What is change? It’s uncertainty, confusion and instability: a new process, a new boss, a new office environment.  

But what can change be? It’s opportunity, improvement and success. 

Change can be scary, but without it how do we grow? We view change as an opportunity to improve how we operate. It’s not enough to just keep up – we need to innovate and lead. We view change as a way to pave new roads and open new doors. 

We want to make change a positive event, not a negative one. Barriers to change need to be identified early in the process so they can be effectively accounted for and incorporated into the change strategy up front.  

There are some common change issues that everyone runs into, such as a lack of clarity around the need for change and ensuring that the right individuals at the right levels support the change. Based on our experience, we’ve identified some other change challenges that can arise and impede successful adoption of your change effort. 

Lack of Clear Scope 

What change are we trying to achieve? When the program team doesn’t have a clear understanding of what the change is, our stakeholders receive mixed messaging about the need. This results in confusion and resistance. A cohesive message helps to align the program around a common goal and ties the change to the organizational strategy. Ensuring that the goal of the program is clear and rolls-up to larger strategic plans puts the change into context and helps to drive adoption.  

Missed Stakeholders 

Stakeholder analysis is a crucial part of the change management process. When critical stakeholder groups are overlooked, unanticipated issues can arise before, during and after implementation. Did we overlook a regulating body that wasn’t involved in the program design? Stakeholders who are involved in the requirements and design are generally identified upfront. However, identifying those groups who may not be immediately involved in the day-to-day execution of the program is more difficult. It’s paramount to the success of the program that all impacted stakeholders are identified so that the change management process can be designed to accommodate them.  

Ill-Conceived Communication Strategies 

Are your communications one-way? Are you not receiving the buy-in and participation you had hoped for? Both what you’re saying and how you’re saying it could make the difference between an engaged organization and a disengaged organization. Not all teams want to be communicated to in the same way or require the same levels of communication. When a program tries to pigeonhole all groups into a singular communications approach, it risks alienating or completely missing key program stakeholders. Time needs to be spent up front and throughout the program to ensure that the way a program communicates is tailored to each team for maximum effectiveness. 

Bringing in Change Too Late 

Change management should be a part of the project management process and considered from program inception through implementation and after. Change is a journey and many programs make the mistake of introducing the concept too close to implementation. In many cases, an individual’s mindset about the change has already been made up and trying to course correct only becomes harder the later in the process people are brought in. Bringing stakeholders along on the change journey, from the start, is critical. Early and effective change management greases the wheels to successful implementation and adoption.  

Ineffective Training 

In prior years’ work culture, training was understood to be a time commitment: in-person, over the course of multiple days. Today’s work environment is dynamic, fast-paced and geographically diverse. The new era of learning and development should be focused on point-of-need, modular training that can be accessed from anywhere and available how an employee needs it. E-learning, job aids, etc. allow people to get what information they need when they need it, without disrupting their regular workday. The delivery and execution of training should be part of the larger change management strategy and be reflective of the program’s timeline and the user’s needs; however, training does not equal change management. If the team is hearing about the change for the first time at training, it’s too late.   

Change Saturation 

As organizations become larger and the pace of change increases, it’s easy to lose sight of the number of process, system and organizational changes that arise for a given employee. Over time, individuals and groups are constantly subjected to changes of all sizes. This can result in increased resistance when a new change is implemented and have negative effects on employee morale. It’s important to be cognizant of not just the change your program is implementing, but also the tangential changes occurring around it. This awareness allows the program to coordinate efforts and minimize the effects.