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Book of Change
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Introduction
Organizational Change Management
Effective change management balances strategic organizational focus, processes and people. Organizational change management (OCM) should begin with a systematic diagnosis of the current situation in order to determine both the need for change and the capacity to change. The objectives, content, and process of change should all be specified as part of a change management plan.
Companies today are racing to analyze data for new insights and tapping into employees and customers for innovative ideas to stay ahead of competitors – all resulting in changes that require implementation. This, plus the rapid evolution of customer requirements, governmental regulation, and the business environment requires organizations to adapt quickly, making change management – the systematic approach to the transformation of goals, processes and technologies – a core leadership discipline.
Organizational change management (OCM) is a term for approaches to prepare, support, and provide help to individuals, teams, and organizations in making organizational change. The most common change drivers include: technological evolution, external crisis, consumer habit changes, and pressure from new business entrants such as acquisitions, mergers, and organizational restructuring. It includes methods that redirect or redefine the use of resources, business process, budget allocations, or other modes of operation that significantly change a company or organization.
Organizational change management (OCM) considers the full organization and what needs to change, while change management may be used solely to refer to how people and teams are affected by such organizational transition. It deals with many different disciplines, from behavioral and social sciences to information technology and business solutions.In a project-management context, the term "change management" may be used as an alternative to change control processes wherein changes to the scope of a project are formally introduced and approved.
Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage
the people side of change to achieve a required business outcome
What is an Organization?
I have created a Glossary section to help the reader understand the unique lexicon of organizational change management (OCM). However, there are a few terms that are fundamental to understanding the change management process. First and foremost is understanding the word organization. Before we can change something, we must understand what that something is. A common conceptualization is that organizations are social structures created by individuals to support the collaborative pursuit of specified goals (Handel, 2003, p. 11).
However, there are various ways to describe the form and function of organizations. In the fields of psychology, sociology, and political science, the are thousands of books, essays, and dissertations written about the distinctions and between the individual and collectives of individuals called organizations. There is no more fundamental aspect of our humanity than what we do together when we form an organization to do something. I am not being flippant when I say that an organization is a bunch of people doing something. From the beginning of humanity's origins, people worked together to meet the basic physiological and safety requirements of Maslow's Hierarchy. They worked together to hunt for food, to create shelter against the environment, and to defend the tribe against existential threats.
In the end, I had to devote an entire page to grappling with the concept and reality of the question “What is an Organization?”
If you google the catchphrase “9/11”, it will say “About 451,000,000 results (0.78 seconds)” However, if you google COVID-19, then it says “About 5,720,000,000 results (0.56 seconds).” That is a multiple of 13. The truth is that although 9/11 may have scarred the American psyche, but it had not reached down into its day-to-day life. Oh, the TSA lines got longer when, but we still took our annual vacation trip to Florida or Hawaii.
But it did not create a shortage of toilet paper. It did not keep little Bobbie or Barbi home from school. It did not recreate the corner home office into an actual business office. No, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 changed our personal daily routines and the daily routines of our organizations. The year 2020 was the year organizational change management or OCM was institutionalized. The change we faced is as exponential, as it is existential.
How many predicted the 911/Twin Towers attack (2001), the Great Recession (2007), the European Brexit (2016), the Presidency of Donald Trump (2017), or COVID-19 (2020)? Not since the tumultuous years of World War II (1939-1945) has the world been in such turmoil and forced change.
Today’s changes are nothing short of a cultural pandemic. In medical terms, a disease pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads across a large region, multiple continents, or even worldwide. A disease is curable. However, A cultural pandemic is not curable. A cultural pandemic is immutable. In other words, it changes you, you don’t change it.
With a cultural pandemic, either you cure it, or it kills you. Humanity has faced disease pandemic many times from the Black Death to the COVID-19. But a "cultural pandemic" is not curable. It's impact change the culture forever. A cultural pandemic is immutable. In other words, it changes you, you don’t change it. I use the word immutable for a very good reason. What we are facing is nothing short of immutable change. Immutable change means unchanging over time or unable to be changed. Ponder that. It is exactly what Heraclitus of Ephesus told us 2,500 years ago, "The only thing that is constant is change." There is the oxymoron for you - immutable change. The impacts of are not curable. It can only be reckoned since it is a culturable pandemic.
The Book of Change© is both a meta-analysis model and a resource publication where the reader can learn about the change management process. You can learn about the history, terminology, institutions, and current thinking regarding the topic. But much of the publication is built on the thinking of others who have been or are contributing to the field.
A cultural pandemic is not curable. A cultural pandemic is immutable. In other words, it changes you, you don’t change it.