CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING

Change management and implementation planning are two descriptions of the same application. In either case, we seek to move teams, departments or whole organizations from a current state to a new state. In every case, the challenge is to understand what change is needed, to frame it in terms that can be achieved, and then move the behavior of many individuals and groups toward the desired state.

Performance Thinking offers a perfect methodology for conducting implementation planning or change management. First, using the Performance Chain, we work backwards from the organizational results we seek to achieve to the outputs or accomplishments that different people will need to produce. In some cases, these might be cultural end-states, while in others they might be more operational, as in process or policy implementation.  Once we decide who needs to accomplish what in order for change to be deemed successful, we identify the needed behavior for each functional role and then use The Six Boxes Model to plan for the behavior influences needed to ensure and sustain the needed change.

The results of applying Performance Thinking for change management or implementation include executable programs for achieving the desired change and successful accomplishment of those programs, achieved through changes in behavior.  Business outcomes can include greater operational efficiency or customer satisfaction, successful mergers or acquisitions, increased market share or competitiveness, and so on.

Change management and implementation planning are typical certification projects for participants in the Performance Thinking® Practitioner Program.