Gina Temple on Overcoming Change Management Challenges

 

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Gina Temple: How to Overcome Change Management Issues

As your company embarks on an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation or digital transformation, overcoming the change management challenges is important.

Gina Temple discusses a few of these challenges and shares ways to overcome them.

Lack of Executive Support

When change management issues occur, it's usually because executive support for change management was lacking from the start. Other times, Gina Temple notes that executive sponsorship starts strong but eventually wanes.

A good change management plan must have the full support of upper management. Your change management plan will be ideas on paper without the management's active sponsorship of your C-suite. It requires resources and money to implement a change strategy, and executives have the power to allocate budget and workforce to get the plan off the ground and keep it afloat, explains Gina Temple.

Before taking further steps in your ERP implementation, ensure all your leaders are on board with change management activities and project goals.

Breakdowns in Communication

Gina Temple says that successful change management hinges on effective communication. A communication breakdown at any point in the cycle can make process and technology changes so much harder to implement.

Managers, project team members, and executives must be in constant communication concerning the progress and goals of the project. At the same time, employees and department leaders must communicate their expectations and needs, and information must be relayed to upper management, notes Gina Temple.

Finally, the change management team must constantly communicate with project stakeholders to ensure they understand the changes in their roles and responsibilities and how these changes can be beneficial to them.

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Only Focusing on Training

Employee training is a crucial part of a change management plan. A lack of knowledge often leads to fear, so employees become more confident and open to change by learning to use a new system. 

That said, end-user training must not be the totality of your change management strategy. Other components, such as impact assessments and resistance management, are equally essential but often overlooked. 

In addition to putting your strategies into action, ensuring they are executed completely is important. Too often, change management leaders rush through the components to check them off, Gina Temple explains.

Employee Resistance 

Some change management efforts fail because employees don't want to get on board with the new system. It's human nature to resist the unfamiliar and that which disrupts your daily routine.

Instead of reactively fighting employee resistance, learn why it happens so you can prevent it proactively.

You can include resistance management in your change plan to mitigate potential resistance and know how to handle the resistance that does arise.

Gina Temple has served in the healthcare community for over 30 years. She has worked in various settings, from unionized to non-unionized facilities, for-profit to not-for-profit organizations, acute care centers, and outpatient clinics. For more of her insights on leadership, organizational change, process improvement, Lean, and other related topics, subscribe to this page.