I usually apply change management during “Agile Transformation”. Anywhere something needs to happen differently can benefit from change management.
There are a lot of change management models. I will be discussing the ones I have found particularly helpful.
I will focus on things that align well with Agile and Lean values. This doesn’t mean we will ignore topics that are misaligned with Agile and Lean.
What are the goals of Change Management?
• Change is adopted quickly and deeply.
• People are effective in new ways of working.
• New ways of working are suitable for the people in the organisation.
How to do change well
The way change is initiated and implemented has a profound effect on its overall success.
Things to try and avoid:
Try: Apply change management from the outset of a change initiative. Understand the context and apply appropriate principles. Things will go better than adding change and comms as an afterthought.
Try: Getting the people who will be affected by the change to co-design it.
Avoid: Thinking that change will just happen effectively because of the new tools, techniques and frameworks you are implementing. This may happen when the breadth of change is small. You may experience severe disinterest and resistance from the wider community when the breadth of change is large.
Thinking about making change more effective
Exercise
The following exercise is based on Triz from Liberating Structures. It’s simple, effective (and fun).
1. Think of the least effective way you could possibly introduce a change into your organisation.
- List all of the things that you would do to make the change really ineffective.
- How could you make it suck for your sponsors, stakeholders and colleagues?
- Use your imagination.
- Make it really nasty.I hope you have a good long list.
2. Think about the items on your list that your organisation already does. Think about the items that resemble things your organisation does. Tick them.
3. Identify actions that will allow you to stop doing the ticked items. Identify alternatives that will allow you to be more effective.
