We all recognise the importance of change and maintaining a competitive advantage. Innovation leads to new ideas. Change leads to doing things better. Transformation leads to doing different things. So, with so much uncertainty in the UK and global economy, are we changing fast enough? Change is fast becoming the third constant alongside death and taxes. Read on as we ask if a lack of change management resource is hampering business growth.
Change management
Change management is defined as the control and guidance over organisational or business development. Since change is always assumed to be for the better, let’s reframe this. Change management is the enabler of organisational or business improvement. Any change may involve your people, processes, systems and partners. It also comes with cost, either in terms of resources deployed from within the organisation or cash to invest. A small change could be streamlining a process, a large transformation could impact the entire organisation. Broadly speaking, the higher the stakes, the wiser the decision to deploy change management to ensure success.
Successful change and transformation
The most commonly quoted rate of success for change programmes is 30%. However, a much more recent study discovered that only 22% of change projects are successful. If we also consider that some change is not classified as transformation because we are simply doing what we do today but better, we suspect the ratio is even less. So, what are the primary reasons that some change and transformation programmes succeed? Firstly, if your people understand why the change is happening, you have won part of the battle. Secondly, if you truly understand the complexity of a change and the organisational capability at your disposal, you may commit to less projects. Thirdly, if you have change management or project resource available, it increases the focus on the outcome(s).
Lack of change management
Given the complexity of operating a business, particularly for those exceeding 250 staff, change is a necessity. For leaders, if you are committing to invest in change, you expect success. As a result, many large organisations have project management offices (PMOs) or dedicated transformation functions. Despite this, some large businesses have too few people to service the rate of change and involve large consultancy firms. Many small to medium-sized enterprises don’t have such resource or funds to spend externally. Additionally, SMEs often work at a people intensity that does not allow for a significant reallocation of internal time to support change. So, is this one of the areas in which SMEs are hampered when it comes to business growth?
Skills for managing change
Arguably, change management is simply a governance framework to ensure that changes happen as per the directive from senior management. In truth, the skills required depend on the complexity, scale and duration of the programme or project. With a busy organisation and lots of competing priorities for time, keeping on top of BAU is a challenge. Great organisation and communication skills are a must for managing change. The ability to utilise and deploy the tools of project management are a boon to keep things on track and identify any risks. Similarly, experience with programme governance and management of senior stakeholders is also important. After all, sponsorship is key for larger changes and transformation. With dedicated support for change management, organisations have a higher chance of delivering a successful change. It should be noted that digital transformations require particular attention where they impact across an organisation, such as a new ERP or the shift to a new industry.
You can read some more about change programmes involving digital solutions in a recent article.
Changing fortunes
We recently had a discussion with a senior leader who was confident that all of the possible ‘big bets’ had been delivered. This usually means delivering 1-2 large-scale programmes per year, which may be manageable with a small leadership team. However, once the ‘big bets’ or ‘low hanging fruit’ have gone, the game turns into the sum of marginal gains. Furthermore, the lack of large projects potentially means a much larger number of smaller projects. This increases the governance demands to maintain control and ensure success. In essence, it may be much harder to manage 100 small projects versus 1 or 2 bigger bets. It is little wonder why time poor management teams focus on 1 or 2 big changes. Ultimately, even some larger organisations may benefit from localised change management support to continue changing their fortunes. This could involve multiple consultancies or sub-contractors operating independently.
Similarly, SMEs don’t need to be left behind. Management consultants or change management professionals can be drafted in to deliver specific projects. As you would expect, these people need some of the time and knowledge of internal people, but at least the change is managed effectively and with 100% focus. This enables leaders to conduct more change, faster.
Thinking about supporting change
Here at Think Beyond, we offer a range of transformation services to make your change projects a success. With experience across SMEs, corporates and blue-chips, we can help make your outcome meet your directive. Our approach to change is to bring your people on a journey and make sure that your processes, systems and partners support them. We also keep you informed as often or as little as you like as we work towards completion.
If you would like to make your project successful, call us now on 01565 632206. Alternatively, why not email us on sales@think-beyond.co.uk or request a call back online. We support businesses to overcome a lack of change management resource and skills.
Finally, check out a related article on innovation in business that leads to change.