Change management

Change management is a structured approach to help you plan, implement and sustain business transitions. It comprises models, procesess and techniques to help ease the impact change can have on a business.

Change management helps you address key questions:

• What needs to change in your business and why?
• What resources do you need to achieve this change?
• How will you manage and communicate the change?
• What is the impact on your employees and organisation?
• What does it mean for your customers?

You may be rolling out new software, re-engineering processes, redesigning products or transforming your whole business. Follow a structured process to manage significant change effectively.

Importance of change management

Change management helps businesses adapt to shifting markets, customer needs, technology and competition. A strong approach builds resilience against crises and supports planned growth. 

Even without external pressures, businesses often need to change. Effective management turns challenges into opportunities for success, while poor handling risks disruption to staff, teams and operations.

Follow simple change management principles for lasting impact and read more on the benefits of change management.

Ability to manage change in business

There are varying levels of change management capability across organisations. These can range from little or no formal change management (with the highest rate of failure and productivity loss) to complete change management competency (with the highest profitability and continuous improvement process in place).

In between these two, there is a multitude of other approaches to change management, which can be used at the individual project level or with multiple projects, or embedded in organisational standards and methods.