompass:

• The introduction of new leadership at the organizational helm or within its branches and departments.

• Alterations in the composition of the organizational team and analogous internal elements.

A noteworthy impetus for organizational change arises from the adoption of new operational frameworks, ushering in contemporary new technology, process innovations, or enhancements to existing business models.

External factors also contribute to organizational change, with commonly observed triggers including:

• Significant fluctuations in market conditions

• Revamping of existing technologies and the introduction of novel systems

• The influx of new competitors

• Socio-political and economic developments in target markets or operational regions

• Changes in regulations

• Adjustments in customer needs

Assessing the impact on employees and business processes

While change is inevitable, resistance to it is also quite natural. The desire to change is not common when individuals, i.e., your employees, are already in a comfortable position. Thus, for a change to be implemented successfully, you must establish a clear communication line. This is to understand how the changes you put in place will impact your employees and your business processes in the long run. You need to put Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in place to help you assess the effectiveness of the change in the future. 

Not assessing this impact can lead to a failed transition, which is all too common since only 34% of change initiatives ever succeed. Moreover, 74% of employees believe that the friction resulting from supervisors ignoring their needs and not trying to understand their position is a central factor in these failed attempts.

Establishing objectives and goals for change

Clearly defining your objectives is one of the central aspects of formulating a cohesive strategy. Before jumping into execution, always plan out carefully. Try to establish well-defined milestones. Document the tasks that need to be performed, changing responsibilities, and potential problems.

You can articulate the precise objectives and reasons for a change to craft goals that need to be focused on meticulously despite more changes piling up. You need to make sure that the change initiative is purposeful and satisfies the overarching goal of your business. 

Take the following steps when selecting your objectives:

• Reach the core purpose for initiating change

• Evaluate the position of your business—your strengths, weaknesses, and risk tolerance

• Engage your stakeholders in this decision

• Keep your goals realistic and achievable

• Take care that your goals don’t stray away from your company’s overarching goals and culture

• Take a detailed account of the resources available to you

• Establish a system of feedback and dialogue

Planning the implementation strategy

Now that you know what you are working towards, it is time to ascertain what sort of strategy you are going to adopt when putting your plan in motion. Implementation strategies vary depending on your specific needs, organization size, and scope of the change. Here are some common strategies that you can employ for change implementation:

Developing a timeline and action plan for change

Once you have formulated a plan, mark out a chronological list of tasks that need to be performed. Assign a specific and strict deadline for each of your planned tasks. This helps with managing the changes since if you miss a deadline further down the road, you can reestablish it and provide increased priority to the task while putting digressive activities on the back foot.

Creating an effective communication plan

Change management communication is essentially the process of increasing awareness and support for organizational shifts. It facilitates stakeholders' understanding of the changes, their implications, and why change is necessary at that particular time. Change management communication makes sure stakeholders are informed about what's important, delivers information and documents on time, and offers channels for questions and feedback to be asked.

Change management communication is an essential element to assist teams in transitioning from their current position to the intended "future state," regardless of whether you are changing leadership, technology, business procedures, or a mix of these.

The inability to effectively manage a change often thwarts the effective execution of organizational efforts. Managers must acquire the expertise essential to guide their teams through times of transition to avoid this from happening.

According to a Gartner study, only 34% of all transformation initiatives that companies undertake are successful in the end. However, 16% have inconclusive results, meaning that 50% of all change programs fail.

To create an efficient communication plan, make sure you involve the appropriate parties at the appropriate times and end up with an authorized plan that takes every aspect into account by following these four stages.

1. Justify your actions with an explanation: 

• Set and review objectives on things you need to get done in terms of communications

2. Keep a record of your communication strategy:

• Clear messaging tailored to the needs of each group

• Write down your strategy for achieving your communication objectives

• Specify your target audiences, messaging, schedules, roles, and assessment strategy

3. Assess and complete your communication plan:

• Go over your communication strategy with members of the group and project leaders.

• Take into account suggestions while finishing the approval plan

4. Give your approval:

• Submit the plan for the final authorization to your executive sponsor

• Request that the strategy be reviewed by other leaders in your executive sponsorship

Understanding resistance to change

Employee resistance to change is one of the trickiest and most stubborn issues that corporate executives deal with. Such resistance can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including a continuous decrease in output, an increase in "quits" and requests for transfers, recurring arguments, gloomy animosity, spontaneous or slowdown strikes, and, of course, the rise of numerous illogical arguments as to why the change would fail. This resistance, even in its more trivial forms, might cause problems.

