Change Management
(Ch-AIN-juh MAN-adge-munt)
GAS-LIKE
What is Change Management?
Change management is a strategy that considers the reasons for the barriers and paths to individual and/or organizational change to ensure the highest potential for transformation.
Other Common Names
Other common names for change management include:
- People Management
Key Properties
Change management is characterized by:
- A structured process
- A design with the intention to make adjustments sustainable
Resources From The Train Like a Champion Blog
The Parable of the Part-time Trainer (Part 1)
The Business Case for Learning
Insights from Brian Washburn That May LEad to Change
- "The gazillion dollar question is: What in the world does a person’s supervisor have to do with effective learning experiences, especially if they’ll rarely (if ever) be in the same training room as the learner? The answer is: A lot!"
- "So how do we take advantage of supervisor support if supervisors are not really in our audience? My simple answer is that supervisors should be part of our audience. Not the primary audience, of course, supervisors are not typically going through the learning experience with the learners. But they are stakeholders and perhaps secondary audience members."
- "No matter how self-motivated your participants are, ultimately it is their supervisor who can hold them accountable, encourage them to follow through on their goals, or (in the absence of goals) can encourage them to focus their attention elsewhere. For a training program to be effective, you’ll want to find ways to avoid that last scenario. Identifying potential strategies by which you can help supervisors set goals with their direct reports as well as make them aware of the goals participants craft for themselves can make the difference between an interesting training program and an effective training program."
CLOSELY RELATED ELEMENTS
Supervisor Support
This is covered in much more detail in chapter 3, but there is a significant body of research that points to the fact that if you want someone to apply what they’ve learned in a training program, their supervisor will be the most important factor. Identifying ways to engage the supervisor, whether you’re providing goal-setting resources or just communicating what’s possible from the training program, is essential if you want the program to have a chance to bring sustainable change.
Measuring for Effectiveness
Finding ways to assess the program’s effectiveness is the most tangible way to measure for impact and behavior change. This begins with identifying baseline data against which post-training data can be compared.
Follow-up
While supervisor support is crucial, so is direct follow up with learners. Every change model includes a step related to maintaining the momentum that can be established through small victories. Your learners may be extremely motivated to apply new knowledge or skills when they’re in the moment of learning, but follow up, once they return to their regular workflow, will be an important contributor to long-term behavior change.
Follow-upLevels of Evaluation
Having a variety of data points can help identify the efficacy of a change initiative at any given point in time. Knowing how many people participated in a session, what their reaction to the program was, how much they may have learned, whether they’ve been able to apply anything to their job, what the impact has been, and whether there has been any measurable return on the investment are all pieces of information that can be examined for a more complete picture of whether and to what degree a change has taken place.
Learning Objectives Taxonomy
If you want to change specific behaviors, that should be documented from the beginning of the design process. The learning objectives that are chosen and the
activities connected to them will be all you have to steer your learners in the right direction.
Instructional Design
If change is the ultimate goal, then the need for that change should be assessed from the beginning and strategies to support it—such as baseline data, program evaluation,
goal setting, making the case for change during the instruction, supervisor support, and follow up—need to be part of the overall program design.
Data
Whether qualitative or quantitative, measurement determines the need for change and whether it has taken place.
Goal Setting
It’s one thing to want to change; it’s a whole other thing to have a specific idea of what needs to change. Offering learners an opportunity to reflect and identify where they may have knowledge or skills gaps, and what and how they can apply following the training program is important. Preparing something for them to discuss with their supervisor as part of their goals is even more important.
Books on Change Management
