7 of the most effective change management techniques for your business

Posted on Dec 27, 2022 at 09:12 PM

Change management techniques are concepts that involve a detailed approach to organisational change. These models provide a comprehensive guide for companies and institutions to manage and make changes within their business system, undertake the transformation process, and ensure that any other emerging changes in the surrounding community are successfully accepted and implemented.

Some change management techniques embrace wide-ranging changes at the organisational and institutional levels, which can involve customer-related processes or IT management teams ensuring business transition, development and prosperity.

Why is understanding change management techniques important?

The average successful business goes through about five significant changes in just three years; change is an essential part of each business, but making this change takes work. The more the change affects the group, the more complicated and prolonged the implementation.

That is, change may seem confusing to those who need to implement change, so leaders need to find appropriate methods and tools to make change possible for themselves and the communities in which they operate.

They must also integrate two basic concepts into their change methodology. The first must understand that change management is never a one-time event but an ongoing process. The second is that the changes required will succeed only when an effective change model or strategy is developed, helping leaders guide the change process.

What change management models and techniques can be followed?

The variety and variety of change management techniques that can be followed. The type of model an organisation implement depends on its industry and culture as well as the business goals it seeks to achieve with great effort. Here are seven of the most effective change management techniques for your business:

1- McKinsey 7S Model:

The McKinsey 7s model was developed at the consulting firm McKinsey by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman during the 1970s to assess how different parts of the enterprise work together.

This model is often seen as one of the most complex organisational change management techniques; the seven elements of this model, which include structure, strategy, shared values, systems, staff, style, and skills, are designed to be evaluated by how they affect each other so that challenges that can hinder the application of this method can be easily identified.

Therefore, it is necessary to analyse the seven elements of this model and know how it works together or affects each other. This model is often used when finding out something needs to be fixed within the organisation without knowing how it will be addressed.

Once change management techniques have been identified, the seven elements serve as a guide to maintaining the company's balance and its staff.

McKinsey's model can also help companies and organisations identify imbalances and help them implement the necessary change.

For example, if an enterprise proliferates from 20 to 60 employees, employees shared values and structure will likely change, affecting other components.

But when using and adopting the 7s model, it is possible to understand the changes and reorganise the change management elements during growth to keep the style and work plan running smoothly.

2- Lewin Model:

The Lewin change management model was developed in the 1940s by its founder Kurt Lewin; the Lewin model is one of the change management techniques used to help companies better understand organisational change. The model consists of three phases, including:

• The no-freeze phase is a preparatory stage for employers' willingness to change to overcome employee resistance.
• Change phase: the change strategy is implemented during this phase.
• Refreezing phase: Change is accepted by employees, and then they return to their routine.

Therefore, the Lewin model is one of the preferred change management techniques for its ability to detect old patterns and strategies or overlooked problems and its approach to, most importantly, new ways of thinking.

3- ADKAR Model

The Adkar model is a change management technique that focuses on business-oriented objectives. It implements initiatives to support staff in more easily pursuing change, focusing mainly on the people behind change.

Each letter in the word ADKAR model is a goal to reach, namely awareness of the need and importance of change, desire to participate in the process of change, knowledge of methods and how to change, ability to implement change, and promotion to sustain change.

This change management technique helps reduce staff's resistance to change and accelerates development. The Staff Management Model helps staff address change through clearly defined aspects and stages that enable them to understand and accept the changes presented.

4- Model Kotter

This change management technology focuses more on people facing significant changes rather than the changes themselves. The model includes eight steps:

• Create a sense of need for change.
• Build a solid alliance to bring about change.
• Forming a strategic vision of particular systems in the process of change.
• Make everyone relate and agree to change.
• Enabling action to change by removing obstacles and any dominant challenges
• Enabling action on change by removing barriers and challenges.
• Making short-term gains from the change process.
• Sustainability of acceleration from the process of change.

This model is designed to deal with potential opposition individuals in the organisation to the operation of evolution and modern technologies that accompany it and transform them into active participants through transparency and trust.

5- Model PDCA

The PDCA value model, known as the Deming Wheel or Control Cycle, was developed by W. Edwards Deming during the 1950s, which is a systematic process of change and continuous improvement.

This model is an effective change management technique for planning, working, and changing. This model helps companies and institutions to make improvements by following simple and effective steps:

• Plan the change process.
• Test the plan.
• Implementation of the plan.
• Evaluate the success of the Agenda for Change.
• Make specific changes that contribute to improvement.

The status and effectiveness of the PDCA model in the change management process are tested on a single team or department, and results are tracked before changes are implemented throughout the organisation to find shortcomings and to develop new methods across companies and industries.

6- Bridges Transition Model

This model is a change management technique that focuses on the emotional shifts and changes people experience when testing the change process. Accordingly, this model includes three phases that should help an organisation guide staff:

• End, loss, and dispensing area:

It is essential to clarify the change process's purpose to avoid resistance from individuals in the organisation that are fearful and uncomfortable when they need to change.

• Neutral Zone:

When change begins, employees may stumble between abandoning the old and welcoming the new.

• New Starting Area:

If handled well and the new change is in effect, staff will enter the acceptance stage in the new way of doing things and understand why changes are needed while highlighting the success of the change process to demonstrate the concrete results of the work they have done.

7- Kubler-Ross Model

This change management technology model is called the Five Stages of Grief, one of the reliable change management strategies in people's handling of the change in general. Using this model, organisations can better prepare for change when they expect potential feedback from their workforce. The five stages of the Kubler-Ross model are denial, anger, bargaining, gloom, and acceptance.

One caveat to be taken into account with this change management technique is that the previous stages are not always sequenced and that all individuals can progress differently, so their effectiveness is not always predictive, nor can they be used to complement other change management methods.

When leaders have a comprehensive knowledge of past change management techniques and models, they can choose the appropriate model for their business needs and unique staff preparation, as when organisations implement the right and proper change management techniques through change management steps, that will bring many advantages, including:

• Effective preparedness for change early.
• Inform all stakeholders of change.
• Prompt response to staff members' observations and questions.
• Help exploit the resources at his disposal.
• Evaluate the impact of generic change management techniques.
• Implementing change without adversely affecting the daily workflow
• Maintaining efficiency by recognising employees' concerns
• Anticipate and respond quickly and efficiently through the use of change management techniques.
• Reduce the time needed to implement change.
• Reduce costs associated with change.
• Reduce the likelihood that efforts to implement change will fail.

In conclusion,

If you are an enterprise manager whose success is essential to you, you must master the change management process along with its tools and techniques to keep your talented employees and encourage them to work; nothing affects the productivity of the qualified employee more than frustration.

So if you want to preserve your excellent human resources, you should be familiar with change management techniques. To that end, we invite you to attend a change management training course in Dubai, where we work together to produce the best outcome to know about change management techniques.