Change Management for a Smoother Implementation

Change Management for a Smoother Implementation By Michael Morris hange, as they say, is the only thing in life you can count on. Resistance to change is natural, but it is difficult to manage resistance and fear arising from it. Directing the resistance and fear to achieve a positive outcome can make the difference between success and failure. Resistance to change can be something as minor as a person’s reluctance to participate in a project, or flat out refusing to meet a critical path deadline. Determining how you should handle such conflicts depends upon the magnitude of resistance and who is resisting. Here are a few methods that have helped me in managing change. HORSEPOWER “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This wise saying is very true in managing change. Heading off a potential revolt may be accomplished by having a key executive endorsing your project. Executive buy-in is essential for success in any process improvement project; this is the first thing I learned when I first attended the IBF conference. If you have executive buy-in in your back pocket, you’ll run into much less opposition. Not many Copyright © 2012 Journal of Business Forecasting ...