When leaders come across resistance to change, they frequently use the tired excuse that "people resist change" to explain the situation without doing any more inquiry. But the hard fact is that the industry needs to adapt constantly. This is especially true of the crucial "micro" adjustments that occur regularly, such as adjustments to work practices, standard office processes, desk or machine locations, staff assignments, and title changes.

Distrust in the company's leadership or the organization in general is one of the biggest factors contributing to resistance to change. Employee turnover and giving leadership the benefit of the doubt when problems do occur are both impacted by a lack of confidence. 

We cannot ignore the importance of a lack of communication within the organization in breeding resistance to change. Even the most carefully considered and structured organizational changes can be severely impacted by a lack of communication. Encouraging employees to be transparent is much more critical when attempting to manage a transition. Information should be shared with employees as frequently as possible. Employee pushback increases when there isn't effective communication; employees may feel defensive, lose faith in the leadership, and lack sufficient time to comprehend the information.

Top 7 change management best practices

1. Mobilize active and visible sponsorship

Executives and senior position holders play an essential role when it comes to being active sponsors of change. Successful changes are implemented under the leadership and responsibility of primary sponsors. Prosci research details that an active and visible sponsor is the leading contributor to an effective transition. 

At the same time, it is also the primary obstacle in the path of business leaders who are trying to bring about change. Let us pursue some strict dos and don’ts that will help you get closer to executing your envisioned change:

• Never be inactive or invisible. Try to place yourself at the forefront of the transitional initiative. Support your workers as they adapt to the changes. 

• Spearhead change management early into your project’s life cycle. The faster you take steps to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, the better you and your team can respond to them. 

• Keep communications channels open and accessible to all involved stakeholders. Employees appreciate it when they are kept in the loop by their leaders, keeping them up to date as well.

• You need to stay informed regarding your role in the transitional phases. More than 50% of participants reported that their sponsors often lacked the required understanding, leading to friction and lower chances of success. 

• Encourage your colleagues personally to take part in the change and motivate others. Hold meetings when necessary, be it one-on-one or with entire teams, to get your points across and keep the morale high. 

Supervisors are the preferred senders of personal messages during change for 70% of employees.

2. Apply a structured change management approach

Pick a well-defined approach before diving headfirst into navigating the transition. A structured approach can provide you with the necessary guidance required to stay on track. Formal and proven approaches make the entire process reliable and repeatable. You can apply the initiatives consistently. Whichever approach you pick, it should satisfy the following conditions:

• It should be an established system that has proven its worth and can be repeated to yield consistent results. 

• Pick a system that you can easily tailor to your specific needs. Going with a customizable approach will allow you to bend the methodology to the unexpected whims of the scenario you are in. 

• The approach should work irrespective of the size of your organization and the scope of the proposed changes. A scalable approach makes it possible to implement change at various levels of a project’s life cycle without sacrificing more resources to change the approach itself. 

• A major part of any change management approach should be accessibility. All team members should be able to apply and understand it in every phase of the process. It should also be able to exert its influence across multiple changes. 

3. Engage with front-line employees

To attain effective transition, you must interact with the employees who are most affected by the change. They are the ones who should be on the top of your priority list when it comes to understanding what the change is, why it is necessary, how it affects them, and accepting the proposed change. Engaging with people on the frontline smoothens the rollout process and helps foster a relationship based on trust and transparency, two essential components needed for effective change management. 

You can employ the following measures to encourage this sort of engagement:

• Demarcate what benefits the change will bring about for the front-line employees. Highlight “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM) to help them independently assess the scenario. 

• Build strong relationships with the teams that will face the brunt of the transitional impacts, be it positive or negative. 

• The frontline employees should be ready to combat any issue that may arise due to the change. To ensure this, you must provide them with proper education and training. 

• Be inclusive. Encourage the frontline workers to participate in the planning phases and welcome suggestions with an open mind. 

The success of transformations experiences a significant boost, reaching an impressive 71% when frontline employees proactively take the initiative to drive change.

4. Communicate frequently and openly

Miscommunication is the bane of any successful operation, including change management. Change encounters resistance from 28% of employees due to feelings of anger and anxiety triggered by top-down communication. Your employees must understand the undergoing change. 

