Wheel Of Change – The Perfect Model for Change Management Strategy

The world of business is constantly evolving. Traditional processes are being abandoned, as newer business models are created and adopted. With COVID-19 the pace of these changes has accelerated at unprecedented levels. Many firms are feeling the impact of the rate of change and finding ways to cope with what is happening within and outside their organization.

In these times, utilizing Change Management frameworks can help ease the pain of change and maximize the opportunity available. In this context, the Wheel of Change concept is a powerful way to present your ideas in a meaningful and succinct way, ensuring you are planning for all possibilities and contingencies within your organization when implementing a change strategy. In this blog, you will learn:

Facets of Changes

First, a quick guide on the key facets of change management. These facets are set up in increasing order of difficulty to manage.

These facets are highly interconnected, and cannot exist separately. This is also what allows the change process to be a cyclical one within a firm. The bigger the challenge, the more relevant change management frameworks like the Wheel of Change become.

The Wheel of Change: How To Create Your Own Change Management Program

(a) Organizational Steps

These steps are enacted at the organizational level. This implies that certain decisions need to be made within the Change Management Strategy, keeping the broader organization in mind. Here are these steps for your reference

1. Make The Case For Change

Understand what makes for a good change story. It is imperative that you outline why your firm requires a change, and how that change may impact their initiatives. This includes making risk/opportunity assessments and an effective implementation strategy. A good trick to keep in mind is to come up with a strategy that consists of answers to three fundamental questions – Why? What? How? Additionally, quantify your findings so you can be more credible in presenting your strategy. If you don’t have the numbers to back you up, think about how you can effectively present quantified data and modify your strategy accordingly.

2. Enroll Change Leaders

Going back to the human element of a Change Management Strategy, think about how to involve leaders that will uphold and implement your change strategy. Figure out how the involvement of leaders and influencers will affect your strategy, and if it will prove to be effective. This is also where you outline your plans for sponsors and promoters, explicating their actions and factors involved in making changes to the overall structure.

3. Engage The Organisation

Change cannot be effective unless it is adopted by the various stakeholders involved. Therefore, do a comprehensive stakeholder analysis and figure out the role everyone in your organization has to play. This includes assessing the level of engagement required and how you plan on achieving it, including incentives and opportunities for those involved.

This step of the wheel may be highly ineffective if you don’t keep in mind the current mindset and skillset of your organization. So, come up with an exhaustive list of current capabilities and what’s required, understanding what needs to be changed or retained.

(b) Local Steps

Local Steps are enacted at a local, or micro level. These involve understanding the human element of your firm intrinsically and keeping the local nuances into account. Here are the steps for your reference and use

1. Build Local Sponsorship

Local sponsorships are integral to a successful Change Management Strategy. And it also means that you need to be willing to move on blockers. Come up with a checklist for how you intend to go build local sponsorship and analyze the results of your data, keeping in mind the priorities, initiatives, and other aspects that pertain to building successful local sponsorship.

2. Create Personal Commitment

Utilize the influence model to create personal commitment in your organization. The idea is to present a framework that will provide behavioral modification tools that effectively bring on change at a personal level Role modeling, reinforcement measures, etc., are ways of introducing change and creating personal commitment within a firm.

3. Sustain Personal Performance

This is the part of your strategy that is perhaps hardest to quantify or predict. However, you should be prepared for all possibilities. Come up with a list of possible burnout risks and think of mitigation measures for them preemptively.

Think about all the possible problems and risk factors that may arise within your strategy and ensure you have a plan in place to tackle them. You should be in control of your personal performance from the get-go.

TEMPLATES TO CREATE AND PRESENT YOUR WHEEL OF CHANGE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Wheel of Change

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Wheel Of Change Model

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Change Management Plan

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Change Management Plan

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Browse through a wider collection of Change Management Templates 

Change Management Plan Templates

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Conclusion

Creating an effective and sustainable Change Management Strategy can require a lot of groundwork. However, the Wheel of Change can help you present your plans in a practical and effective manner, something which is crucial to the successful implementation of your strategy!