All organizations face change, small or large. How these changes are created and implemented has changed over the years, in other words; change management is changing! We regularly see organizations that do not have a suitable approach to successfully complete a change process, do not understand the new developments and trends and often still rely on old methodologies for change. So what does the new way of change look like? What can the new trends mean for you? And how can you as an organization respond timely and well to the changes of our time? Supply Value explores the 2021 change trends for you! In this insight, we briefly zoom in on two trends that you can apply immediately and look at how it is that change management is changing now.
How are change processes in the new way of working successfully accomplished? And what are the best practices in this? Many managers with a new project or change task to start up currently have little idea about this. This often makes change a laborious, lengthy and costly process. That is why it is important to gain insight into the science of change and its developments. Supply Value investigates the change trends of 2021 in order to offer tools to (project/program) managers and executives with a change task. Through the results of the research we will give you insight into the challenges and best practices of your colleagues and industry peers and tell you more about current methodologies and tools that are relevant to you.
From the market and peers, Supply Value sees different trends and different ways to apply or implement these trends. These include the following two current trends: the continuous process and the new way of working. Supply Value briefly takes you through these trends.
A continuous process
We see that change management is increasingly becoming part of regular business operations. Where changes used to be imposed mainly top-down, we now see more and more responsibility with employees and more self-organization. With self-organization, ownership is shared, enabling teams to respond quickly to customer needs, opportunities and threats. This allows the team to steer dynamically within the set frameworks. By stimulating initiatives for change not only top-down but also bottom-up in the organization, the entire organization becomes responsible for continuously proposing and contributing to improvements and changes. Changes are no longer seen as a separate process with a beginning and an end, but as a continuous process.
More and more organizations are developing a cooperative style of change to go along with this change. However, we also see some challenges emerging with change management as a continuous process. Now that we (mainly) work from home and have organized working in a new way, it is a challenge for many organizations to keep improving and changing continuously. How can we set this up properly from home? And how will change management develop in this area in the coming years?
The new way of working
The way we work in the Netherlands is constantly changing. Currently, we stay indoors, we keep distance and we work (mainly) from home. This creates a new or adapted approach for change projects: after all, we can no longer intensively guide a change process at the office, execute implementation plans or physically brainstorm new ideas for improvements. Random interactions have also largely disappeared. We see the rise of technological developments and applications, which allow us to implement change in a variety of ways. These developments will greatly change the art of change management.
Now that almost everyone is familiar with working from home and has found his or her place in it, the next challenge is: how can we find a good balance between digital and physical change? And how can we include people digitally in new change processes in order to continue to improve and grow as an organization? Larger change processes, involving many people and implementing changes on location are difficult to implement digitally. To ensure the quality of a change and to be able to complete it successfully, it is often a good idea to execute the process physically. But this does not apply to all changes. It is becoming increasingly accessible to take on small and medium-sized changes digitally. A well-known concept involved here is e-change, which is now taking on an increasingly important role within change management. E-change is the digital execution of change management through the use of apps/tools or e-learning, for example. By using the right apps/tools or e-learning, one can successfully implement change even in the new world of work. By e-change we mean not only the digital tools that come in handy while working from home, but also applications such as gamification. This is the use of game thinking, game techniques and game elements in a non-game environment. The goal is to playfully change behavior, create engagement and transfer knowledge. Are you ready to apply these new trends, among others, within our organizations? And to continue change as a continuous process in the organization? Download the full insight below.
