More common factors for managing successful change

By Elisabeth Goodman, 29th January 2016

APM events are a great opportunity for developing our professional knowledge

I led a seminar this week for the Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Branch members, as a member of the committee of the APM Enabling Change SIG and also as an independent change practitioner.

It was apparent from the level of discussion, and from the results of a poll at the end of the event, that many of the delegates had either started their journey in practising change management, or were already well experienced in it. So it was a great opportunity to learn from the knowledge within the room, as well as passing on some of my own, and of my committee colleagues’ knowledge.

We explored all types of change

We were exploring all types of change: organisational, IT, process-related, and others. I shared three of my own case studies, and also captured examples of some of the delegates’ own change programmes.

We identified more common factors for managing successful change

I had a starting list from a previous blog on common factors for managing successful change and adapted from those I use for RiverRhee Managing Change training and consulting activities. I’d added more factors to this list based on suggestions from my committee colleague Martin Taylor and from previous seminars that we have run together.

The delegates came up with an impressive list of their own suggestions.

Some additional insights on behavioural change, and on change agents

Although one of the suggestions for types of change included behavioural / cultural change, delegates recognized that in fact all changes require recognition and attention to behavioural change to be effective. I referenced “Influencer” as a book that focuses on this.

Delegates also highlighted the skills needed for change agents to be effective, and I mentioned that “Creating Contagious Commitment” had some useful insights on this topic.

(The links above are to: Why thinking in terms of burning platforms and tipping points is not enough to drive change – a blog that references both books.)

Closing thoughts

I have no doubt that there are more “common factors for managing successful change” to be identified.

Perhaps you would like to suggest some?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elisabeth Goodman is the Owner and Principal Consultant at RiverRhee Consulting, a consultancy that helps business teams and their managers to enhance their effectiveness for greater productivity and improved team morale. (We use coaching, training, facilitation, mentoring and consulting in our work with our clients.)

Elisabeth founded RiverRhee Consulting in 2009, and prior to that had 25+ years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry in line management and internal training and consultancy roles supporting Information Management and other business teams on a global basis. 

Elisabeth is accredited in Change Management, in Lean Sigma, in Belbin Team Roles, MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and is an NLP (NeuroLinguistic Programming) Practitioner.  

She is a member of CILIP (Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals) and of APM (Association for Project Management) where she leads the Internal Collaboration theme of the Enabling Change SIG committee.