Recommended Change Management Policy and Procedures for Workplaces

Given the title, I’d ask an indulgence from readers, which is this: most organisations have some form of documented policy and procedures. A significant difference between organisations is how policy and procedures are applied. An often ignored or minimised factor is creating a positive culture for effective organisational change management. This requires an honest and transparent discussion on the impact of the current organisation culture and transitioning to the culture required to embed the desired change outcomes.   

I have worked and continue working with organisations trying to effect organisational change management. Most are reluctant to the point of ignoring “the elephant in the room”. That is, current organisation culture is a topic everyone knows requires discussion, agreement, and conviction to change. However, it is often ignored and instead people get busy “doing stuff”. This aspect of organisational culture can permeate the whole organisation, across and within all levels and functions. All the policy, procedures cannot mitigate, nor should they, an organisational culture misaligned with the desired outcomes from the change programme.

It is almost impossible to write 100% fool-proof policy and procedures. What is required is the organisation’s best efforts at policy and procedures. This, complimented by an organisational culture providing the required mindset and behaviour in applying, not only the letter of the policy and procedure, but also the spirit intended by the policy and procedure. 

The importance of best-effort policy and procedure with the appropriate organisational culture cannot be over-stated, nor should it be allowed to be minimised by “getting stuff done”. Policy and procedure without the appropriate mindset and behaviour are a significant, if not the most important factor, in delivering effective and efficient organisational change.

Organisational Change Management, Project Management and IT Infrastructure have a well-established and documented Body of Knowledge supporting each discipline. Why is it that the good practices documented in these, and other Bodies of Knowledge are not applied with understanding, rigour, and conviction?  I’d suggest organisational culture has a significant impact. Here’s an example. Timely, accurate, consistent, and transparent reporting are at the heart of any organisational change. Almost every organisation involved in any change or other project will claim to have policy and procedures in-place to reflect status reporting. These same organisations will almost certainly be struggling with “watermelon reporting”. What I mean by “watermelon reporting” is they are using a variation of traffic lights or red, amber, green (RAG) denoting what was planned versus actual delivery. “Watermelon reporting” is everything green on the outside but red on the inside. How many times is there policy and procedure related to reporting yet not applied. The non-application or misapplication can be directly attributed to organisational culture and lack of consequence management.

All organisations are different whether in purpose, size, products, or services provided. All are significantly different due to every member of any organisation being a unique individual. There are key areas which may be applied to every organisation though these will require customisation to achieve best fit with the organisation’s resources and the change being delivered. A strong recommendation to any change manager is keep with recognised good practices as they are. Only deviate from these with very good reason and document the requirement to change and the expected benefit.  A further recommendation is to take and make time at the start of any change programme for “front-end loading”. This means having as many of the resources required for best chance of success being in-place at the start. If having everything in-place is not possible, a robust risk and issue status is a key artifact for any documented change policy and process. 

All of these should be documented and used to supplement the project planning process starting with Plan of Record (POR) through the various plan iterations until final delivery and sign-off against the commissioning Business Case.

• Business Case: is there a reality-based business case supporting the change delivery? Is the original Business Case kept as a baseline with documented version control of updates as progress is made? This may be necessary should a decision be made to stop the programme or project due to a change in circumstances.  
• Are there agreed, supported, and documented policy, procedure, practice, and process definitions and how these should be applied?
• Is there agreed, supported, and documented approaches regarding what good practices are to be applied and how so e.g., what project management method is to be used, is Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) to be used?
• Is AGILE/SCRUM to be used and is there a common understanding what this means for application based on the AGILE Manifesto and SCRUM Guide?

Before you begin the change process, how confident are you that what is said when everybody is in the same room and making commitments is the same as when “it’s just us….” Documented policy and procedures are key elements for change success. They require to be applied both to the spirit and letter of their intention. Final tip: If it’s not documented, it doesn’t exist. You are relying on goodwill and collective memory. Both very good things. But would you, as the responsible change manager, rely on these or a robust documented and applied with consequence set of organisational change policy and procedures? I know where I’d risk my career.