However, many companies forgo this crucial step. Under top-down "tell" strategies, only 20% of the workforce comprehends the impending change. In contrast, employing open-source "talk" communication results in a 54% understanding of the change among the workforce. 

Keep the following tips in mind when trying to establish meaningful and effective communication:

• Keep multiple communication channels open for employees to be able to gain information and guidance through. 

• Always be transparent and clearly communicate your intentions and the effects of the changes, whether positive or negative. 

• Communicate consistently to remain visible and accessible to your employees. 

5. Engage and integrate with project management

Project management and change management go hand in hand. Integrating these two processes through well-maintained channels can yield further benefits by increasing the efficiency of change management. This can be done over multiple dimensions, including:

• Employees

• Operational process

• Management approach

• Goals and objectives

• Management tools and software

You can integrate change management with project management in a multitude of ways. Here are some examples that can help you get started on it:

• Add your change management tasks to your overarching project plan.

• Make your teams work in collaboration to foster better understanding and increase operational effectiveness by minimizing miscommunication.

• Make sure that your change management plans and dates do not collide with your project management timeline.

• Combine overlapping roles and responsibilities.

• Put your project team through relevant change management courses. 

6. Dedicate change management resources

Change management is an essential component of the success of any project. It is not to be treated like an afterthought. Hence, you need to dedicate a certain portion of your resources to this endeavor. Your change management initiatives should be able to access:

• Monetary, human, and temporal resources

• Specialized personnel who have experience in change management

7. Engage with and support people managers

Having people managers who are experts at navigating the complex maze of social interactions is a great asset. People managers can perform various tasks that include:

• Constantly communicating with the affected parties and acting as an intermediary between leaders and employees. 

• Working towards building understanding and awareness for both sides of the table, fostering comprehension regarding the change amongst frontline employees, and communicating the needs of the employees to the upper management. 

• Providing tools, resources, materials, and support to change managers so they can navigate the transition better. 

• Encouraging change managers to constantly interact with the parties, increase visibility, and engage with the change management on a micro-level throughout the life cycle of the project

Best practices in change management interactive data

Words may be deceiving, but numbers don't lie. While you have already seen some real-life data to support our claims, let’s take a look at some stats that will solidify these practices as the real deal:

• When employees are involved in change strategies, the probability of success increases by 24%. 

• Miscommunication and distrust make employees the most resistant to change, at a whopping 41%. Thus, communication is the key when managing change. 

Leadership is a central factor. 43% of employees claim that they would be more willing to accept change if the sponsors were more knowledgeable and inclusive. Moreover, changes are 5.8 times more likely to be successful in businesses where the top brass communicates transparently and persuasively.

Getting started with change management in your organization

Start with the practices that matter most to your organization. Critically evaluate your approach and adapt it by understanding these practices depending on your geography, demographics, revenue, expectations, and other parameters. Integrate the practices you select into your daily routine. 

With Freshservice, you can do all of that in a few simple clicks. Freshservice gives you top-class IT service management systems that let you adapt to any changes in a jiffy.

• Accentuate workflow: Improve agent productivity by intercepting incoming tickets through ML-powered responses and only escalating the ones that need a human touch.

• Better collaboration: Streamline service management by uniting your teams’ visions and missions on a unified and shared platform.

• All-in-one service solution: Meet your customer needs with an adaptive API that lets you implement custom integration, automated workflows, smart analytics, ecosystem partner solutions, and access to marketplace apps. 

• Integration capabilities: Bring consumer-grade user experience to popular applications like MS Teams, Slack, and the Freshservice chatbots. 

The transition towards a more digital tomorrow with Freshservice brings you:

• Intelligent automation

• Easy and scalable deployments

• Improved consumer services

Freshservice’s unified service management solution gives you access to tools that make weathering the tides of change much easier:

• Automation: Versatile automation capabilities that let your team focus on the more strategic side of things. Freddy AI, the powerful GenAI solution, lets you personalize your automated messages, provides support with Freddy AI Copilot, and gives contextual insights.

• Integrated service management platform: Consolidate service management on a singular platform, allowing you to bridge any communication gaps, improve reaction times, and heighten brand awareness and visibility while being cost-effective.

• Quick roll-outs: Easily deploy any and all changes and updates using Freshservice’s highly customizable and no-code platform.

Never fear change. Embrace it; learn from it. And use these change management best practices to extract the utmost success from opportunities for change. 

Get a change management assistant that understands your organization. Try Freshservice for free today!