The beauty of change management is that the underlying models still exist within each industry. To understand the necessity and importance of change management within the communications industry, we must first understand that change is necessary in our organizations and societies.
Change management is the process of evaluating, implementing and monitoring change within an organization and managing that change so the end-users are on-board. In this continuously changing society, where new technologies and discoveries are being made at an exponential rate, our industries, our companies and organizations need to know how to adapt to this quick evolution. Organization leaders are effectively the ones who sign-off on major changes within an organization and it’s the communicators job to relay the changes and inform end-users why this is happening and how to act on that change.
As communicators, we can create surveys or host workshops in which we gather and analyze information from our end-users. The model, “Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle”, created by W. Edwards Deming is a great tool to help organizations and help communicators be agile. The four steps are:
- “Plan – establish objectives and processes,
- Do – implement the plan, execute the process, make the product,
- Check – study actual results and compare against the expected results,
- Act – enact new standards.”
Sourced from: http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/project-planning-tools/overview/pdca-cycle.html
This model will help communicators effectively create initiatives that will allow members in the organization understand and collectively solve problems. The end goal of change management is to get end-user buy in. There needs to be no confusion on the processes or what is going to take place during the change period. This is why having communicators effectively relay the types of changes needed (whether it’s a new business structure, software or process update) is vital to the success of that desired change. Our goal as communicators is putting people first. This means listening and adapting our methodologies to create the best system in which we relay the vision. Change can be very scary for people; they may think their job is in jeopardy. It is important to inform them of why this change is occurring and how it can help them in their daily interactions and responsibilities.
As human beings it’s our responsibility to change, adapt and learn new ways of doing things. In business context, this can seem overwhelming and frightening. The job of a communicator is to ease this transition and help our co-workers understand the need for this adaptation.
Kaela Raimundo is a recent college graduate from NAIT’s Digital Media and IT program, nature enthusiast and animal lover. She found her passion in writing after making a big career move and is currently working for the Government of Alberta. She recently developed a volunteer management program guide for a local non-profit and enjoys cooking, reading books and helping her community in her spare time.
If you would like to know more, her LinkedIn is: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaelaraimundo/