It's said that death and taxes are the only certainties, but you can definitely add change to that! Change is an inevitable part of organizational life. However, change can also be one of the biggest challenges an organization faces. Implementing successful change management initiatives requires careful planning, strong leadership, and the support of all stakeholders. Despite these efforts, many change initiatives still fail due to a variety of barriers. In this blog post, we will outline the top three barriers to successful change management and discuss the role of the major change management methodologies in addressing these.
Resistance to Change (change reaction): One of the biggest barriers to successful change management is 'resistance to change', as it's commonly known. I personally prefer the phrase 'change reaction' as it's less loaded. For more on that, see Chapter 6 of my new book for change agents 'Change Management that Sticks'. Employees and stakeholders may resist change due to fear of the unknown, loss of control, or simply being comfortable with the status quo. This resistance can manifest in various ways, such as reactivity to new processes, technologies, and changes to job roles.
Methodology: Lewin's Change Management Model is a well-known methodology that addresses change reaction (or change resistance). Lewin's model emphasizes the importance of involving employees and stakeholders in the change process, communicating the benefits of the change, and providing support during the transition phase. Limitations of the model, and others that followed, is that states are not clearly delineated, but 'bleed' into one other and may even oscillate from one state to the other and back again, before the full change transition is accomplished.
Another methodology, Kotter's 8-Step Change Model, addresses the change reaction (resistance to change) by emphasizing the importance of building a coalition of support for the change initiative.
Example: A manufacturing company wanted to implement a new production process to improve efficiency. Despite numerous training sessions, many employees were resistant to using the new process due to their comfort with the old process. Lewin's Change Management Model and Kotter's 8-Step Change Model can be used to overcome this barrier by involving employees in the change process, communicating the benefits of the change, and providing support during the transition phase.
2. Lack of Resources: Another common barrier to successful change management is lack of resources. Change initiatives often require additional resources such as time, money, and peoplepower. When these resources are not available, change initiatives are delayed and may even fail.
Methodology: The ADKAR, Prosci model is a popular change management methodology that addresses the lack of resources barrier by emphasizing the importance of clear communication and goal setting. The model also emphasizes the importance of building a supportive environment for change, which can include securing necessary resources and dispersing the change advocacy role amongst a broad pool of co-designing employees and end users. The main innovation of this model over its predecessors, was the inclusion of the desire to change, as a key component of any successful change implementation approach. This is one of the first models to recognise the importance of the change recipient's emotional connection to the change to motivate adoption.
Example: A government agency wanted to improve its technology infrastructure. However, due to budget constraints, the agency was unable to allocate the necessary funds for the project. The agency used the ADKAR model to overcome this barrier by clearly communicating the importance of the technology upgrade, building a coalition of support for the initiative, describing the compelling reasons why the change had to happen and what was in it (the WIIFM) for each stakeholder group and securing alternative funding sources.
3. Ineffective Leadership: Leadership is critical to the success of change initiatives. When leadership is ineffective, change initiatives fail to enlist the enthusiasm of the change users and leaders can derail their own engagement efforts.
Methodology: The Action-Centered Leadership model, by John Adair, is a change management methodology that addresses the ineffective leadership barrier by emphasizing the importance of strong leadership and clear communication. The model also stresses the importance of involving leaders in the change process and providing them with the resources and support they need to succeed. The model takes a practical, task-oriented approach to change implementation, but also reinforces traditional notions of hierarchical structures driving change adoption, rather than taking a more holistic, whole-of-system integrated approach. Holistic models are gaining more sway in recent times and the importance of the emotional connection to the change is gaining in importance.
Example: A retail company wanted to implement a new customer service initiative. However, the lack of support from senior leaders caused the initiative to fall apart. The company used the Action-Centered Leadership model to overcome this barrier by involving senior leaders in the change process, clearly communicating the benefits of the initiative, and providing them with the resources and support they needed to succeed.
Conclusion: Implementing successful change management initiatives always have their challenges, but this is to be expected when delivering scaled change of any complexity. There are a number of major change management methodologies such as Lewin's Change Management Model, Kotter's 8-Step Change Model, and ADKAR Prosci which, when applied correctly, can assist to provide clarity and a clear roadmap through these challenges to high change adoption.
Finally, remember that any model is only ever as good as how it is specifically applied. There's often merit in taking a mix-and-match approach to applying models to these change barriers. This ensures the principles and solutions applied to mitigate the barriers are situation specific to the quirks of any one specific change.
To learn more and discuss your organisation's specific organisational change needs, use the contact form below or email Barb Grant direct at barb@barbgrant.com