The continuous improvement plans created have to be implemented properly to really add value. Coming up with the plan or idea is the easy part. Making sure the plan is fully implemented and supported by the organization is the hard part. To make a plan successful, change management is the key.
Personal Change
Most people resist change and prefer to keep working the way they are used to, regardless of the inefficiencies and struggles during their day-to-day activities. This means that the outcome of the plan comes down to psychology more than actual quality management. This makes it all the harder.
When an employee doesn’t see how the change improves their life, they simply tune out. In an organization this is very complex because of all the interactions. The small loss of time for one can be a huge time saver for the next. This setting makes it hard for people to accept the change because they don’t see the added value for them.
Organizational Change
When we look at the organizational level, change management starts to get very complex. As mentioned above, some people lose and others gain during this change. Certain employees need to do some additional work to make life easier for their colleagues down the hall. The problem is that the people that feel they lose something will resist relentlessly. This can harm the effectiveness of the project significantly. When someone doesn’t see the benefit instantly, it is crucial to show them the current situation and how the workload is divided among the different employees. Besides the workload, you can also show why things go wrong and put a dollar value on the issues that have been logged due to the problems
Also, mapping out the processes and showing the bottlenecks in the process is a great method to open the eyes of the employees. Even then, there will be a number of people that will resist the change. Top Management buy-in can become the key driver to convince the last set of people. When they support the project it will be a lot easier to make sure people move in the right direction.
Prevent Dead Projects
A lot of improvement plans get canceled due to the complexity that comes with change management. Employees don’t support or aren’t willing to change. Projected results are not reached due to poor change management and execution. This cannot be prevented all the time but certain things can be done to increase the likelihood of success.
Engagement
Engage key people in the project. Make them part of the project right when the project is still in the planning phase. When they are part of the project team they feel ownership and take responsibility during the implementation phase. This helps a lot to drive the change through the organization.
Communication
Clearly communicate the implications for the different roles in the company. Don’t sugarcoat it, when people have to do some additional work be upfront about it and show them why. This can be done by showing the actual data you have gathered on what goes wrong in the process. They will see why change is important when the losses are visual.
Use data
Use data to back-up your claims. Show the people how you came to a certain conclusion and why this change will have a positive effect on it. When you actually get the results you anticipated, make sure to celebrate it. This will give some credit for the next project and there will be a lot more in the future.
A proper platform can be used as a guide during the change management project. An easy-to-use platform allows people to adopt the new situation more easily and the data coming out of it allows for instant proof why the new way of working is a step forward. Make sure the right solutions are in place to support your improvement projects.
