Change management is complex, character-building, and will call upon every ounce of your leadership skills and training to see change through successfully. Part of successful change management is down to thorough preparation — and a good place to start is with specialised change management courses and training to develop an appreciation of the theory, skills, and knowledge essential for sound implementation of change.
Below we discuss what change management is, before going in-depth into how a change management course can prepare you for the demands of the year ahead.
Change management is all about preparing your employees as much as possible for change in your business. Whether you aim to boost performance (and profitability), capitalise on opportunities or tackle some major issues, change will be necessary.
Organisational structure, processes, job roles, and tech will all be on the receiving end of change, and if the project is going to work, the employees themselves must embrace changes and adapt to them.
You’re going to encounter some (or many) obstacles along the way, but a good change management strategy can help you lead your company through the tough times and towards (even) better ones.
This is why good change management is so important.
How change management training will prepare you for the year ahead
The pandemic has made running a company a bumpy ride, making good change management courses and training valuable. Here’s how it will help you prepare:
You’ll understand how change affects you, your teams, and your company
Change can provoke fear, confusion, shock (if you’ve not advised your employees there will be change), frustration, and even indifference. If you can understand the impact change will have on stakeholders, your most influential people on the project, you can pre-empt it and get people on board with the change management project itself, as well as counter any obstacles or resistance the change may create.
You’ll develop a clear understanding of the most up-to-date psychological insight into the impact of change and uncertainty, and how to engage with this
Employees must make a three-stage psychological transition if the change project is going to work. These stages are:
1) letting go of the old ways;
2) spending time in a neutral zone, in which the old ways have passed but the new ways are still not yet functional;
3) emerging from the transition and beginning with a feeling of purpose conducive to successful change.
Understanding the impact will help you to understand how your teams are feeling and devise strategies to help them cope with change during the project.
You’ll recognise how change affects emotional state and tests people’s technical ability, and how to mitigate the negative impact through communication and emotionally intelligent managerial support
Your team will have to get to grips with new technology as part of a new way of working. Frustration could creep in, not to mention the temptation to revert to old ways.
Communicating with employees and applying emotional intelligence will help you discover what’s going on inside their heads during the project and see how you can make things easier for them.
You’ll build resilience and be able to use different tools and models to devise plans, identify new competitive advantages and move the company forwards
A good strategy can help you steal the edge over competitors, but it’s a balancing act. The strategy must be robust enough to withstand obstacles and drive the company forward, but also flexible enough to allow adaptation when necessary. Effective change management training will help you to do this while also teaching you resilience.
You need to use a range of tools to support yourself. Analytics and measurement tools, roadmaps, training tools, and more can help you successfully lead change. Tracking progress is important so that you can modify the plan if necessary and stop minor problems from transforming into major mountains and derailing the project.
You’ll learn to put in place deliberate steps so you can lead confidently through adversity and build greater resilience in yourself and those around you
Your plan is your compass to navigate your way towards the end goal and sets outs deliberate steps to get you there. There’s more to the plan than this, however; the plan considers potential problems and highlights measures to pre-empt these or address them when they do arise. You’ll be able to spring into action and keep the project on course. Things will get tough, but you’ll know how to prepare yourself and others for what lies ahead.
You’ll follow best practices to create a strategy for your company and have this peer-reviewed by fellow participants
To succeed in managing change, you’ll have to follow best practices such as good communication, the definition of clear goals, transparency, and more to steer the changes towards the successful end of the scale.
One important best practice will be having stakeholders on board so there’s more cooperation on the project, rather than conflict. Another will be documenting changes and sharing access so that everyone can keep abreast of what’s happening during the project. Making people search for information is incredibly frustrating, whereas making it easily available increases efficiency in the project.
Book a leadership course with us
If you’re about to lead a business or organisation through change, we’d suggest taking some solid leadership training to equip yourself with the skills to succeed. Both our Leadership and Management Programme and our Leading Through Change programme look at strategising and leading through change.
Book with us directly online, or, if you’d like further information, contact us at enquiries@inpd.co.uk or using the form on our Contact Page. Give us a call on 0161 826 3139 and you can speak to someone directly. We’re happy to guide you in your professional development and will be there every step of the journey. We look forward to working with you.
