Change Management

"Society, community, family are all conserving institutions. They try to maintain stability, and to prevent, or at least to slow down, change. But the organization... is a destabilizer. Because its function is to put knowledge to work -- on tools, processes, and products; on work; on knowledge itself -- it must be organized for constant change."
- Peter F. Drucker

Organisational change occurs when a new work system is introduced, or, an existing system is improved. People often have difficulty adapting to change, particularly if the change involves learning and applying new skills. Effectively implementing a new or changed system in an organisation is a subtle art, combining many areas of management practice, including people management, workplace negotiation, training program design, internal and external marketing and communications, project management and other areas specific to the change itself.

Change management seems to be a "buzz" phrase of the mid 2000's. Business school courses and consulting methodologies are being re-written with change as the focus, to appear contemporary and relevant. However, the core ideas in change management are not new. This is really an evolution of project management that focuses on employees' acceptance of the "new and improved", rather than the processes required to achieve the "new and improved".

This is not, of itself, a bad thing. On the contrary, lack of acceptance and buy-in has long been seen as a major cause of project failure, so, to address these problems up-front makes a lot of sense. But, the idea that this is a whole new area of management practice that must be learned and disseminated is a product of marketing spin. Good managers have been managing change successfully for a very long time.