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Improving how change works in your organisation

Change is complex and increasingly so. It’s vital therefore, that your ability to deliver change is a key differentiator. But how do you ensure you are set-up in the most effective way?

Know where you are and where you want to be

It is important to start by being clear on what works well with change today and what doesn’t.

This includes understanding what change processes and structures are broken or falling behind what you need, for example:

Differing and fragmented views of the overall change portfolio
‘Shadow’ change functions emerging between the business units and centre
Structural barriers that are inhibiting your ability to deliver change inc. inadequate data, test and model office environments and tools, and
The lack of quality resources in key roles such as project and programme managers, technical architects and business analysts.

Equally, knowing what your organisation wants and needs from change is vital.

What needs to be distinctive about the way you do change to support the business strategy and plan? What are the key change skills and capabilities that you need to keep in-house and where you can source support externally? And how can you build the differentiating leadership behaviours to shape, drive and steer change across your business?

Embrace new ways of working and best practice

With a clear baseline understanding in place, it is important to take an ‘outside-in’ view to identify the industry trends and best practices that can be adopted to drive the effectiveness of change.

Different change delivery models, including agile, are driving innovation and effectiveness in how change is managed and delivered. Combined with on-going improvements to existing approaches, this drives the ability to deliver change through a different set of delivery vehicles, to provide the best opportunity for success. Indeed, a combination of these different approaches may be appropriate to support the delivery of your change ambitions, resulting in a ‘hybrid’ change operating model.

Technology developments and the role of data are driving new levels of transparency and insight on the performance of change across organisations. Real-time dashboards and integrated portfolio management tools are providing a single version of the truth for business leaders to govern, and steer change more effectively.

All these industry-wide developments provide opportunities to improve the effectiveness of how your organisation approaches and delivers change.

Make conscious design decisions

It is important to make conscious design decisions on the most appropriate future operating model for your organisation, rather than stumbling into a way of working based on what you are doing today and the whims of certain individuals’ preferences. Four key steps are vital to achieve this:

Establish a set of design principles which set out the criteria your change operating model needs to deliver against
Identify potential options for your change operating model and assess their respective strengths and weaknesses against your design principles
Develop your preferred change operating model option by considering all the aspects that will make it up, including processes, roles, organisation structure, technology, and culture
Focus on those critical capabilities that your organisation needs to support the delivery of the change operating model.

A clearly articulated and consciously thought through future operating model is fundamental to improving the effectiveness of change within your organisation.