Implementation and review

Burke (2002) reminds us that change is more like a loop rather than a straight line in that the process rarely goes as planned and that managers need to change track or fix things along the way. Therefore, feedback and reviews are essential at each step to monitor if the change plan is working.

It is essential to document a high-level overview of the change plan as well as an action plan that focuses on processes and people.

Process

Process refers to the technical aspects of the change. What resources and activities are needed to start the implementation process? For example:

• Will there need to be a new organisational structure?
• Will policies need to be changed or updated?
• What sort of processes might be impacted?

Read more about the change management process in the article What is change management and how does it work? by Procsci Incorporated, and watch the embedded video to find out more about the process and people considerations to implement change and its link to the ADKAR model.

People

It is easy to forget that people are affected by any change. Many change initiatives fail because attention is placed on the process and the technical aspects, and little attention or reference is made to the people side. It is essential to understand how people react to change so that leaders and managers can support people through any change.

Things that need to be considered:

• What relationship will change?
• How will this impact organisational culture?
• Who are the stakeholders, and what are their needs?
• What information might they need?
• Will roles change?
• What are the new behaviours that are required?

Leaders and managers must be able to empathise with people, promote trust, communicate, empower and support their stakeholders through the change process and plan.

This can be linked to models of change discussed in section 1.2, in particular, Kotter (1990) and Scott and Jaffe (1988). This model focuses on resistance to change and how people react to the change rather than the change itself. Creating a vision and then motivating and communicating that vision to others will affect how people react and the level of resistance to that change.

Higgs and Rowland (2000) built on Kotter’s work (1990) and identified five behaviours linked to successful change:

1. Developing a case for change
2. Understanding the issues for change and basing the change on these
3. Building commitment by engaging others
4. Planning and monitoring practices
5. Enabling and developing the capacity of people involved in the change

Therefore, it is important to make sure that change plans incorporate these aspects.

Read 10 principles of leading change management by DeAnne Aguirre and Micah Alpern and watch the video to better understand how to lead change culture in an organisation.

Watch the YouTube How to Lead Change Management by StrategyandBusiness to learn techniques to lead change.

Organisational behaviour and the impact on teams and individuals

Consider the changes that have occurred in your organisation. The organisation's culture of communication, teamwork, embracing or resisting change, striving to perform and being highly motivated and adaptable are all indicators of organisational behaviour.

As a leader, you must analyse the culture and team cohesiveness. Individuals resistant to change or less adaptable may need more time, support and information. Change imposed on these teams without consultation and involvement will likely be resentful, and the team morale will be negatively impacted.

Read A quick guide to organisational behaviour and change management by walkme the change management blog, to learn more about organisational behaviour.

You may wish to consolidate all your information into a document that outlines your case for change. It can help you identify gaps in your research and prepare you to have a strong case for change. 

The first step in creating a change management strategy or plan is identifying the organisational objectives. 

When establishing the change management strategy, you must create: 

• Clear goals, for example, boost brand awareness, more website hits
• Choose KPIs to track your performance against the plans.  

Read the article Create a Business Case for Change Management by Prosci to learn how to create a business case for change management. 

An example of a case for change is provided in the article Example Business Case for Enterprise Change Management by Prosci.  

The below assessment of the above case study has been adapted from: Change Management Toolkit. 

The change management strategy outlines the case for change, and an action plan is used to plan and implement the change objective. 

An action plan will list:

• the activities (tasks to be completed)
• responsibilities
• resources
• timeframes

Depending on the complexity of the activity, it may also include a detailed schedule for each activity. 

An action plan is a list of tasks that need to be completed and should be developed with the team to ensure everyone agrees and understands the tasks. 

To create an action plan, think about the following:

• What tasks need to be completed?
• What are the major steps that need to be followed?
• In which order should the steps be completed?
• How long will it take to complete each step?
• Who else needs to be involved? 
• What materials or resources are required?
• What is the deadline for the job?
• Are there any significant risks if tasks are not finished in time?

