Change Management

What is change management?

Organisations don’t change. People do. Change management is the entire process of moving people.

Change Communications is communicating about the change so that people can understand what is going on around them. Communicating about change must always be personal.

Change comes in many forms, from downsizing to relocation, from installing new IT systems to corporate identity change. Handled well, change can be a positive experience. Handled badly and you will encounter resistance. It is vital to understand the concerns of both individuals and groups.

So if you want to know how effective change communication and transformation works, and how it can work for you, let Di Burton, one of the leading change management consultants in the UK explain.

Di Burton - Change Management Consultant

Di’s experience as a change management consultant covers work with the health sector and the rail industry. Her change management consultancy skills are also widely recognised by local authorities and government departments who are experiencing radical budget cuts.

She has advised major motor manufacturers experiencing unprecedented growth, professional services firms during mergers and acquisitions and run culture change programmes for all the emergency services.

Di with Charles Handy (Photo by Habie Schwarz)

How Di Works

Di works with leaders who may be thinking about a more purpose-driven style of leadership and uses her change management skills and experience to help them motivate through the sharing of powerful stories that belong to everyone. She will develop a short and simple communication strategy and demonstrate how it requires ownership, accountability and continuous work over a long period to ensure good practice is maintained. The focus is on face-to-face engaging communications, where employees are listened to and feel that their contribution matters. Leaders and managers are guided in how to be visible, have meaningful conversations with their people and to consider the needs of the individual.

Di also works with HR and OD teams, designing communication programmes that ‘translate’ messages from the board to managers to create trust and a strong emotional bond with the organisation.

Culture

Di examines the corporate culture first. Corporate culture is the glue that holds employees together. Culture change can’t happen simply by telling people what is happening, and foisting on them a new set of values. It can’t happen by only setting up collaboration spaces and designing some eLearning. Di will challenge the rationale as to why norms of behaviour(business as usual activities) are tolerated. She will work with leadership teams and find those with the energy behind the need for change.

Change takes time. Shifting the culture requires a new narrative. Stories provide a shared system of language and meaning. Done properly, a shared understanding of purpose is the glue between business strategy, values and mission, CSR and the many ways in which people prioritise and make decisions every day. Di can craft new narratives which demonstrate to employees new ways of working. She helps them leave the old ways behind and transition into new practices that have become business critical.