Nurturing and building a strong change capability is vital to an organisation’s short and long-term success and also helps to increase organisational agility, improving operations and processes. Many organisations now question how they can improve their organisational change management capability, yet many do not realise what it takes.
Organisations must dedicate time, resources and money into training and supporting their multiple stakeholders. This guide outlines some of the reasons why continuous training and support is imperative to building change competencies and highlights ways in which senior executives and managers can acquire the necessary change knowledge and tools.
The Importance of Effective Training
Change management initiatives often fail due to employee resistance and negative attitudes towards change. Training and support is necessary to reaffirm the importance and the benefits of effective change management. It also sends a signal to the stakeholders that change management is an invaluable competency to the organisation.
If stakeholders are armed with not only the reasons why change is required and have the choice to actively take part in change but also the necessary knowledge and are supported during times of transition, then they are more likely to become advocates of change. With success they are then more willing to share best change practices with peers and contribute effectively to the entire process. It should be noted that training and support are both ongoing processes that should be continuously monitored. Assessing the training process should start as early as possible for the trainers to gain a clear understanding of employee’s current level of awareness, desire and knowledge of change, so that the correct training needs, materials and resources can be assigned.
So, who should be involved in training? If your organisation is serious about trying to improve organisational change management capability, then the answer is everyone – starting with people who are often the “face and voice” of change initiatives; senior executives and line managers.
Training and Supporting Senior Executives
For the rest of the organisation to buy-in and accept change, they need to be able to see commitment and sponsorship from the senior executives. They play a huge role in the overall progression of the organisation and provide the necessary authority, therefore it is imperative that they are equipped with the required skills to effectively head change initiatives.
For perfectly acceptable reasons many senior executives do not understand the work required in becoming an effective change sponsor. It is recommended that they have access to best practice research allowing them to fully realise why change management matters to them and their organisation and how they can improve their personal change leadership competency.
Training and Supporting Management
Often organisations and the line managers themselves underestimate how important their role is to the successful adoption of the organisation’s new capabilities. Indeed only 32% of organisations adequately equip line managers for their role in change. The quality of their training must be high as they tend to assume the role of messenger and middle-man between the senior executives and the front-line employees. Therefore it is imperative that they have the required skills, tools and techniques to effectively package and channel the messages they are sending to employees so that they are received in the required manner by employees directly impacted by change.
Line managers can be shown how increasing their level of change competency will help them become more effective in their role and in turn increase the success of their individual teams. Data shows that consistent application of a structured change management methodology and framework like the Prosci ADKAR® Model helps to increase the amount of change success. Methods help Managers to understand the core change process and milestones, identify current issues that are impacting the ability to be effective at managing change and develop action plans to help coach employees through change barriers.
Interested in our Prosci Training Courses?
CMC Partnership can provide hands-on support for your organisation to help senior executives, management, and front-line employees to realise the benefits of change, establish organisational change management strategies, and increase change competencies.
We have various change management training courses that can help you. Have a look at our available course dates here.
