This is the first and most important of the five Process Flows.
The purpose of this Process Flow is to identify change initiatives in a controlled manner, ensuring strategic alignment, revisiting the strategic directions where necessary and obtaining the ownership and buy in of the stakeholders. It is also to capture and specify key informational elements defining the high-level understanding of the change and what is required to be done in the next process flow.
The activities in Build a Change Environment Process Flow are:
- Revisit the Vision and Strategic Directions
- Understand the Organizational Drivers
- Change the Vision and Values as Necessary
- Identify and Position the Change Initiatives
- Examine impact on the Vision and change it if required
- Obtain Top Team Buy In
- Agree the Change Initiatives
- Initiate the Enterprise Change Initiative
- Design the Enterprise Change Preparation Plan
This Process Flow takes the CEO and Top Team through their Stewardship Process, whose end output is the Strategic Plan or Business Plan. Through this Stewardship Process they will identify a number of change initiatives of varying complexity, prioritised by order of importance and urgency and other criteria, then segregated according to the owning Function.
Collectively these change initiatives form the strategic backdrop against which all change will be initiated, coordinated, controlled and measured.
The CEO and Top Team will recognise the need to show and maintain the corporate commitment, to the degree of investment required, to sponsor and progress the change initiatives. They will recognise those operational areas and functions that will be affected by the change. They will:
- Seek reassurance, during the change activities, that stakeholders and user groups are kept engaged, feel involved and are in receipt of timely and effective communications.
- Assess the change initiatives for their complexity and position them within the different management environments, according to the Complexity of Change Continuum®
- Decide on the approval of the Enterprise Change Charter
- Decide on the approval of the Enterprise Change Preparation Plan