11/04/2020
I was reading up on change management recently and found the concept of Change Management Competencies and the role of leaders in the Change Management process quite interesting. More specifically, how our competency varies depending on our relationship to the change.
Change competency at the organization's level is its ability to react to and manage change over and over again by applying change management practices successfully and routinely. For leaders, it's their ability to effectively lead people through change.
Change is more effective and successful when change management competencies are built at every level in the organizational chart. This is because every level will have internalized its role in the change and developed the skills and knowledge necessary to react to constant change.
So what does Change Management Competency look like?
✨ For Senior Management, change management competency means being an effective sponsor and champion of change. This is demonstrating commitment to the change at both an individual and organizational level. It means for example, when holding meetings not immediately shutting down ideas before they have been fully fleshed out as this represents risk-aversion and thus contradicts being a champion of change.
✨ For Managers and Supervisors, change management competency is being able to help direct reports navigate through their own change journey and the changes in their day-to-day tasks.
Change management is more than just communication, training or managing resistance. It is equipping employees at every level of the organization with the understanding, perspectives, tool and resources to make change as seamless as possible.
In order to keep this short and sweet, look out for my post next Wednesday the role of leaders in the Change Management process.