Business Change Management: How Staying Focused On Your Initiative Can Improve The World
When acting as a change agent, it is critical to keep your priorities straight. When it comes to dealing with priorities they ought to be addressed in the following order. First you need to focus on your project and then the world. Your project refers to the business change management initiative you have been assigned. The term world is referencing your organization’s change environment. It takes effort not to get caught up with deficiencies in the change environment. Nonetheless, you cannot afford to divert attention to anything outside your project.
As a change agent your resources are scarce. You need to keep your eye on your project to make sure that your resources are be best used there. It really is best to be frugal with your resources. Projects with very narrow scopes have fewer problems with resource allocation. If you like what you do, make sure that your business change management initiative does something by its conclusion. This is what you are being paid to do. Making use of practical project design will enhance your ability to fulfill your duties. This means going after things that are highly achievable, with tangible results, and big impact. That’s the secret to being an effective change agent.
Odds are very good that your job description did not include fixing the change environment. In the end, only executives really have the power to make those changes. The ball has to roll downhill to achieve change of that order. You can and should try to exert some influence toward getting those changes. Pragmatism demands that your investment in effecting those changes be minimal. Even the world as change environment in a company is a very complex thing and difficult to change. Patience is a necessary virtue when it comes to fixing a change environment. There is always the possibility of finding like minded people in Human Resources or Training and Development. Altering the change environment is under their purview. You can enact the changes you would like to see on the large scale in the microcosm of your project as a means of being a role model.
Public relations is a large part of your job as a change agent. Everyone loves a winner, so managing successful projects will be fantastic PR for you. If your business change management is the best in your organization, get that information out there. Blow your own horn, so to speak. It’s a fact that real power rests in winning hearts and minds; so start winning. Those who like you will support you. Sticking with a specific project that is highly achievable, has demonstrable results, and creates a big impact improves success rates. This will increase your resources, allowing you to affect the change environment more, thereby increasing your ability to have project success and so on.
Your role, as change agent, is to manage a project. Business change management that works is what you are there to do. The change environment is a red herring for you. That is ultimately the executive’s job. Remember, only successful change projects can fuel long-term improvement in an organization’s change environment.
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