Four steps for change

Four steps for change

Working with change management during the last 10 years one has been able to see a pattern of which elements are needed to ensure the possibility for change. Working particular with equality we have developed four steps for change that is always present in our work. There is not one change process in the organization but many, on different levels and also connected to people. Therefore we use to ask our participants in our workshops to identify where they are, where their team are, where the upper management are and where the organization on the whole is. This is order to make strengths and weaknesses in the structure visible.

1. To see

If you want to support an organization where everyone have the possibility to grow and contribute to the success of the organization you have to continuously do work. As people and the world is changing the circumstances of the work and the work place changes.

If the norms of the work is not visible, there is a need to make them visible. One need to see what are the norms that limit and exclude people in the organization. This norms can be found through statistic data, polls and interviews connected to well being, leadership and working conditions. Patterns where the young to not stay, the people of colour are in minority and there is a lack of women in the upper management tells about the norms the organization inhabit. What to people see and not see in your organisation?

2. To understand

One of the myths in organisations is that it is only up to you if you succeed or not. With the facts at hand it is important to connect them to critical research on diversity and gender. Sometimes there is a need of external support. Change management need openness, not fear to look in a new direction neither to admit there are some (structural) challenges. Do you have a common understanding about why this equality challenge is there?

3. To posses the objectives

When the analysis is clear and the organisation is aware of the challenges, it is time to set the objectives. These can be conducted top down or down up. It is vital that the people in charge of the change process feels they own and possess, both the challenges and the objectives. This is a critical point in the process as these objectives are to be anchored in the organization. What kind of methods do you use to anchor objectives

4. To change

To many times we meet clients that somehow jumped some over the steps and do not have the organization on board on this journey. The change in it self is always conducted by people. Our experiences shows that the merge to change is not a tool for change – there is a need of practical introduction, cases but also hands-on training to know how really to do it. It doesn’t matter if you are the HR-chief, account assistant, a teacher or selling coffee in a café – the change is there or it is not there through the acts but also the non-acts in your every day work.

It is a journey where you have to know how to travel to reach your destination, do all have the tools?

Malin Gustavsson, Ekvalita