Strategies for Change Management & Agile Transformation

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​CHANGE IS INEVITABLE; THE KEY TO FOSTERING SUCCESSFUL CHANGE IS IN HOW YOU RESPOND TO THE CHANGE. CHANGE MANAGEMENT AGILITY REQUIRES A STRATEGIC APPROACH.

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Developing a change model can help business leaders address internal and external factors that influence the necessary change in their organization. The change model should include steps for leaders regarding how to act quickly and remain relevant in a highly competitive global market. 

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Change Management and Agile Transformation Model

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1. Create a Sense of Urgency -- Focus on getting people to support the new change. Create a compelling need and make sure all individuals involved understand it. The basis for the creating a sense of urgency is that crisis gets people’s attention and drives up the urgency level. 
   
   Strategy: Emphasize opportunity of impact within the new change.
   
   
2. Building Team -- Gather a team with the skills to lead and support the change effort. This step focuses on legitimizing change, making informed and intelligent decisions, and commitment with the ability to support change publicly.
   
   Strategy: Gain support from business partners and key stakeholders on change.
   
   
3. Vision and Strategy — Focus on developing, articulating, and communicating a shared vision of the desired change that is: imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible, and communicable.
   
   Strategy: Use SMART Goals and timelines to help effectively manage change.
   
   
4. Importance of Communicating – When communicating the change, keep it simple, create verbal pictures, have multiple forums, explain the appearance of inconsistencies, use two-way listening, and lead by example.
   
   Strategy: Hold weekly meetings to review change progress, and discuss challenges and opportunities.
   
   
5. Empower Others to Act — Focus on driving change, allies deploying the vision, and agents influencing stakeholder’s commitment. 
   
   Strategy: Remove barriers and obstacles that pose threats to the achievement of the new change.
   
   
6. Create Short-Term Wins — Focus on preventing loss of momentum and keep individuals engaged during change. Focus on planning for and creating regular successes, and recognizing and rewarding people who facilitate the achievement of goals. 
   
   Strategy: Consistently track and evaluate goals and celebrate small accomplishments.
   
   
7. Sustainability — Sustaining the acceleration of the change and institutionalizing the change. Focus on consolidating gains and producing more change. 
   
   Strategy: Consolidate the gains and produce more change by swapping out systems that don’t align with the vision; hiring, promoting, and developing individuals who will implement the change; reinvigorating the process with new initiatives and change agents; and not slowing down. Institutionalizing change focuses on maintaining a clear focus and embracing resistance; cultural change comes last.  Developing implementation strategies and demonstrating success through quick wins will also sustain the acceleration of the change.
   
   
8. Introducing Change — Focus on final step to implement the new change. 
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   Strategy: The new change can be communicated both verbally and in writing. Change can be communicated using communication and media platforms.​

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* Change Management and Agile Transformation Model. Adapted from Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change Model.