flevyblog

Flevy Blog is an online business magazine covering Business Strategies, Business Theories, & Business Stories.
MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP STRATEGY, MARKETING, SALES OPERATIONS & SUPPLY CHAIN ORGANIZATION & CHANGE IT/MIS Other

The Art of Managing Change, in Personal and Business Life

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, A Comprehensive Guide to Change Management (586-slide PowerPoint presentation). This "new and improved" A Comprehensive Guide to Change Management,, which replaces my previous "best seller" of the same name, contains everything (well nearly everything) you would ever want to know about Change Management. This slide-deck now contains over 580 slides [read more]

Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Change Management, take a look at Flevy's Change Management Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.

* * * *

Change is the only constant.  – Heraclitus, c. 535 – 475 BC

We live in a world of change. Everyday brings new experiences and new things into our lives. Most of them pass without notice, some are more important, and some are even monumental. Maybe we take a different route to work in the morning… no big deal. Maybe a wife gives birth to a baby boy or girl… very big deal. Neither of these events cause us to panic or hyperventilate, they are just “things that happen,” normal changes in our lives.

Change is one of the biggest fears in our lives, ranking right up there with public speaking, dying, moving to a new home, or starting a new job. But in perhaps 99% of all changes that happen to us–there is nothing to be afraid of! All of us have the tools and skill to do everything necessary to manage change and make the changes happen successfully.
8521577104_0aa8e40635

Here’s a 4-step approach to managing change in your personal and business life:

  1. Understand what the change is and how it affects you and the employees you manage
  2. Communicate exactly what the change is and how it affects the people in your sphere
  3. Make a plan and explain what you and your people have to do to make it happen
  4. Do the things that make the change happen. This sounds simple, but it takes planning, time, and effort to make it work.

To demonstrate how this method works, let’s take an example, a new “Performance Planning and Evaluation System” at your company? This is a major change for most employees. Their performance is going to be measured in a different way, and their promotions and raises will be based on a new set of criteria. That could be monumental for some employees. How do you handle this situation? Let’s follow the four steps.

1. First, you, yourself, must understand what the change really means.

What is different from the old system, what is new in the new system. You need to learn what performance planning is and how to do it. You must also understand the company’s criteria for evaluating employee performance and measuring success. And finally, you must learn how to deliver a performance review.

2. You tell your employees how it affects them, explain to your group what the new system is and what it means to them.

If you think about it, in this particular example, nothing except the process actually changes at all. Good employees get recognized for their contributions and rewarded accordingly (maybe even more quickly). Less valuable employees still get recognized and suffer the same consequences (maybe even more quickly). You explain what a “performance plan” is and how to make one. You explain exactly what a “performance review” is and how you prepare for and give one. Maybe you can demonstrate a typical review with an example employee.

3. Then you make a plan of what needs to be done to make this change.

This is a list of actions for you and your people to accomplish. For this example, your plan might consist of five steps.

  1. You conduct a workshop or exercise to teach employees how to prepare a performance plan.
  2. You work with each employee to prepare a “performance plan” (i.e., the list of his/her job responsibilities and current and foreseeable task assignments). This is the “performance planning” process.
  3. You make a schedule of performance reviews.
  4. You prepare the performance review for each employee.
  5. You conduct your employee reviews by the schedule you prepared in Step 3.

4. You follow the plan and complete the change.

In this example, you start by conducting the workshop and giving your employees time to make their “performance plans.” You meet with employees to discuss and approve those performance plans. You prepare each employee’s evaluation and you conduct the performance reviews according to your schedule.

Change is inevitable, but all change is manageable. To manage change, you must recognize it, accept it, make a plan to deal with it, and then execute your plan. What you really need to do is break the change down into manageable steps, communicate these steps to your employees, and follow your plan to complete the steps.

Overcoming the fear of change itself is probably the most important step in the process of dealing with change and perhaps the most difficult. I offer a couple of suggestions: 1) understand that change itself cannot be avoided; it is going to happen… accept it; 2) when change does happen, determine how it affects you, if it helps or hurts you. If it helps you, rejoice and enjoy it!!! If it hurts, first you must stay calm, don’t panic. Then figure out what you can do to make the change as easy as possible and how to deal with the hurt.

Understanding change, knowing what is happening is key to accepting and dealing with change. The more you know, the easier it is for you to deal with change. The more your employees know about the change and your plans for dealing with it, the easier it will be for them to accept it and deal with it.

I also offer the following quotes that may help you deal with the fear of change.

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” – John Wooden

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” – Ambrose Redmoon

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all.” – Meg Cabot

“Fearless is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.” – Taylor Swift

NOTE: The first sentence of Meg Cabot’s quote about courage should probably be attributed to Ambrose Redmoon. However, I included the quote because the second sentence is significant in its own right. To paraphrase her thought with respect to this article, “Those who accept change will live forever; those who refuse to change cannot live at all. “

20-slide PowerPoint presentation
This document contains 6 frame Change Management frameworks that deal with the "soft" side of managing effective organizational change: 1. Dimensions of Change 2. Emotional Cycle of Change 3. Ingredients of Change 4. Level of Commitment 5. Phases of Team Building 6. Trust [read more]

Want to Achieve Excellence in Change Management?

Gain the knowledge and develop the expertise to become an expert in Change Management. Our frameworks are based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. Click here for full details.

"The only constant in life is change." – Heraclitus

Such is true for life, as it is for business. The entire ecosystem our organization operates in—our customers, competitors, suppliers, partners, the company itself, etc.—is constantly changing and evolving. Change can be driven by emerging technology, regulation, leadership change, crisis, changing consumer behavior, new business entrants, M&A activity, organizational restructuring, and so forth.