Action plan example

This is an example of an action plan template.

Document each team member's role, responsibilities and reporting relationships. It is also important to consider approval processes, including who has the delegation to make decisions and when approval is required.   

Review 16 of the best task management tools for getting more done by Walker Donohue to look at tools to help you manage tasks within your organisation. 

For change to be successful, you must proactively communicate with all stakeholders. Effective communication will help stakeholders accept and adopt change. Open communication helps to reduce anxiety and build trust. The goal of a communication plan is to keep people informed, committed to change and to seek feedback. Different stakeholders will need different types of information and messages because they have varied interests in the change. For example, the communication needs of a Board of Directors will be very different to a team of workers. You must consider the audience, the message and the delivery method. Regarding the message, you will need to consider the purpose of the communication – is it to inform, seek feedback, gain understanding or approval, or explore resistance?

Determine the best way to communicate the organisation’s mission and goals by conducting a needs assessment to identify: 

Purpose of the communication

• What level of detail and information do teams, individuals, the board and other stakeholders need to know?
• Consider ‘what’s in it for them?’  Think about the receiver’s perspective. What are the benefits to them, and what information is essential to them? 

The receiver of the message – consider who you are communicating to, their characteristics and how you will need to adjust the way you communicate. Consider team and individual characteristics such as: 

• Experience in the organisation or other organisations
• Previous education
• Existing skills and knowledge
• Age
• Gender
• Cultural backgrounds
• Language, literacy and numeracy levels:
  • Employees with language, literacy, and numeracy difficulties may prefer oral information, presentations, discussions, posters, diagrams, and flow charts. 
  • Employees with high levels of language, literacy and numeracy skills are more likely to be independent learners. These employees may prefer to complete online programs, read manuals and conduct research about the organisation online. 
• Learning style preferences. Consider the ways your learners will best process and learn information. For example,  
  • Visual Learners learn best from:
    • Seeing and looking
    • Illustrations, posters, flow charts, diagrams and use of colour
    • Posters, handouts, brochures and presentations
  • Auditory learners learn best from:
    • Hearing and listening
    • Discussions, lectures, listening to audio
    • A variety of tone, rate, pitch, volume, music and slogans
  • Kinaesthetic learners learn best from:
    • Touching and doing
    • Activities, hands-on work, role-plays, note-taking
    • Having regular breaks to move around

Medium of communication

Consider which channel of communication you will use to communicate to staff by asking: 

• Which is the best medium to communicate to the target audience? 
• Should you use several forms of media?
• Communication mediums including print, online, audio, online training, presentations, one-on-one discussions, group discussions, organisational presentations, policies and procedures, induction manuals, strategic plans, and mission statements. 

Check with managers, the human resource team, recruitment officers and the individuals and groups that you need to communicate about the media and language that will meet the needs of individuals and groups. 

A communication plan will formally document: 

• Who needs to be consulted?
• What information needs to be communicated? 
• How will you communicate? And
• Frequency of the communication

Communication plan example

Read 7 best practices in change management communication by Khadim Batti, whatfix to about best practices in change management. 

Review 7 free change management plan templates (2023) to see examples of change management templates.

Training is a tool used to build skills and capacity and is an integral part of any change management plan. Any organisational change will need to be supported with some training to help adopt change and minimise resistance. It is important to document what you want to achieve in terms of training in a formal training plan. 

You will need to consult with the relevant stakeholders to determine:

• What are the gaps in training? 
• Who needs to be involved, and what is the best method of training? 
• What are you trying to achieve with the training? 

You could conduct a training needs analysis to help identify training needs. A training needs analysis is a review of the learning and development needs within an organisation. It looks at the skills, knowledge and behaviours people need to do their work.

