What is Change Management?

What is Change Management? If I put a penny in a jar each time I get asked the question, I’d be rolling in a serious amount of money by now. I have heard this question from friends and some colleagues in passing or informal settings. While many of us understand change, it’s hard conveying its management to people.

By Catherine Adenle

To explain this ‘What is Change Management?’ question better, I simply say, think about ‘Change’ then relate it to another concept which is ‘Project Managing’ the ‘Change’. In my quest to better explain this, I stumbled upon an apt YouTube video tutorial which explains what Change Management is.

Eventually, the goal of any change is to improve the organization by changing how they work, their behaviour, values or principles.

When you introduce change to any organization, it impacts these 5 areas:

1. People
2. Processes
3. Systems
4. Organization structure
5. Roles

What is Change Management?

Change is a reaction to specific challenges or opportunities an organization is facing based on internal or external stimuli. These days, organizations are more competitive and businesses are more fluid and globally more than ever before. Rapid innovation, loss of customers, new business laws, needs to improve efficiency and the fear of becoming obsolete drive change.  At some point addressing these goals will affect set processes, structures, workflows, systems, organization or roles.

See How Not to Implement Change in Organizations: 20 Ways

Change cannot just happen, it takes a lot of work to plan, prepare, communicate and implement the change until it’s embedded and regarded as part of the organizational culture.

To further understand Change Management in an organization or how to deal with it, see these presentations:

See Successful Change Implementation in Organizations: 4 Components

Have anything to add to this definition or add your answer to the question, ‘What’s Change Management?’ then, let’s hear from you. Add your comments below.