Thus, the understanding of, dealing with, and mastery of the Change Management process is one of the most critical capabilities for our organization to develop. Excellence in Change Management should be viewed as a source of Competitive Advantage.

Learn about our Change Management Best Practice Frameworks here.

Readers of This Article Are Interested in These Resources


32-slide PowerPoint presentation
Change Management Process is essential Process in Service Transition. Process is contained in ITSM best practices. Document describes the process in detail including Process flow, key definitions, process roles, CSFs, KPIs, Risks and Challenges. This comprehensive PPT on Change Management [read more]


 
73-slide PowerPoint presentation
 
 
20-slide PowerPoint presentation

About Shelley Horwitz

Shelley Horwitz is an executive, speaker, and professor with 35 years of experience in the computer industry across a number of roles, including programmer, business owner, and consultant. He has developed and managed development of systems for several companies. Shelly has authored more than 250 major reports spanning the entire data processing spectrum. You can visit his website here and connect with him on LinkedIn here.

, , , , , , ,



Complimentary Business Training Guides


Many companies develop robust strategies, but struggle with operationalizing their strategies into implementable steps. This presentation from flevy introduces 12 powerful business frameworks spanning both Strategy Development and Strategy Execution. [Learn more]

  This 48-page whitepaper, authored by consultancy Envisioning, provides the frameworks, tools, and insights needed to manage serious Change—under the backdrop of the business lifecycle. These lifecycle stages are each marked by distinct attributes, challenges, and behaviors. [Learn more]

We've developed a very comprehensive collection of Strategy & Transformation PowerPoint templates for you to use in your own business presentations, spanning topics from Growth Strategy to Brand Development to Innovation to Customer Experience to Strategic Management. [Learn more]

  We have compiled a collection of 10 Lean Six Sigma templates (Excel) and Operational Excellence guides (PowerPoint) by a multitude of LSS experts. These tools cover topics including 8 Disciplines (8D), 5 Why's, 7 Wastes, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), and DMAIC. [Learn more]
Recent Articles by Corporate Function

  

  

  

  

  

The Flevy Business Blog (https://flevy.com/blog) is a leading source of information on business strategies, business theories, and business stories. Most of our articles are authored by management consultants and industry executives with over 20 years of experience.

Flevy (https://flevy.com) is the marketplace for business best practices, such as management frameworks, presentation templates, and financial models. Our best practice documents are of the same caliber as those produced by top-tier consulting firms (like McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, BCG, and Deloitte) and used by Fortune 100 organizations. Learn more about Flevy here.
  


OUR CORE OFFERINGS
Flevy Marketplace: Top 100
· Strategy & Transformation
· Digital Transformation
· Operational Excellence
· Organization & Change
· Financial Models
· Consulting Frameworks
· PowerPoint Templates
FlevyPro (Subscription Service)
KPI Library
Streams (Functional Bundles)
Flevy Executive Learning (FEL)
PowerPoint Services

FREE Resources

About Flevy
Management Topics
Marcus (AI-Powered Consultant)
Partner Program
LinkedIn Influencer Marketing
FAQ / Terms / Privacy / Blog
Contact Us: support@flevy.com



CONNECT WITH US!
       
TOP 100 TRENDING TOPICS
Acquisition Strategy
Agile
Analytics
Artificial Intelligence
Balanced Scorecard
Best Practices
Big Data
Breakout Strategy
Business Continuity Planning
Business Plan Financial Model
Business Transformation
CMMI
COBIT
Change Management
Cloud
Communications Strategy
Company Financial Model
Competitive Advantage
Competitive Analysis
Consulting Frameworks
Continuous Improvement
Core Competencies
Corporate Culture
Cost Reduction Assessment
Customer Experience

BROWSE BY FUNCTION
Strategy, Transformation, & Innovation
Digital Transformation
Operational Excellence and LSS
Organization, Change, & HR
Management Consulting

Customer Journey
Customer Service
Cyber Security
Data Privacy
Decision Making
Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation Strategy
Due Diligence
ESG
Employee Engagement
Employee Training
Enterprise Architecture
Growth Strategy
HR Strategy
Hiring
Hoshin Kanri
ISO 27001
ITIL
Information Technology
Innovation Management
Integrated Financial Model
Kaizen
Kanban
Key Performance Indicators

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Business Strategy Frameworks
Case Studies
Consulting Training Guides
COVID-19 Trend Data
Digital Transformation
Financial Advising Services (FAS)

Knowledge Management
Leadership
Lean
Lean Manufacturing
Logistics
M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions)
Manufacturing
Market Research
Marketing Plan Development
Maturity Model
McKinsey PowerPoint
McKinsey Templates
Operational Excellence
Organizational Change
Organizational Design
Performance Management
Post-merger Integration
Pricing Strategy
Process Improvement
Process Maps
Procurement Strategy
Product Launch Strategy
Product Strategy
Project Management
Quality Management


Free Resources
KPI Library
Lean Management
Lean Six Sigma Training Guides
Marcus Insights
Operational Excellence

Real Estate
Remote Work
Restructuring
Risk Management
Robotic Process Automation
SWOT
SaaS
Sales
Scrum
Service Design
Six Sigma Project
Social Media Strategy
Strategic Planning
Strategic Thinking
Strategy Development
Supply Chain Analysis
Sustainability
Target Operating Model
Team Management
Total Productive Maintenance
Value Chain Analysis
Value Creation
Value Stream Mapping
Visual Workplace
Workplace Safety


Product Strategy
Small Business Owner
Startup Resources
Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning Process
Value Innovation Strategy


© 2012-2024 Copyright. Flevy LLC. All Rights Reserved.