Change, Organisational Development

Podcast Episode 19: Delivering Organisational Change

9th September 2019

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3 min read

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Delivering change is tough – find out how to do it successfully in this podcast.

Delivering change is rarely as successful as it should be. In fact, studies show that on average seventy percent of change initiatives fail due to ‘people’ issues. As the custodians of people-related change, those in HR are often looked to for answers when this happens.

This Episode: Delivering Organisational Change

In this episode of The HR Uprising, Lucinda looks at how to deliver organisational change using a well-cited model of change implementation that may well offer a solution.

Key Takeaways

SEVENTY PERCENT OF CHANGE INITIATIVES FAIL…

Seventy percent of change initiatives fail, and they do so because of people issues. This is according to a Kinsey report from almost twenty years ago, but is still holding true for many.
People need to understand why change is happening. They need to understand the steps they need to take in order to effect it. The change may need to be debated. It’s never as simple as sending out an edict and waiting for the change to happen.
Kurt Lewin’s 3 Step Change Method is visualised as a U shape. We begin at the left with “unfreezing”, then move to the bottom of the U with “changing”, before ending at the other end of the U with “refreezing”.
Kotter’s Eight Step Change Methodology:
1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Establish a powerful guiding coalition
3. Create a compelling vision
4. Communicate the change
5. Remove obstacles
6. Create short-term wins
7. Consolidate improvements
8. Institutionalise the change
We need to consider the best way of ensuring that people realise the urgency of change, but in an appealing way, such as rewards.
Establishing a ‘why’ and ‘how’ is important, but so is the question of “what if?”. By offering consequences of inaction, we provide further impetus for change.
People who are great at change are often good at starting things. However, this can mean that they’re not so good at finishing things. Consolidating requires a certain kind of person or team in order to see it through.

Valuable Resources

Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Methodology: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_82.htm
Kurt Lewin’s THREE-STEP Change Method: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm
4Mat by Bernice McCarthy: https://www.toolshero.com/effectiveness/4mat-learning-cycle-model/
Host of The HR Uprising Podcast, Lucinda Carney, is also the founder and CEO of Actus Software, where you can find additional free HR Resources: https://actus.co.uk/free-performance-management-resources/
Change Superhero Resources:
- Training: Virtual Change Superhero Training
- E-Learning: Actus Academy Change Management Course
- Book: How to be a Change Superhero – by Lucinda Carney
- Free Change Toolkit: www.changesuperhero.com

Best Moments

‘In many large scale changes, there are many steps that need to be implemented’
‘Kotter says we need to communicate change ten times more than we think we do’
‘Where I’ve seen change fail is when this powerful guiding coalition are in a bubble’
‘Think about how you frame your communication’
‘It becomes embedded. It becomes the way we do things around here’

VIEW THE TRANSCRIPT

About The Host

Lucinda Carney is a Business Psychologist with 15 years in Senior Corporate L&D roles and a further 10 as CEO of Actus Software where she worked closely with HR colleagues helping them to solve the same challenges across a huge range of industries. It was this breadth of experience that inspired Lucinda to set up the HR Uprising community to facilitate greater collaboration across HR professionals in different sectors, helping them to ‘rise up’ together.

“When we look up we rise up”