What is Change Management?

“The only constant in life is change” is an old quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and it remains true today. In the pre-COVID-19 world, ATD Research found that 92 percent of organizations had experienced change, but that figure must be closer to 100 percent now.

During organizational change, several challenges will inevitably arise in every phase of a change management project: planning, strategizing, implementation, and measurement.

Some of the most common challenges include:

Change management, which falls under the category of project management, can enable change within an organization by using structured approaches to shift individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a future state. Once initiated, change follows its own nonlinear path in response to uncertainties, reactions, and guidance from those involved. There are change management processes, tools, resources, skills, and principles for managing the people side of change. Change management is one of the 23 capabilities in ATD’s Talent Development Capability Model™ and resides in the Impacting Organizational Capability domain.

Managing change and implementing change are two different concepts. Implementing change refers to the initial switch to a new system or process while managing change refers to how the change leadership team successfully oversees that switch.

Several change management models are available to help strategize and overcome these challenges. Even though different models look at facilitating the change management plan or project differently, at the heart of every change management strategy are the people. Remember, as an internal change manager or change management consultant, you must always consider the human side of change first for the change to be effective and long-lasting. Successful change management comes from the leading team's dedication to accurately assessing challenges and exploring all possible solutions.

The five most popular change models are:

Developed by John P. Kotter at the Harvard Business School, the Kotter change management model is broken up into an eight-step process for change leaders:

The ADKAR model is one of the two foundational models of the Prosci methodology. ADKAR is an acronym for the five outcomes an individual needs to achieve successful change: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement. This model is based on the understanding that organizational change can only happen when individuals change.

Also called the DABDA model, it is based on the book On Death and Dying and lists the stages of grief a person goes through when dealing with a death or significant change. This model follows a nonlinear path called the change management curve:

Some also add a shock element at the beginning and implementation or integration step after acceptance to help facilitate this model.

Broken into three components, Lewin’s model teaches you to unfreeze the situation, institute the change, and refreeze. Change agents need to determine the need for change, understand why it is necessary, speak with stakeholders about it, and implement it. After the first portion is complete, empowering and instituting the change is necessary while continuing to communicate with all stakeholders and leaders involved. The final stage of refreezing keeps the fresh change from unraveling through culture initiatives, training, and further communication.

Developed by William Bridges about 30 years ago, this change management model includes three stages: Ending What Currently Is, The Neutral Zone, and The New Beginning. Bridges defines change as external to one’s being and transition as the inner psychological process employees go through during organizational change. The Bridges transition model includes six steps: communication, information dissemination, auditing the organization’s transition readiness, education and enabling leaders to manage the transition, monitoring, and empowering individuals in the organization to take ownership of the change.

A TD professional understands the change management models and strategies as well as how to implement them. TD professionals are also adept at understanding how change affects the organization and the employees, with a keen eye for assessing risk, resistance, and consequences to define the right change management approach. They help facilitate the change directly, whether they are internal players or external consultants.

This section was adapted from Holly Burkett’s blog—read the full article here. Holly’s advice is aimed at helping talent development create a change management plan, implement a change management strategy, and lead your organization through successful change.

Change fatigue leads to “brain fog” and mental distance from one’s job, which makes it harder for employees to commit to change or be hopeful about a new vision. To address change fatigue:

Help managers view resistance as a reflection of change fatigue and encourage them to consider capacity issues when leading change. Teach them to:

Employees across all levels need support in driving and adapting to constant change and disruption. Growing capability from the ground up means that:

Design change for the employee experience you want to create. To improve the change experience:

An effective change management strategy includes continuous feedback. For best results:

ATD’s mission is to empower professionals to develop talent in the workplace during times of stability and change. Learn how to successfully achieve organizational change management with the ATD Change Management Certificate program and many publications, webinars, and other resources ATD has to offer.

For access to even more resources, including practical tools and templates, research, and insights, you’re invited to become an ATD member. Learn more.

A repeated statistic asserts that around 70 percent of change initiatives fail. Beyond the financial and time costs of poorly executed change initiatives, this failure can have a significant negative impact on employees. But as the rapid pace of change in organizations continues, employees are constantly having to adapt to new realities and circumstances. To mitigate these negative effects, organizations need to prioritize employees when developing their change initiatives. Training in change management aims to prepare people and organizations to adapt to the new normal. The talent development function should play a crucial role in the process by ensuring that employees have the skills they need to thrive. Change Management: TD’s Role in Driving Organizational Transformation draws on a sample of 311 talent development professionals across a variety of industries to deliver benchmarking data and highlight best practices.

Register for the Change Management Webinar

To assist with starting the Change Management Plan section of a Project Management Plan, this template provides a sample introduction and sample processes, along with space for you to add your own organization’s process. This tool was adapted from ATD's Project Management Certificate Program. Find out more about the course here.

This edition of TD magazine features theme articles focused on change management. Other articles explore leadership, facilitation, personal branding, and much more. You can read the feature article on change management evaluation here, listen to the audio version of the article here, or explore the full magazine issue here.