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SPANNING THREE DECADES OF VALUE MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP

August 6, 2002

10 Change Management Strategies That You Need To Master (Part 1 of 2)

“Nothing Endures But Change, So By Mastering Change You

Will Set Yourself Apart From Your Peers By Light Years”

Robert T. Yokl, President, The HCP Group, Ltd.

Most people and organizations deal with change of any kind by denying it, avoiding it or running from it with disastrous results.  Only by mastering change or the fear of it can you truly become effective and successful in your chosen field of supply chain manage-ment. The reality in today’s marketplace is that if continuous change isn’t managed properly, the growth of your organization will be stunted and your organization will ultimately breathe its last breath of creativity.  To assist you in avoiding this unpleasant outcome, I have listed below 10 change management strategies that, if you master them, it will set you apart from your peers by light years and insure your continued career growth onward and upward:

1.                Find A High-Quality Reason For Making Any Change And Quantify It

Change for change sake will never energize your organization to empower you to make changes, even if you believe the change to be extremely important.  To make positive change you must have a high-quality reason for any proposed change you are contemplating -- reduce cost, increase profits, improve quality – that can be quantified in dollars and cents $$$$$. 

2.                Have A Plan That Everyone Understands, Can Relate To and Buys Into

Activity without planning is a waste of your time and energy.  By developing a comprehensive plan describing the what, when, where, how and why, you will make this change happen. If you have done your homework it will enable everyone involved in the change to understand it, envision how they fit into the plan, and decide that it is important for them to make this change.

3.                Set Targets and Measure Your Results

If you don’t set targets and measure the results of your change you will: (a) not be able to gain your management’s attention for the change, (b) not be able to motivate others to change (c) not know if your change had the impact you predicted and (d) lose credibility when you propose other changes in the future, because you will have no track record of success to build on.

4.                Communicate Often And Obsessively

No change is ever communicated once and instantly assimilated into an organization’s culture.  Changes must be communicated often, then polished, refined, and sometimes reinvented to get the message right and target the right audience. It must become an obsession with you to communicate often and in as many forums as possible to get your message across to all affected parties on why the change is needed, what is changing, how the change will affect them and their department, the impact of the change on the organization’s bottom line, and what’s happening with the change implementation now.

5.                Take No Credit and Give Ownership To Others

One powerful secret to change management’s success is to “take no credit” for the achievements or changes that you proposed and “give ownership” to anyone who steps up and takes a leadership position in your change initiative.  Your goal shouldn’t be to receive credit for the change (short-term thinking), but to make the change you propose happen. You will get credit in due course (long-term thinking) as your management sees that you are a person they can trust to makes things happen in their organization.

Since this topic requires more time to digest than we have space this week for in this newsletter, I will continue next week with the last five change management strategies (No Surprises, Manipulation or Games; Give Time For Digestion; Stay Aware and Flexibility; Give Rewards and Recognition and; Be Positive At All Times) to complete this important topic.  If you would like to add your ideas and experience to this topic, please e-mail me at strategicva.com and I will be happy to share them with our readers.

Robert T. Yokl, President, The HCP Group, Ltd., has over 35 years of experience as a consultant and manager in the field of Supply/Value Chain Management and is one of the country's leading healthcare experts in value analysis, value engineering and materials management. He is the developer and program leader of the award winning Certified Value Analysis Practitioner Training Program™. Mr. Yokl is also the developer of the healthcare industry's leading ValueNetCentral™ Value Analysis Software. Over the past two decades he has trained thousands of healthcare managers in his patented Strategic Value Analysis™ and Team-Based Project Management™ processes and has assisted scores of organizations in developing their own value management programs. He has published six books, videos and audios on supply/value chain management. His latest book being, “ Strategic Value Analysis™: The #1 Smart Strategy for Taking Cost Out of a Healthcare Organizations’ Supply/Value Chain”.