Change Management Consulting: Change That Sticks in the Plant

Change management is the planned guidance of a change process in an organisation, from analysis through communication to embedding. It takes care of the human side of change: do those affected understand why something is changing, are they willing to go along, can they do the new thing, and is it being followed up? The tools are stakeholder analysis, change story, communication concept, enabling managers and success monitoring. Without change management, a change often ends up technically finished but practically unused.

Most models describe a similar sequence. It starts with analysis (what changes, for whom, with what consequences), then preparation with change story, communication concept and enabling of the managers. Then comes implementation, in which you communicate, train and work with resistance, and finally embedding, in which the new becomes routine and relapses are prevented. Lewin sums this up as unfreeze, change, refreeze, Kotter in eight steps, ADKAR in five. In practice the phases overlap, and embedding is the one most often neglected.

The ADKAR model describes five steps that every single person has to go through: Awareness (of the need), Desire (the will to take part), Knowledge (of how), Ability (to actually do it) and Reinforcement (so that it sticks). It is well suited to diagnosing where a person or group is stuck. Kotter's eight steps describe the process at the organisational level: create urgency, build a guiding coalition, develop a vision, communicate it, remove obstacles, create quick wins, build on successes, anchor the change. Add to that Lewin's three-phase model and the Kübler-Ross curve for emotional reactions. I use them as maps, not as recipes.

A change manager plans and supports the human side of a change. They analyse who is affected and how, develop the change story and the communication concept, prepare managers for their role, facilitate workshops, hold conversations with those affected and measure whether the change is landing. They are not the one who pushes the change through; that remains the job of line management. A good change manager makes the managers capable of acting instead of doing the work for them, and is present where the resistance is.

In my experience, at five points. First, the urgency is not explained and the workforce does not understand why; second, middle management is bypassed and does not carry the change. Third, communication happens once, as an announcement, and then never again; fourth, resistance is treated as a disruption instead of as information. Fifth, the project ends with the technical implementation, and nobody follows up until the new way has become a habit. Anyone who takes these five points seriously has done the largest part of change management.

Resistance is normal and usually justified; it shows that people are taking the change seriously. The first step is to listen: what exactly does the person fear, what are they losing, what do they not know? Often there is factual information behind the resistance that the project needs. The second step is to answer honestly, even when the answer is uncomfortable. The third is to turn those affected into participants: whoever helps build the solution does not fight it. What does not work is ignoring it or applying pressure; both turn open resistance into silent resistance, and that is more dangerous.

Early, honestly, repeatedly and through the managers. Early means: before the rumours get there first. Honestly means: also saying what is still unclear instead of pretending certainty. Repeatedly means: one announcement is not enough; the message has to come back over weeks in town halls, team meetings, at the board and in one-to-one conversations. Through the managers means: the direct supervisor is the most important source of information, so they have to be informed and enabled before everyone else. And every communication answers the question every affected person asks: what does this mean for me?

The change story is the coherent narrative of why a change is necessary, where it leads and what it means for those involved. It answers four questions: where do we stand, why can we not stay as we are, where are we going, and how do we get there? A good change story is short, concrete and in the language of the listeners; the version for the shop floor sounds different from the one for the board of directors but says the same thing. It is the basis for all communication in the project and ensures that senior management, foremen and machine operators tell the same story.

After the initial consultation, I clarify the assignment and scope with you: which change, what time frame, what role for me. Then comes the analysis phase with stakeholder conversations, usually two to three days on site. From this come the change story, communication concept and action plan, which I agree with you. Before communication starts, I train the managers. During implementation I'm in the plant at fixed intervals, facilitating, coaching and adjusting. The support ends when the change is embedded in routines, not when the project is technically finished.