CHANGE MANAGEMENT · SYSTEMIC

Change processes with participation and staying power.

Merger, transformation, buy and build, a change of strategy, culture work — change in organisations takes many forms. A good change architecture gives direction, clarifies decisions and combines participation with the capacity to act. It increases the likelihood that an intention to change becomes changed practice. And it stays flexible enough to revisit and revise its goals when better options appear along the way.

We accompany and orchestrate change projects. Depending on the change initiative, we work with leadership teams, project groups or larger parts of the organisation — in sparring, in workshops and large-group formats, on a robust change story, and with tools that make implementation progress visible and open to discussion. Let us start with a conversation:

Talk to us about your change project →

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THE CHANGE MAP

What kind of change?

Change projects can be distinguished by urgency and readiness. Whether an organisation is being optimised, realigned, merged or rebuilt from the ground up, the dynamics, the degree of participation and the interventions that make sense all differ.

Place your own change topic on the map with a click. You will get an initial indication of which kind of change you are dealing with — and what follows from that for the design of the process (after Heitger & Doujak, 2014):

EXAMPLE

How a change process unfolds.

Change processes take their bearings from your requirements, your goals and what is possible — and from what proves sensible and realistic along the way. Goals may be sharpened, adjusted or dropped as it unfolds.

Kotter’s eight steps (1996) give a first sense of the stages such a process may go through:

01
Explaining the urgency.
Why is change needed — and why now? A shared understanding of the starting situation gives direction and makes visible what happens if nothing happens.
02
Building a strong core team.
A small team, well composed and properly mandated.
03
Developing a vision and initiatives.
We work out a clear goal that the individual change initiatives feed into.
04
Organising understanding and participation.
We design an intelligent participation architecture that sustains engagement and understanding throughout the shared journey.
05
Clearing obstacles out of the way.
We set up regular reviews and work out how obstacles can best be removed.
06
Making short-term wins visible.
We start with solutions for straightforward issues with high impact. Early changes show that something is moving — and where adjustment is needed.
07
Driving the change forward.
Change needs staying power. We do not stop asking what the next sensible step is.
08
Embedding change in the culture. Creating stability.
Our aim is not only to reach your goal — but to leave behind an organisation that can navigate the next change with confidence and competence.