Change Management - Leading the Change

You go to work and do the same thing, the same way, day after day but expecting that the results will be different. Why? How? A lot of you, as doctors, reading this, will recognise this as the standard definition of insanity for business! What is it based on? Nothing but hope.

It’s a well-known fact that 70% of all change efforts fail. This failure is not because change is not wanted or indeed required but it is often down to the leadership of the change process. People inherently do not like change, they are comfortable with the status quo and see change as threatening to them and their world and thus they react against it. They do this even if they know that change is needed, and that the outcome could be of benefit to them. It is the fear factor!

We need to be able to change to adopt to the ever-changing environment we operate in and indeed to the ever-changing rules thrust upon us. This is never more so than in the NHS.

So how do we give ourselves the best chance of getting the change we need. We need a clear process to lead the change and see it through. This process should enable us to manage and become adept at change.

So, what are the steps we need to effect change in an organisation:

• Create a feeling within the organisation of the need for change and the urgency for it.
• Put together a group, with importantly enough power within the organisation to lead the change. Remember dealing with change is a group project, no individual can develop the vision, communicate it and remove all the obstacles to change.
• Develop a vision of the organisation after change. Make sure that it is feasible, focused, and flexible to allow for individuals to use initiative.
• Communicate the vision to get ‘buy in’.
• Remove barriers to change. Ask people to try it and not to be negative without doing so.
• Keep going. Do not give up when you get resistance, which you will do.
• Make it stick. The change should be embedded in the practice, so it becomes culture.

Tradition is a comforting force. It means that we are familiar with what we are doing and not threatened. Change undermines all of this and thus it is one of the hardest challenges facing organisations today.

To achieve change, the majority of your people must believe and embrace it.

If you are trying to manage change within your practice and need some guidance or ‘hands on’ input, do contact us to arrange a discussion with our ‘in house’ management consultant.