Guide to organizational change management

What is change management?

Handling changes, be it at the product or organizational level, is not merely a spur-of-the-moment thing. Change management is a calculated and practiced craft. It is a set of methods and manners that guides organizational change from the point of conception to delivery. It involves planning, implementing, and strengthening changes within an organization. 

Change management is necessary since 47% of organizations that integrate change management are more likely to meet their objectives than those that do not. The process includes executing and integrating new technology, adjusting processes, and shifting hierarchies.

What is organizational change management?

Organizational Change Management (OCM) is a change management framework for handling the impact of new processes, adjustments to the organizational layout, or cultural shifts within an enterprise. It is the process of leading organizational change to a fruitful conclusion in alignment with larger business objectives.

Organizational change management comprises the human component of organizational change and involves a people-focused framework that guarantees favorable outcomes. Decision-makers in the organization must ensure that employees feel at ease during the transition. 

The process of organizational change can either turn out to be gradual or discontinuous. Incremental change is typically driven internally and is more akin to an organically evolved form of change. A discontinuous change, on the other hand, is a disruptive kind of change that is frequently unplanned and driven by arbitrary forces.

The goal of organizational change management is to lessen the potential negative effects of any broad, structural changes made to the organization. The process focuses on both macro and micro levels to mitigate risk and make the most out of the change.

What causes organizational change?

It is difficult to list every factor that makes organizational change necessary, as many reasons necessitate such changes. Some common causes of organizational change include:

• The arrival of new leadership at the top of an organization or within its branches or departments

• Shifts within the organizational team layout

Another significant cause of organizational change is adopting new operating models that bring along newer technology, process innovations, or even improvements to existing business models.

Change in the organization is sometimes also fueled by external factors like:

• Drastic fluctuations in market conditions

• Overhaul of existing technologies and introduction of new systems 

• The entry of new competitors 

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

• Changes in regulations

• Adjustments in customer needs

Types of change in organization

Organizational changes can be categorized into adaptive and transformational, regardless of the cause. 

Adaptive changes

Organizations make small and gradual adjustments known as adaptive changes to meet their changing needs. These are usually small tweaks and alterations that managers polish and put into practice to carry out corporate strategies. 

Upgrading the operating system that the business relies on or even changing a lead generation form are two examples of adaptive change. Other examples of adaptive changes include adding a new employee to take over an existing position, updating the corporate website, and making minor adjustments to an existing product in response to client feedback.

Transformational change

Compared to adaptive changes, transformational changes are more extensive in scope. They frequently involve a change in employee and organizational performance, business processes, company or team structure, strategy, and mission simultaneously.

Owing to their scale, transformational changes need a significant investment in time and effort. These changes are sometimes undertaken in response to external factors like developing a disruptive new rival or problems affecting a company's supply chain.

Some common examples of transformational change in an organization include:

• Establishing a new department with a separate set of employees and systems in place

• Merging one product line with another

• Complete overhaul of a company’s IT systems

• Adopting a multichannel approach to sales, support, and service

• Transfer of the physical offices from one location to another

Why is change management important?

Changes in an organization are inevitable. Preparing to embrace it is paramount to establish a sustainable business model. Let us look at this and some of the reasons that necessitate the implementation of a change management strategy:

• Market competition: Market competition and growth opportunities are the main reasons that necessitate change management. A recent survey found that almost 51% of the participants chose these as a cause for implementing a change management plan. Most markets are volatile. But with a pre-determined strategy, you can respond to changing market conditions with greater agility.

• Adaptability strengthening: Optimize your responses to new opportunities and risks with change management strategies. Changes range from legal and regulatory matters like GDPR to customer preferences (like online shopping) and technological changes. Equipped with this knowledge, you can set up action plans for improving adaptability. 

• Technological evolution: The Digital Age brings out innovations every second and every hour. Teams need to stay updated regarding these issues. Consumers and colleagues from other departments might find that their products are no longer compatible with new software or hardware. In such conditions, IT teams need to be able to reach the root of the problem and fix it. They can only do so by implementing a proper change management strategy. 

• Crisis response: Stay ready for crises with a comprehensive strategy. Such strategies are often able to mitigate the harm that unprecedented events may have caused otherwise.

Goals of organizational change management

Effective organizational change management has the primary function of preparing teams with a holistic strategy to combat all changes that are thrown their way. 

Some goals of organizational change management include:

• Increasing ROI: Make worthwhile investments with the changes you implement using OCM tools. This lets you discern the viability of certain actions before implementing them using a competent OCM tool. This functionality elevates the chances of increasing your ROI significantly. 

• Morale building: OCM strategies help energize your employees to always keep them in the loop. 83% of workers suffering from change fatigue say their employer has not provided enough tools or resources to help them adapt. Such a significant part of your human resources experiencing burnout crisis can often lead to transformation failure. With proper OCM tools and strategies in place, you can easily involve and actively engage your employees in the transformation process. 

• Disruption minimization: With constant and unprecedented changes, your workflow can get easily disrupted. If you don’t have proper systems in place to effectively manage and issue tickets, coordinate relevant info among departments, and respond to end-user feedback, your team might be facing unmanageable periods of extreme stress and unproductivity. OCMs can help organize this by visualizing your workflow and minimizing the disruptions caused by changes by keeping everyone on the same page. 

