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Define Change Management

Can we define change management in a way that helps to understand how to manage change? We hope to try and do so with this article. At the outset though it is worth remembering that whilst a whole industry has developed to promote ever more complex models for change management we could think of change as Charles Handy put it:

"Change, after all, is only another word for growth, another synonym for learning, we can all do it, if we want to."

Change may seem complex but often there is much that is natural about change too - nothing stays the same!

For a better understanding of what is change management, it helps to first think about change itself. It has been said that whilst change might be constant it is not necessarily the same. Change may be here to stay but there are different types of change that may well require different approaches to managing them.

So take a minute to read the article and then think about how the way you define change management might help you improve how you manage change.

With that in mind, UK Academic Andrew Pettigrew argues that to understand change you need to understand "the process of change in context." He proposes that change is perhaps best thought of in terms of three aspects:

Context - the environment in which it is happening

Content - what the change is

Process - the way the change is being implemented.

It is useful to add two other factors:

people and

purpose

Change is difficult and complex and can often be uncertain. So there is a real need to bring people with you and to continually try to make sense of the context together whilst developing clarity and purpose for why the changes are happening (purpose).

Towards a Definition

To help define change management in a way that helps to determine how you might manage change it is important to try to understand:

Context - the environment in which change is taking place

Content - what the change actually is

Process - the activities and approaches being applied to manage change relevant to the context and content

People - their view on change, their ideas and commitment

Purpose - clear reason of why the change is taking place

to help realise the benefits of change management

Therefore we suggest defining change management as:

Adopting processes to managing change that are appropriate to the nature, characteristics and context of the change being managed, that take people with you and are focused on achieving successful outcomes.

Still pressed for time? Follow this link for the full list of Manage in a Minute pages.

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