Change Management Canvas

Article Contents

Change management has become a powerful model for organizations pursuing growth, improvements, consolidation, course corrections, and innovation. Without change many of these opportunities would be lost. Although change exists everywhere and is continually occurring this does not mean organizations, stakeholder groups, or employees will embrace it. This is because change often represents the disruption of the status quo.

When organizational cultures are unaccustomed to change the status quo becomes the yardstick by which performance and opportunities are measured. 

Performance and opportunities that extend beyond existing competencies, practices, and comfort zones are considered non-essential to the organization’s effectiveness. Managing change is then limited to tools, methods, and practices that are familiar and do not push the comfort zone too far.

A Review of Generic Barriers to Change

The following section provides an overview of common barriers to change. Identifying these early can significantly increase stakeholder engagement, buy-in, and adoption of new products and services. Resistance can be both proactive and passive. It can result from the environment, business model, constraints, and even the project approach.

The approach towards implementing change management must be thoughtful, compassionate, respectful, and patient. User engagement and adoption is critical to a project’s success. When evaluating constraints to change consider what is causing it: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, or Reinforcement? Allocate resources and adapt strategies and tools to support the project team, and users, accordingly.

Change Resistance Roadmap: Barriers

Change Resistance Roadmap: Barriers

The problem with this approach is that the organization’s competitors will not be limiting themselves to these same constraints. Neither will customers as they seek out new product/service providers who are better able to solve their problems.

The change management canvas can be used by organizations to carry out changes in a systematic way that incorporates stakeholder interests, goals, and priorities. Most change efforts fail because of a lack of stakeholder engagement, planning, and communication resulting in resistance and the surfacing of obstacles that interfere with the effective execution of the change management plan. The canvas also helps to find the pressure points, mechanisms, and processes for insuring communication throughout the change effort.

Communication Goals

In “Management consulting: A guide to the profession” (Kubr, 1986) 9 primary steps in a change management project:

1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Form a powerful coalition
3. Develop a vision and strategy
4. Communicate the vision for transformation
5. Empower broad-based actions
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Consolidate gains and produce more change, and
8. Institutionalize new approaches and behaviour

When these are introduced across the organization significant growth, innovation, and learning becomes possible.

Four Phased Communications Change Plan Template

adapted Kubr, M. (1986).

Key to implementing any change effort is also insuring the following components are planned in advance:

A Review of Change Management Strategies & Opportunities

The following dropdown menus provide an overview of common change management strategies used to overcome possibly resistance, inertia, and ambivalence. Building stakeholder engagement, buy-in, and support is critical of change is to be facilitated smoothly. Insight into best practices needs to be thoughtful, compassionate, and proactive/ adaptive.

Change Engagement Roadmap: Solutions

Change Engagement Roadmap: Solutions

Four Phased Communications Change Plan

The following model includes further information about all the components highlighted above.

Change is healthy and inevitable. Those organizations that effectively pursue changes in the pursuit of  growth, improvements, consolidation, course corrections, and innovation will have a significant advantage. The change management canvas can help organizations visually plan out their change management projects, engage stakeholders, build communication and alignment around change initiatives, and set up leadership in an ever-changing business environment.

Test Your Knowledge

ADKAR Project Planning & Implementation Lifecycle

The following table explains how the ADKAR model is supported by the project management planning & implementation lifecycle.

The following planning document is provided to help your team develop is next change management plan. Tailor the template to fit your unique company culture and project type.

ITIL Service Management

Assessing whether an organization is ready involves evaluating the interactions between all related components. This involves the synergistic dependencies among the following tools, processes, assets, and competencies.

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) lifecycle highlights the competencies, services, and functions needed to plan, design, transition, operate, and continuously improve project, product, and service delivery with an emphasis on the end user. Change management and release management are critical to ongoing management and adoption of new products and services.

Use the following interactive change management planning tool to draft your first outline. Share with your team. Review during planning meetings while making sure that it integrates with the requirements, scope, and approach of the project. The change management plan is nrarely a primary deliverable for a project. Instead, the change management plan supports thet design, delivery, and adoption of new products, services, and capabilities.

Resources:

Kubr, M. (1986). Management consulting: A guide to the profession. Geneva: International Labour Office.