Greetings Leaders!
I had an interesting discussion the other day with some executives about Organizational Change Management. They asked what I thought Change Management meant to me. It sounds like it would be an obvious answer, but it is not as obvious as it might first appear.
I believe Change Management, means managing change…. to accomplish a specific goal. For example, the following goals would all bring about a different focus as to how change is managed.
Changing a process to…
- Generate revenue
- Realize cost savings
- Improve retention
- Ensure project viability
All these are valid goals that need to be approached differently. If you are just interested in generating revenue, it becomes business process re-engineering. If cost savings, a structured approach to reigning in cost. To improve retention, requires tackling cultural changes. Project viability requires looking at strategic goals and project management processes. All of these are change management.
In our discussion, I also tended to interchange the word “management” with “control”. They asked me if Change Control was the same as Change Management. What do you think?
All the best!
All the time!
JT
I’d say that management is an attempt to control, but I wouldn’t the other way around. Not sure why. It just doesn’t feed right.
Hi David!
I never quite thought about it that way, but understand what you mean. Hmmm, I wonder what it says about me when I use the term Change Control vs. Change Management. There’s a subtle difference, but I think I use the word “control” more often. I’ll have to contemplate that for a bit. Thanks for the input!