For any organization that intends to grow, it cannot stand still. It will have to face a lot of challenges and should continue to learn better and new ways to do things. But, every change that an organization intends to implement should be planned and implemented with the utmost care. Otherwise, rather than doing good, it can turn out to be harmful to  organizational growth. This is where change management gets into the picture. It is a structured approach that makes sure that changes are implemented not only smoothly but also in their entirety and brings the desired impact. 

What is Change Management?

Change management is a program or event that an enterprise or business wishes to instigate. It is a change that causes considerable disruption to their day-to-day operations. Different factors can contribute to change within an organization.

In other words, change management is the effective process of a business change such that frontline employees, managers and executive leaders work in coherence to implement the technology successfully or organizational changes. Nowadays, almost all organizations irrespective of the domain of operation face pressure for change. This can happen as they intend to achieve better results or when they intend to improve productivity. Otherwise, the need to embrace change can occur due to some government initiatives or because of globalization. Some years ago, changes happened rarely in organizations. But, now, changes are happening at a faster pace. So, organizations will have to develop the skill to live with the change and manage it.

Types of Change Management:

In organizations, different changes occur in different areas. In the same way, different types of change management exist as well in organizations. Here are a few common types of organizational change management:

1. Developmental Change Management:

Development change management involves managing any organizational change that enhances the previously established procedures and processes. Not only changes made to the previous processes and procedures but also changes done for improving skills in the workforce and performance standards are examples of developmental changes. 

Examples include problem-solving efforts, team development, simple work process improvement, interpersonal communication training and increasing quality and sales. These are classic examples of ongoing improvement, changes in the quality circle and enhancement projects.

2. Transitional Change:

This change management is completely different from development change management. The reason is that transitional change is something that moves an organization away from its present state to an entirely new state. This change might be important to solve an issue like automation of a process or task, implementation of a merger or acquisition.

For this type of change management to happen, the participants have to let go of the old method of operation. The reason is that the organization will cease its old method of operation when the new method gets into function. The good thing about the management of this change is that the final destination will be entirely visible before steps begin for the transition.

This kind of change is an ideal choice for being delivered via a project and traditional kind of change management tools. The reason is that in this change people are highly affected at the level of actions and skills with the cultural values that lie deeper are not affected. Examples of this change include the creation of a new service or product to replace an existing product or service, simple acquisitions and re-organizations. Even, IT implementations that do not need considerable shifts in behavior and culture of the employees are an example of this change.

3. Transformation Change Management:

When talking about the types of changes in change management, transformational change is a kind, where the change fundamentally and radically alerts the operation and culture of an organization. The problem with this change is that the outcome may not be visible. For instance, a company decides to get into an entirely new niche of operation and undergoes a transformational change.

Transformational change is intended to transform the way an organization functions or serves its customers. This can be anything from a change in the service or product to how the organization engages with  global issues and local audiences. Most often, this change begins at the executive level. An excellent example of this change is the decision by the executive team of an organization to restructure the five-year business growth plan. Another example is the decision of a cloud provider to invest hugely in machine learning development and artificial intelligence. A company deciding to establish a partnership with an external organization to expand what it presently offers in a new market is another example.

In general, transformational change takes time. So, the change management should be done with care. It is better to adopt an Agile project management strategy. This strategy will ensure that the change will happen flexibly and productively. Experts suggest that when this type of change happens in an organization, it is better to create a task force of teammates. These teammates will be the biggest stakeholders in the change. When  transformational change happens, there should be constant communication among the team members. Further, it is better to consider using a project management tool that will aid your team stays organized when they handle tasks associated with the bigger change.

4. Remedial Change:

Remedial change involves modifications made in response to a culture or performance problem in an organization. The purpose of this change is to provide constructive feedback and to provide the required support to the teams in tough situations. Even, the objective of this change is to get rid of toxic elements in the workplace before they turn out to be bigger issues.

An example of remedial change is when a member of a software development team in an organization has missed his goals consecutively for three months. When this happens, the team manager will think about implementing a performance improvement plan for addressing the problems and also provide a potential solution. Another example is a marketing department using a tool that costs huge but the tool needs constant troubleshooting. Even, the marketing team is not using the tool to its fullest and rarely uses it. In favor of a new solution, the manager of the marketing department thinks about scraping the tool. A newly added member to an executive team in an organization does not work well with other members of the team and causes friction. Even after several performance discussions, he continues to follow the same approach. Now, the team leader decides to let this member go off the team. These are examples of remedial changes taken as one of the types of change management.

When it comes to the management of remedial changes, it is much easier to set and hold people accountable to actionable and measurable goals. It is better to follow the SMART Goals framework. Further, it would be good to have regular progress meetings with the team to keep them on track and stay side-by-side of probable issues. Also, before moving off a person in a team or before changing a tool that is being used, it is better to do some research work. Before making a major change, it would be a good idea to consider other alternatives. Further, it would be good to be transparent and hold regular meetings and reviews with struggling team members to make sure that the remedial change happens successfully.

5. Piecemeal Changes:

Piecemeal change is one of the types of changes in change management. It is nothing but a change only in certain strategies when others continue to be followed as such. An excellent example of this change is the change made by the marketing team in an organization to meet the growing competition. Here, the marketing team does the change without affecting other functional strategies to make it a piecemeal change.

6. Unplanned Change:

Things do not go as planned at times in organizations. So, whenever unexpected events happen, unplanned changes are  made for taking the appropriate action to handle the situation. It is not possible to predict unplanned changes. However, it is possible to handle an unplanned change in an organized manner. For instance, in a hurricane that hit the United States in 2017, the residents were forced to vacate their houses and they took temporary shelter away from their homes. After this emergency evacuation, many people with properties affected by the hurricane started taking steps to bring back normalcy to their lives.

Similar to the example above, companies experience changes that they have not predicted earlier. When there is a security breach or when one of the key people in the organization quit the job, disruption and chaos begin. To handle these situations, it would be good for any organization to set fundamental change strategies in place. When this is done, organizations can reduce these unplanned risks and can emerge as more resilient and adaptable.

7. Personnel Change:

When talking about the types of change management, personnel change management should also be handled with the utmost care. Changes in the personnel happen when the company experiences layoffs or hyper-growth. This change can bring a great effect on employee retention and engagement. To handle this situation, employees should be motivated and genuine compassion should be shown so that they can give their best during difficult times. 

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