As a People Strategist and Change Management and Organizational Development (OD) practitioner I often get asked by leaders, what does change management really mean? How is it different than OD/OE? Why are these things important to my business? How are they alike and how are they different? And how can they help me create a high-performance organization?
Well…let me explain the executive summary (OK well the sort of executive summary)…
“If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.” – Kurt Lewin
What is change management?
The definition of change management varies. Many exist, some simple, some complex. I’ll refrain from getting overly scholarly (you’re welcome). I’ll synopsize for the busy executive.
Change management can be defined as a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It can be applied to situations such as downsizing, growing organizations, or even adding new people or technology. It is an organizational process aimed at helping employees to understand, commit to, and accept and embrace changes in their current business environment. A part of change management is also managing transition. And though related, change and transition are not the same thing. Some definitions go even further to define differences between change management and change leadership. In my 20 plus years of experience, I see them interrelated. Many, many, many change management frameworks and methodologies exist. But not so many focused on transition. I find it helpful to have a mix of tools that focus on both change and transition in my tool kit to pull from when customizing work for clients. That said, both change and transition must be addressed for success.
Why is change management important and how can it help your business succeed?
- Improve the employee experience
- Increase employee performance
- Positive customer experience
- Increase engagement
- Minimize resistance
- Enhance innovation
- Reduce costs
What would you add to the list?
So, if changes are occurring in your organization – strategic changes, tactical changes, leadership changes, technology changes – then those changes are going to have impacts and effects on your people, processes, and performance. To help minimize those impacts and effects, from having unintended negative outcomes, it is necessary to have “change management” and transition methodologies in place with skilled resources delivering and executing on those methodologies. This helps to minimize possible negative outcomes and increase positive results. Change itself is a process – managing it, leading it, achieving it is also a process. And one that should not be viewed and managed with a one size fits all approach. Approaches and actions should be customized to fit your organizational culture and circumstances.
My take – I view change management and transition methodologies as just one of many tools in a toolkit used to help achieve positive organizational improvements.
Organizational Development Services
What is Organizational Development?
The definition of Organizational Development (OD) varies even more than that of Change Management. Again, many exist, some simple, some complex. And again, I’ll refrain from getting overly scholarly (you’re welcome). For the busy executive, OD is basically the application of tools, methods, frameworks, technologies, and processes to make your entire organization (yes, that includes people!) more productive, innovative, and profitable. OD is an ongoing, systematic process of implementing positive and effective organizational changes. Organizational development is known as both a field of applied behavioral science and as a field of scientific study and inquiry. It is interdisciplinary in nature and draws on many other disciplines such as sociology, psychology, communication, cultural anthropology organizational behavior, economics, political science, neuroleadership and theories of motivation, learning, and personality. In short, change management (and all the change management certifications one can get these days) is just one part of OD.
Why should you consider OD initiatives to support your organization in achieving desired outcomes?
“…Think of an organization as all the clothes hanging on a clothesline. All parts are connected. If you pull on the socks the towels move…” – Arthur Friedman
One of the distinguishing characteristics of OD is that it is based on collaboration and a “helping relationship.” OD takes a total system view — the organization as a whole, including its relevant subsystems in the context of the total system. Thus, OD interventions and improvement strategies, including change and transition, can focus on the whole system or on multiple levels of the system such as groups, teams, and individuals. OD interventions should be clearly tied to strategic goals and objectives. Parts of systems are not and considered in isolation; the principle of interdependency, that is, that changes in one part of a system affect the other parts, is fully recognized. These interventions and improvement strategies can focus on various initiatives within the organization such as communications, strategy, culture, and process as well as change and transition.
So, why should you care about these things?
Well, you want to be successful, don’t you? Isn’t that why you take on organizational improvement efforts to begin with – to innovate, to reinvigorate, to become even better – to increase performance. To prevent your organization from potentially failing before you even start, understanding and skillfully executing various principles of change management and OD are a necessity to success!
About Scott Span, MSOD, CSM: is CEO at Tolero Solutions. As a people strategist, leadership coach, and change and transformation specialist, his work is focused on people. Through his consulting and training work he supports clients to survive and thrive through change and transition and create people-focused cultures and a great employee experience. Through his coaching work, he supports people willing to dig deeper to identify and overcome what’s holding them back, change behaviors, accelerate performance and achieve their goals.
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*All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, publication, and all other use of any and all of this content is prohibited without the authorized consent of Tolero Solutions and the author.
*All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, publication, and all other use of any and all of this content is prohibited without authorized consent of Tolero Solutions and the author.
