Change Management Methodology (CMM)

Change Management Methodology (CMM)

Taylor Clarke’s CMM helps effectively manage the people and cultural aspects of change to secure earlier, widespread and sustainable “buy-in”, commitment and behavioural change.

CMM comprises 3 integrated components:

1.      A flexible change management activity road map

2.      A comprehensive tool kit of practical questionnaires, processes, checklists and planning templates

3.      A series of change management engagement soft skills development modules

Our Change Management Methodology has evolved through working with clients in both the private and public sector over the last 5 years including the Department for Work and Pensions, Edinburgh City Council, Babcock PLC, First Engineering, The NHS, Standard Life, Pilkington, Aberlour Child Trust plus many others.

Our aim has been to “operationalise” latest transformational level change management theory and thinking, and create a support framework sufficiently robust and practical to support the needs of a range of change types and organisational cultures.

The emphasis is on simple, practical, easy to apply tools and techniques that build a consistent approach and language and that integrate easily with other project management methodologies.

 It is guided by 6 key principles –

  1. Implementing change “with”, not “to” people.
  2. “Facilitating” rather than “driving” change.
  3. Building commitment (“want to”) rather than compliance (“have to”).
  4. Maintaining ownership and focus on benefit release at all levels in the organisation.
  5. Recognising that the only people who can change an organisation are the leaders at all levels.
  6. Applying the learnings from each change initiative to continuously improve future changes.

This comprehensive but flexible CMM should be applied with the appropriate degree of rigour and assessed on the basis of –

  • Scale and complexity of the change within and across organisational boundaries
  • How many people are affected and to what extent
  • Staff change management capacity and capability
  • Timeline and resource constraints
  • People impact - Knowledge, Skills, Behaviour, Attitudes
  • Change legacy impact on employee readiness and commitment
  • Organisational values and culture.

1)         The Activity Road Map

A flexible, six step, roadmap to help sequence key change management diagnostic, planning and implementation activities at all levels in the organisation.

Managers working with the road map will be guided by the 6 step process but draw on the activities, templates and tools provided as required throughout the change. The people aspects of change are too complex to be addressed with a prescriptive linear process and certain aspects of each stage may have to be revisited as issues emerge and opportunities clarify.

The road map is applied at both a strategic organisational level and a local tactical implementation level to ensure the activities suggested are cascaded and applied across the organisation as appropriate to the scope and complexity of the change.  Individuals’ personal objectives should also “join up/cascade” to ensure the delivery of organisational objectives in an effective performance management framework.  The road map activities should also then “join up/cascade” to ensure effective, coordinated change management activities at all levels.

2)         The Tool Kit

A set of planning, diagnostic and implementation support tools are available to support –

·        High level change definition, benefit identification and risk assessment

·        Identification of the underlying assumptions and beliefs driving behaviours

·        Vision and change “Buy-in” solution development

·        Communication planning, feedback and impact assessment

·        Stakeholder identification, involvement and influence mapping.

·        Selection, development and feedback for key change roles e.g. Sponsors and Change Agents

·        Planning critical change conversations

·        Employee transition support

·        Assessing change impact and readiness

·        Sponsor and Change Agent role Contracting

·        Prioritising resource allocation within a portfolio of changes

·        Identification of change barriers and enablers

·        Development of transition plans

·        Identification of key resistance drivers

New tools are being developed all the time and can be tailored to support your particular change.

3)         A Set of Transition Change Leadership Skills

A portfolio of skill building training modules can be assembled to suit whatever competencies are needed to develop your existing capability and support your change agenda through a mix of –

·        Psychometrics and 360 feedback to improve self awareness

·        Resilience and personal adaptability profiling

·        Creative thinking and problem solving

·        Internal consulting and business partnering skills

·        Transition management and employee engagement

·        Strategic Influencing

·        High level communication

·        Coaching

·        Facilitation and negotiation skills

·        Conflict resolution

An Action Based Learning….not Training Solution

Most Taylor Clarke clients introduce this approach to change in their organisations through Action Based Learning workshops where delegates –

  • Learn about change dynamics, the impact of change at a personal, team and organisational level and why change frequently fails to deliver the benefits intended.
  • Examine past changes and explore personal learning and identify the common success drivers and barriers within their culture…their “Change DNA”.
  • Apply the range of Taylor Clarke CMM change management tools, diagnostic questionnaires, processes and checklists to current change projects as appropriate to develop outline Change Management and transition plans
  • Practice key change implementation leadership skills – communication, managing resistance, building commitment, engaging people in change, developing resilience etc

Getting started with “Changing how you manage change”

While our highly practical, tailored workshops deliver a lot of immediate benefit by applying the tools/techniques to delegates “Live change projects” and using the delegates successes/barriers as the vehicle for learning, there are a number of key levers to establishing a new change methodology in an organisation -

  • Obtain senior leader “buy-in” and visible Sponsorship for an evaluated project to pilot the methodology to identify any required modifications.
  • Build motivational, experiential workshops around application on “Live” changes for immediate pay back.
  • Train your own trainers/coaches/change agents as internal advocates and sources of application expertise throughout the organisation to build a critical mass of skilled change champions at all levels.
  • Use the methodology on major business critical projects and insist it is applied with appropriate rigour and learnings captured and shared
  • Share best application practice using informal Action Learning Sets
  • Build the methodology into your “organisational change DNA” – Integrate with other processes - project management, risk assessment, induction, management development, performance management, investment appraisal etc.

The framework can be adapted and its individual components selectively applied to support most change implementation challenges to reflect the varied impact and readiness across a change community.

 

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