• Establishing well-defined milestones: As changes begin to pile up, focus can shift from the primary goal of a project. Such digressions are not always useful. Having a visual focal point that your team can harken back to after resolving any issues and adapting to changes is a key aspect of OCM tools. 

Organizational change management strategy

An organizational change management strategy involves planning and implementing certain measures, tools, systems, and directives that support organizations when changes need to be rolled out on various levels. 

The OCM strategy needs to be able to mitigate risks and extract as much value as possible through change management efforts. 

A successful OCM involves the following steps:

1. Outline your objectives and strategic vision

2. Seek input and assess feedback 

3. Develop a well-structured roadmap

4. Consider potential challenges

5. Foster a clear and open communication plan

6. Prioritize comprehensive training to guarantee proficiency using certifications

Best practices of organizational change management

Planning out an OCM strategy can be challenging. However, you can make use of the following sure-fire practices to help you along the way:

• Assess and understand your company’s risk tolerance and formulate your plans accordingly. When it comes to OCM, there is no one-for-all solution. Understand your company’s culture, regulatory requirements, and other aspects so you can integrate them within the OCM strategy you choose to implement. 

• Keep pace with increasing employee and customer demands by utilizing automation and AI technology. You can propel the management process using data-driven insights from generative AI systems. Repetitive manual processes prone to human errors can also be mitigated by using automation. 

• Keep collaboration at the forefront by communicating your goals with your team and other stakeholders. Through seamless and unified comms lines, you can easily avoid the repetition of tasks and other redundancies. 

• Reconfigure your Change Advisory Board or CAB (comprises top members of an organization tasked with assessing, approving, and monitoring organizational changes) model to suit your particular business needs. You cannot be bogged down with slow and bureaucratic CAB processes. 

• Make it so that asking for CAB approvals is necessary for only the riskiest changes. Use OCM tools to make your CAB virtual and real-time. This allows you to avoid in-person meetings with long wait times. 

• Pick up familiar tools and applications that your development team is comfortable with and integrate these into the OCM tool of your choice.

Organizational change management and ITSM

Successful change is an integral part of Information Technology. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a series of practices designed to help companies deal with issues in IT service management. ITSM, within this library, is inextricably connected to OCM. It involves planning, producing, supplying, and managing the lifecycles of IT services. 

When applied in conjunction with ITSM, OCM plays a crucial role in navigating the human elements associated with implementing IT service management practices. 

OCM objectives can be aligned with ITSM initiatives to allow for optimized delivery, enhanced customer satisfaction, and technological adaptation. This synergy ensures that changes are not only technically sound but also embraced by employees, ultimately leading to a more agile and responsive organizational structure.

Examples of organizational change

The Society for HR Management lists changes in processes, changes in authority, and company restructuring as some of the most common organizational changes. That said, let us take a look at some examples.

Digital transformations and newer processes and programs

• Programs for organizational change management models are implemented when businesses adopt new technology, such as moving to the cloud or installing a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. 

• An instance of such a change would be introducing a digital signature requirement in all company documents and tabs.

New leadership

• A failing company will frequently cause disagreements among the senior management ranks. As things get desperate, changing leadership positions such as CEO, president, sales manager, or marketing manager often help implement fresh ideas and disrupt existing structures.

• Recently, the social platform Twitter has seen major leadership changes led by Elon Musk. A complete revamp of the principles of the platform followed suit, and the platform was even renamed as ‘X’.

Shuffling of departments or units

• Businesses reorganize their units to bring in more profits along with other benefits. For instance, a large company can put its marketing department in closer alignment with its sales division for better customer interaction. Restructuring may also occur when businesses deal with legislative changes that alter the course of corporate processes.

Implementing organizational change management in your organization

Your team must be prepared to tackle organizational changes at all times. A competent OCM tool can help you curb the negative impacts of change and refine your change rollout efficiency. 

Rely on Freshworks Freshservice, the best software in this department you can trust with your eyes closed. 

• Project visualization: Visualize the lifecycle of your projects from beginning to end. Perform checks in real-time and fulfill the requirements before moving on to the next stage of the development process. 

• Automation: Leverage Freshservice’s automation features to minimize time spent on repetitive manual jobs. 

• CAB remodelling: Make your CAB meetings hassle-free with the help of a virtual calendar that can be tracked by every member of your team. 

• Change calendar: Schedule your tasks, meetings, and changes for the day and share them with relevant team members.

• CAB portals: Set up portals for the board members to approve or reject changes based on their recommendations. 

• Post-implementation improvements: Monitor the changes you have implemented using Freshservice. You can review the post-implementation details to improve the project management and rollout process. 

• Employee service: Provide your employees with customer-grade service by combining the aforementioned utilities. 

• Unified and shared platform: Manage almost everything from alerts and tickets to workflow and assets, all on a singular unified platform.

• Integration capabilities: Integrate your team’s favorite apps into your Freshservice OCM, like MS Teams and Slack, while also availing useful Freshworks integrations like FreddyAI, Freddy AI Copilot, etc.