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For your business to survive it will need to evolve. For it to evolve, you need to make changes. Without a change management model, the success of those changes is up to nothing more than hope and dumb luck. I’ve already gone over how to form your own change management strategy, so for this post, I’ll outline everything you need to know about 8 proven change management models that will put your organization at the top of the food chain: Let’s get started! Lewin’s change management modelLewin’s model is one of the most popular approaches, and it’s easy to see why. By splitting the change process into three stages you can break a large, unwieldy shift into bitesize chunks which account for both the processes and people in your company. Lewin describes three stages of change management:
Unfreeze your process and perceptions“Unfreezing” means analyzing every step of your process to look for potential improvements. It also applies to your organization’s perception of the process, potential changes, and any resistance that might pop up. By doing this you’re helping to eliminate any existing bias and commonly accepted mistakes. This gives you the perspective you need to change the cause of your problems, rather than just the symptoms. Make your changes“Learning is more effective when it’s an active rather than a passive process.” – Kurt Lewin Once you’ve prepared everyone, it’s time to deploy your changes and guide the team as they adapt. For this step to be successful, you need to focus on three vital areas:
Refreeze the new status quoOnce your changes have been deployed, measured, and tweaked according to feedback, you need to “refreeze” your new status quo. This is vital to any change management model – everything you’ve done is pointless if old habits resurface. If you’ve listened to (and applied) feedback then this stage will be a little easier, since your employees will be more invested in the changes. Your work isn’t finished, though. You still need to conduct regular reviews to make sure the new methods are being followed, are effective, and whether or not they need to be updated again. It can take time for new policies to become a habit, so continuously check in on how your employees are handling the change. Lewin’s Change Management Model Process Checklist
The McKinsey 7-S model
The McKinsey 7-S model is great for analyzing how coherent your company is. If you know that you need to change your act, but you’re not sure what to do, this is the change management model for you. By analyzing the following seven aspects of your company and how they affect each other, you will highlight the changes you need to make to create a united approach to business:
By analyzing each of these seven aspects, you’ll gain a clear picture of how they apply to your organization and how they relate to each other. Every aspect needs to support the other six. If you find one that doesn’t, that’s the area you need to look at for potential improvements. ⏩ Click here for a preview of the McKinsey 7-S Change Management Model Checklist Proce workflowClick here to add this workflow to your free Process Street account! Kotter’s theory: Coaching people through change
Kotter’s theory is the first in this list to focus less on the change itself and more on the people behind it (albeit from a top-down point of view). By inspiring a sense of urgency for change and maintaining that momentum, Kotter’s theory can be used to great effect in adapting your business to the current climate. “Leaders establish the vision for the future and set the strategy for getting there.” – Dr. John Kotter Kotter’s theory works by:
Click here to add this workflow to your free Process Street account! The “Nudge” theory of change managementNudge theory is more of a mindset than a set change management model. The basic theory is that “nudging” change along is much more effective than trying to enforce it in a traditional sense. According to Businessballs, effective nudges are:
The basic principles you need to follow when nudging changes are:
Click here to add this workflow to your free Process Street account! The 5 goals ADKAR for successful change managementCreated by Jeffery Hiatt (founder of Prosci), the ADKAR change management model is a bottom-up method that focuses on the individuals behind the change. Rather than being a sequential method, ADKAR is a set of goals to reach (with each letter of the acronym representing one of these goals). By focusing on achieving the following five goals, the ADKAR model can be used to effectively plan out change on both an individual and organizational level:
Click here to add this workflow to your free Process Street account! Bridges’ transition modelCreated in 1991 by William Bridges, this change management model focuses on transition rather than change. While that might seem pedantic, it alters the entire way that change management is approached. “Nothing so undermines organizational change as the failure to think through the losses people face.” – William Bridges I mentioned earlier that the uncertainty of change causes anxiety; as a result, change can often feel intrusive. People perceive it as happening to them rather than something they’re actively involved in. A transition, on the other hand, implies a gradual adjustment. It’s a planned journal rather than a radical shift. This approach allows employees to process the emotions they feel about the change and feel more prepared for any new expectations of them. It does this by detailing three stages of transition, each of which the employee must be guided through for the change to be successful:
Click here to add this workflow to your free Process Street account! The Kübler-Ross change curveElisabeth Kübler-Ross was a psychiatrist who detailed the five stages of grief in her book, On Death & Dying. It may seem odd to talk about grief in terms of a change management model, but it actually makes a lot of sense. Grief isn’t always a dramatic event. Think about the last time a favorite product was discontinued or an app updated its UI. Your response likely followed the Kübler-Ross model of the stages of grief – albeit probably on a much more subtle level. Change always requires a loss of some sort, and your employees will have an emotional reaction to that loss. Understanding how people process those emotions will enable you to prepare your response in advance. The five stages of the are: Kübler-Ross change curve are:
If you’re still not convinced this model can help, let’s go back to the updated app.
(It’s quickly worth noting that people can move through the stages in a random order, and they can jump backward or repeat stages, too.) Click here to add this workflow to your free Process Street account! The Satir change management modelThe Satir change model is similar in some ways to the Kübler-Ross curve, but it focuses more on performance during the change. In this sense, it’s a way of predicting and tracking the effect of changes on overall performance. Satir’s change management model is made up of five stages:
Also, before diving into the final change management model, note that the Satir model focuses on tracking rather than affecting performance. Without using a supporting model to tackle these negative effects, you’re left with little more than a way to measure the effect of your change. This isn’t always a bad thing, but keep it in mind when looking for a method to actively support your changes. Unlike most other change management models, the Satir model also provides an easy way to analyze the impact of your changes at a glance (by producing a graph based on your ongoing performance). Not only that, but it makes it easy to compare the effects of various changes you have made and provide a measure of your business’ progression. ⏩ Click here for a preview of the Satir Change Management Model Process Checklist workflowClick here to add this workflow to your free Process Street account! Use Process Street to manage change in your businessChoosing the right change management model might seem overwhelming at first, but using a solid framework to deploy your changes is crucial to a business’ successful evolution. It’s also important to remain mindful of how these changes will impact your employees – and what their reactions might be as a result. Using one or more of the change management models listed in this post will enable you to predict and prepare for your employees’ concerns, giving your company the best chance to not just survive, but thrive in the corporate wild. The included workflow templates will get you off on the right foot but walking you through every step of the change management process. You can proceed with the confidence that no element will fall through the cracks, even if you’ve never used a particular change management model before. Process Street workflows incorporate a variety of dynamic features that make all our workflows intuitive and easy to use. Plus, they offer the added bonus of documenting your process every time you use it so you have a record of what’s been done before. Process Street can help you with that. How do you deploy changes within your own organization? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below! |