It consists of identifying the skill sets people need to do their jobs by evaluating the current skill level of each team member in relation to the required skills. Once you have completed this, you can see any skills gaps and then decide on the training needed to help to close that gap.

A skills matrix can help you to identify what skills are needed for a job and what skills team members currently have.

Without a training needs analysis, you cannot understand what training is needed and who needs the training. You can then review the training plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the training and if the outcomes were achieved.  

Read How to conduct a training needs analysis: a template & example by AIHR. 

Watch the YouTube Reskilling the Workforce & Investing in Innovation|Filip Moriau and Erik van Vulpen to find out more about the relevance of reskilling the workforce and investing in innovation. 

Watch the YouTube 6 steps to conducting a training needs analysis and assessment by eLeaP to learn more about the steps to conducting a training needs analysis and assessment to meet your organisation’s needs.

Training plan example:

To evaluate the change management strategy, you must assess the communication or education plan performance against objectives. 

Evaluate the change management strategy by checking:

• all tasks were completed according to the plan
• the outcomes of all tasks met organisational objectives
• stakeholder satisfaction with communication, training plan and change process.

The success of the project can be determined if the objectives were achieved. These may be identified in key performance indicators, performance improvements, return on investment and team morale improvements.

Systems used to measure the achievement of change objectives include: 

• Customer and marketing databases
• Customer feedback systems
• Complaints register
• Sales systems
• Spreadsheet
• Financial management systems
• Inventory records
• Human resource performance management/feedback systems
• Employee feedback
• Observations

It is important that you review and monitor your change plan. By assessing your plan, you will be able to take any corrective actions in a timely manner. 

This can be done by gathering feedback from stakeholders, including users, looking at results against Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and using tools such as Gantt charts or the balanced scorecard. 

When monitoring a plan, you must first decide what needs to be monitored. Assess the outcome of the change initiative against the objectives that were set at the beginning of the process. Does the change support the company vision? Is the change achieving the objectives set at the beginning of the change process? Then compare what is happening to what should be happening. If the change is not meeting objectives, you must make adjustments as necessary. Any plan needs review and feedback – if the change is not working, action must be taken. 

The balanced scorecard developed by Kaplan and Norton (1996) can be a useful tool to review and monitor how a change initiative is performing against organisational objectives. 

The scorecard is based on four measures:

• Financial analysis
• Customer analysis
• Internal business processes
• Learning and growth

Read the article What is a balanced scorecard, how it is used in business by Evan Tarver and watch the video in the link. Duration: 1:30

These can all be documented at the beginning of the change process and then reviewed after implementation to measure performance. 

Feedback is a great source to aid in monitoring and reviewing the change initiative. Surveys, focus groups and meetings between stakeholders that are connected to the change can gain valuable insights into the change initiative. 

Embedding and reinforcing the change is the last step in change management, but often it is not given much focus, as managers tend to move on to the next project. Monitor any change plan to see if the change has been successfully adopted and is working. 

Strategies to embed and reinforce change can include:

• Rewards and recognition
• Feedback from stakeholders
• Review and corrective actions
• Role modelling from management in the adoption of strategies

If change is not embedded into an organisation, it may only be short-lived. Lewin (1951) refers to this in the 3-step model of change (unfreezing, changing, refreezing). Within this model, refreezing involves embedding the process and the behaviours into the organisation. Kotter (1995) discusses ways that managers and leaders can embed change through: 

• Providing feedback to stakeholders on how the change is working and making a difference
• Keeping the knowledge of the change alive through communication 
• Making it sustainable. This is important as managers can leave organisations, and the momentum or support may be lost.

Looking at Kotter’s change model (1995) is a great way to help embed change – if any of the steps are missed in the change plan, then change can fail. Reviewing and checking that you have successfully planned and implemented each step gives you a higher chance of successful change. For example, if the vision has not been communicated, people could be unclear about the change and why it is important. This may lead them to revert to their previous ways and not adopt the “new” way of doing things.