Change management toolkit

Description

This online resource was prepared by JISC InfoNet, an advisory service for managers in UK's education sector. It provides useful resources and approaches to addressing change management in organizations. With checklists, action plans and templates, this tool provides practical techniques to address the difficulties of managing change, including:

• developing a business case for a change project
• conducting a change audit
• implementing change management strategies
• determining change roles
• dealing with resistance to change
• managing transition, including emotional responses during a transition

This toolkit draws on models from organizational development, complexity theory and complex adaptive systems to inform the strategies and approaches provided throughout the change process. A key distinction is made between change and transition. Change involves a shift in external circumstances or an event, such as the implementation of a new policy, while transition is the psychological process that people undergo in response to the change.

Steps for Using Method/Tool

The steps in this toolkit are accompanied by links to resources, templates, checklists and actions. Steps for change management include the following:

• Identify what needs to change.
• Identify the type of change and the context in which the change will happen in your organization.
• Examine your organizational culture.
• Conduct a change audit to identify approaches used for previous change initiatives.
• Identify an appropriate change approach.
• Determine change roles for those involved through a stakeholder analysis and specifying roles and responsibilities.
• Undertake a force field analysis to assess resistance to change.
• Develop an understanding of transition management (case examples are provided for different stages of the transition process).
• Draw on principles of transition management.
• Support adoption of change.
• Identify a formal end to the change project.

There are three phases of a transition:

1. endings, when people let go of their previous roles
2. neutral zone
3. new beginnings, when people begin to identify with the change and their new roles

Emotional responses to change are discussed, and case examples are provided. Emotional responses include the following:

• shock and denial
• distrust
• anger and guilt
• depression, anxiety and stress
• regret
• acceptance

This toolkit can be used as a whole to guide the change process, or specific sections can be used as references to troubleshoot an existing change. For example, the section on "Reviving a Stalled Change Effort" can be used independently of the rest of the toolkit.