Change Management Training Course - One Day

Here is the question with which we are concerning ourselves:

Since change is inevitable; how can we make change a positive experience?

Change is inevitable.

Change is being driven by the fact that the outside circumstances are always in a state of flux. Things keep changing. There are always economic, political, technological, social changes happening outside your organisation that require a response, inside your organisation.

In order to prosper, we must be progressive. We need to adapt, change, evolve and grow stronger.

How can we use change to our advantage?

We can use change to our advantage if we implement a structured, progressive and positive system of goal focused action, aimed at improving how we provide our products and services to our customers.

There are two kinds of change:

1. Change that is driven by yourself. You are acting on your own decisions.
2. Change that is not driven by yourself. You are acting according to unwanted outside circumstances.

Change that is not driven by yourself seems like Negative change.

Negative change is when you feel you have lost the initiative: You are acting according to someone else’s plan. Negative change is perceived as being imposed from the outside. Then, emotionally, people tend to react negatively. This “enforced change” is seen as a negative factor and generates feelings of anger, anxiety, fear and non-cooperation.

Change that is within your control seems like Positive change.

When the change is coming from within; you are acting according to your own plan. Positive change is perceived as the process of improvement: It is being driven by your own decision. Then, people tend to react more positively. This “self-motivated change” is seen as a positive factor that generates feelings of enthusiasm, motivation, determination and energy. And a greater sense of cooperation.

Your goal is to make external changes in circumstances, (what appears to be a negative factor), be the trigger for an internal, goal directed change in your internal organisation, (a positive factor.)

Change as part of a larger Success formula

Change is not to be seen in isolation. We need to put the concept of “Change” in context. Change is part of a larger context - the five-part Success formula.

The five-part success formula may be summed up in five words:
Purpose. Plan. Action. Feedback. Change.

1. Purpose – Is WHAT you want to achieve.
2. Plan – Is HOW you will achieve it.
3. Action – Is the Implementation of the plan.
4. Feedback – You need then to Check the results your actions are producing.
5. Change – Adaptions, alterations, modifications, and adjustments to the current plan.
6. Repeat - Continue until the goal is achieved.

Part 1 - State your purpose

Your purpose is to achieve goals you have set for yourself.

Write out your goals - your purpose. This represents an analysis of the direction of change required.

Eight Part SMART Targets

1. What is the goal in general terms?
2. What is the goal in numerical terms?
3. What is the goal in specifically defined terms?
4. What is are the measures you need to track.
5. What are the abilities you need to develop?
6. What are the resources you need to acquire?
7. What is the deadline for the goals achievement?
8. Is that deadline reasonable?

Part 2 - Planning

Change requires a detailed written plan.

Analysis is the act of breaking a large thing into its constituent parts. Analysis means breaking the big task into its constituent subtasks. Analysis of the steps that need to be taken and the resources required.

Organising: organising means working out the most effective logical sequence of tasks.

Mental Mapping Method

Mental Mapping is a method of representing information and ideas, in terms of their proper hierarchical nature. Mental Mapping is a great method for both analysis and organising the task. Practice using mapping technique to analyse, organise and plan.

Part 3: Emotional effects of change

The self-fulfilling prophecy - the attitude to the situation will affect the situation:
If the attitude is good, then the results will more likely be good.
If the attitude is bad, then the results will more likely be bad.

The implementation of the plan requires the team to have a good attitude towards the change process.

What emotional factors cause people to fail to implement a change process?

• Fear that the change will result in a worse future.
• Anger, bitterness, and resentment at the need to change.
• Head-in-the-sand syndrome. A desire to return to “the good old days” before the changes.
• “It’s not fair!” Non-cooperation.

Phase 4 - Feedback

The change plan will not work straight away. There will be problems and setbacks.

Some things go well. Some things do not go well.

This blend of good and bad results is what we call, “Feedback results”.

Feedback is the results that your current actions are producing.

We need to measure the feedback results.

• The gathering of feedback results.
• What is going well? Positive feedback.
• What is not going well? Negative feedback.
• What (Who?) are you comparing yourself to?
• What are we going to do about it?

Phase 5 - Change

In relation to the negative feedback, what adjustments and adaptive changes do we need to make to the plan?

All improvement imply change

Two forms of adaptive change

Adaptive change:

1. Evolutionary change. Take many, small, innocuous steps; incremental adjustments. Painless but slow.
2. Revolutionary change. Take one, big, courageous leap: incredible progress. It is Painful but sometimes necessary.
3. How to make revolutionary change look and feel like evolutionary change.

Personal action planning.

Summary of course

How to implement this knowledge?