Change management is a term which is thrown around with reckless abandon. It is sometimes perceived as ambiguous and broad, yet when applied directly can hold specific meanings.
To extract value from change management rather than simply viewing it as a buzzword, you must tailor your approach based on organizational needs. There are multiple beliefs surrounding change management, but what’s even more distinct is IT change management.
IT professionals have an entirely different view of change management, which is only right when you consider how fast IT technologies evolve compared with other departments.
Change management isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, so it’s best to separate succinctly different philosophies. There is business change management and IT change management, where the latter is widely governed by the ITIL.
Creating a distinction between the two offers clarity, in a business world where IT departments often gets caught in the middle.
Expectations from management are sky high when it comes to embracing new technology, where IT staff are presumed capable of adjusting to various ideologies with no problems.
Unfortunately, things are never that easy, especially when you consider change can be a disruptive force which sways significantly from the status quo. Here you can suffer from lack of engagement, but to keep your team engaged in dire times try one of these exercises.
That’s where IT change management comes into play, to safeguard against risks, and ensure a smooth transition to new processes. Before we get to IT change management, let’s first establish a base definition of change managementdefinition of change management:
What is Organizational Change Management?
This is an umbrella term which encapsulates the framework for managing new processes. It additionally plays a prominent role in cultural changes, and the organizational structure itself.
Overall, it looks at the human side of change management, particularly from a behavioral standpoint. The modern concept brings discipline into the equation, forming an integral component of transitional phases.
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With good organizational change management, your company will seamlessly flow into new procedures, anticipating common barriers to success.
There are multiple approaches, where organizational change is viewed as more than a strategic approach to training. To help you understand change management better, it can be assessed at three core levels:
Individual Change Management:
This is designed to help people transition, into either new roles, or within their current roles. There are multiple models for managing individual change, and this is the first step to bigger things.
When individuals are ready to embrace change, and can leverage the resources they need to do so, organizations can start considering change on a wider basis.
Organizational Change Management:
This focuses on the project level, where teams are trained to align with the overarching goals of change. This is a progressive step where change is beginning to be embraced organization-wide.
Enterprise Change Management
This is initiated when everyone is ready to embrace their role, alongside new processes and a forward-thinking culture. By this point, change is becoming embedded in the enterprise, and eventually becomes the status quo.
This is the final stage for all-around sponsorship and buy-in, where everyone is fully committed and fully encompass the change.
IT Change Management
Organizational change has a very unique set of characteristics, surrounding culture, process, and people.
IT change management has an entirely different meaning altogether, mostly through its association with product and software development.
This means IT change management takes on a dissonant identity, and is instead perceived as the process responsible for controlling a life cycle of changes. This occurs within the service transition stage of proceedings.
IT change management concerns the standardized processes for efficiently handling all changes relating to IT infrastructure. It’s overarching goal is to reduce the impact of risk upon delivery.
IT infrastructure is subject to regular changes, and the technological advancements within your IT department will have a transferable impact on the rest of the organization.
Change is abundant here, and occasionally unplanned changes will surface. This is when IT change management proves its resiliency, where staff are forced to adapt to the unexpected.
IT Changes can additionally be executed through internal mandates, which are designed to reflect service improvement and increase efficiency.
Organizations who thrive in IT change management usually utilize effective change management software, to avoid tracking an assortment of emails and spreadsheets.
When managed in an unorganized fashion, it is difficult to properly implement process automation, collaborate planned change, and audit for compliance reasons.
It is the responsibility of IT change managers to speed up CAB approvals, and perform various duties central to IT transformations.
These can occur on a near weekly basis, so companies need to govern IT change management processes regularly. This will prevent disastrous outcomes like compliance penalties, security breaches, and unplanned outages.
By maintaining a steady diet of organizational and IT change, you’ll be perfectly positioned to manage change on a cultural and technological level.
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