Tips for Effective Change Management

The other day I flew from my hometown to Denver. I was taking my daughter out there to visit her friends. There were a few isolated thunderstorms around, but we thought they would be gone by the time we arrived in the area. At least that’s what the experts were telling us. Using the data provided by meteorologists, we took off and headed to Denver. As we approached Denver, it became quite clear the storms were still present. The experts’ predictions didn’t come true. We landed at a small airport and waited. Eventually, the storms passed, and we made it to Denver. We accomplished our mission, going to Denver, for a specific purpose, my daughter seeing old friends.

Managing change is very similar to flying a small plane. You collect the opinions of experts, plan your trip and head out. You’ll have bumps along the way and may even face severe thunderstorms at times. Things might be delayed, and your trip doesn’t go as planned, but if you stay focused you will eventually get there. Here are a few tips to help you in your change management.

What’s Your Mission and Purpose?

One of the most important lessons I learned from a mentor is always to identify and refer to your mission and purpose. Determining your mission and purpose can be a challenging process, and it isn’t always as easy as you might initially think it to be. Your mission is what you are doing for the benefit of the customer. Your purpose is why you are doing what you are doing for the benefit of the client. Once you have decided your what and why, it becomes easier to make decisions. The desired change you want to implement becomes clearer to envision and communicate. This is why it's important to share the mission and purpose with your employees.

In change management, your mission and purpose is focused on the benefit of your customers. In the case of a medical clinic, it’s focused on the patient. Some processes don't seem like they involve the patient directly, but they are needed for the clinic to serve the patient. These might be your back office procedures such as billing and collecting. When you’re implementing change, always have the mission and purpose in mind. Ask “What’s the mission and purpose of this particular process?” Keep it simple and focused. This will help prevent scope creep. Remember sometimes your employees are the customer you’re trying to serve as well.

Getting Buy-In

When you hire anyone, always make the mission and purpose of the clinic the very first thing you mention. Teach it to them early. Remind them of it often. Start your office meetings with stating the mission and purpose. This will help keep it in the foreground of your people’s minds as they work on the problems you’re facing. You will need to live and breathe your mission and purpose daily. Be the example of the behavior and thoughts you want your office staff to follow. Use your mission and purpose to create the culture you desire. Then change can be made more easily.

Dump the Baggage

Change management is about finding and fixing the problems and obstacles that keep you from achieving your mission and purpose. Problems are those specific issues that prevent you from reaching the desired objective and are required to be addressed to meet your objectives. Sometimes we can confuse the real problems with baggage when we are addressing process improvement. Baggage is our life experiences that bias us in our decision making. The bias might be good or bad, but the baggage is there nonetheless, clouding our judgment and keeping our attention diverted from the real issues.

Baggage might be “I’ve seen these change initiatives fail before. This one will be not different.” Or, “We’ve never had a good experience with outside vendors, and this one won’t be good either.” Or, “It’s always someone else’s fault why my process if broken. It’s never me.”

I would encourage you to dump these thoughts. Don’t let them alter your objectiveness as you approach the situation. Dump the baggage. Recognize for what it is, junk that will impair your success.

Don’t Be Afraid to Make a Decision

Effective change management and implementation requires decision making. You must decide upon a course of action. Don’t be scared of making the wrong decision either. You make the best decision possible with the information you have and proceed. It’s no different from any emergency we might face in the ER. A bad car accident victim with a wound to the chest will go to the operating room immediately. As I take care of the patient, I make decisions based on the history and physical examination in the ER. If I later discover new information like pre-existing diseases, I make a new decision and change my action plans.

So to help you have a more effective change in your organization, know your mission and purpose, dump the baggage, don’t be afraid to make decisions, and work to create a culture that focuses on achieving your mission and purpose. If you start to do these things, implementing change will be easier and even fun for you and your people.