Business Analysis Notes

Strategy

Managing Organizational Change

5 min read · Updated

In short New processes and systems deliver value only if people adopt them. This page covers how individuals react to change, how culture shapes adoption, and practical models for leading a change from definition to embedding.

Based on: D. Paul, D. Yeates, J. Cadle (eds.), Business Analysis (BCS), 2nd ed., ch. 14 “Implementing Business Change”, which draws on Kübler-Ross, Kotter, McGregor, Maslow, Johnson, Scholes and Whittington, Felder and Silverman, Revans, and Hord et al.

On this page

Key ideas#

Change is organic, not mechanical#

The BCS book compares change to growing a plant rather than programming a computer. Management cannot know every detail in advance or predict how people will react; change needs time, support, and the removal of whatever harms it.

Three circles surround a change: the individual (where you have most influence, through training, support and involvement), the organization (structure, resources, culture, history of change) and the external environment (least influence; it drives change). Watch for change fatigue: people who have seen initiatives fail expect the next one to fail, which can become self-fulfilling.

How individuals respond#

  • McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. Managers who assume people avoid work and need control (X) usually get poor results. Those who assume people want to contribute and respond to recognition (Y) create better conditions for change. X leans on Maslow’s lower needs, such as security and belonging, through fear of losing them; Y appeals to esteem and self-actualization.
  • The Kübler-Ross change curve, adapted from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s work with terminally ill patients: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, then acceptance, experimentation and integration. People do not move through it neatly; they stall or slip back. Use it to anticipate the dip in confidence and to choose the right support for where each person is.
  • The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) of Hord et al. People’s questions move through seven stages: awareness (“what is it?”), information (“how does it work?”), personal (“how will it affect me?”), management (“how will it be done?”), consequences (“what does it do for the business?”), collaboration (“how can I help others?”) and refocusing (“how could it be better?”). Answer them in order. Without support, people often stay stuck at the personal stage.

The business change lifecycle#

The BCS book frames change in five stages: alignment, definition, design, implementation and realization. - Alignment keeps the change consistent with strategy. Bottom-up changes without it risk suboptimization: an improvement in one place creates work elsewhere. - Culture is analyzed with the cultural web of Johnson, Scholes and Whittington: stories, rituals and routines, symbols, organizational structures, control systems and power structures. The gap between current and desired culture explains why changes that look right on paper fail to take hold. - Definition includes publishing principles for the change, and keeping them; breaking them later destroys trust. - Design should involve users through design workshops, prototypes and scenario walk-throughs. Finding problems here is far cheaper than after go-live.

Kotter’s eight steps#

John Kotter presents his steps as necessary components, not a formula: 1. Create a sense of urgency that is felt, not just understood. 2. Build a guiding coalition of people with real influence across functions and levels. 3. Create a vision: the positive “pull” that balances urgency’s “push”. 4. Communicate the vision constantly. 5. Empower people to act on it. 6. Plan and create short-term wins, and publicize them. 7. Consolidate gains and keep up the momentum. 8. Institutionalize the new approaches so people do not slip back.

In the BCS lifecycle, the first four steps belong to definition.

How to apply it#

  • Treat implementation as communication. Present professionally, and expect two-way discussion: facilitate, negotiate, resolve conflicts.
  • Find change agents. Identify respected staff (not necessarily managers), understand their concerns, and involve them as early adopters.
  • Prefer coaching to one-off training. Courses aimed at an “average” employee often come too early or too late; coaching is tailored and timely. When you do train, balance the material across Felder and Silverman’s learning styles (sensory or intuitive, visual or verbal, active or reflective, sequential or global).
  • Work in cycles. Revans’s action learning (act, reflect, relate to theory, plan, act again) also suits the change program itself: implement in cycles and adjust.
  • Align rewards with the desired behavior. Rewarding individual stars while preaching teamwork, or punishing mistakes while asking for innovation, undermines the change.
  • Embed it. Remove old forms and manuals, update job descriptions, include the new way of working in performance reviews, and celebrate improvements.
  • Spread it. Change spreads more easily when the advantage is clear, it fits existing values and systems, it is simple, it can be tried first, and results are visible. Share the principles (remove tasks that add no value, minimize handoffs, automate where sensible), not only the specific solution.

Example#

The Workshop, a fictional bike-repair chain, is replacing paper diaries with online booking. Two weeks before launch, a quick CBAM check shows front-desk staff stuck at “how will this affect me?”: they fear the system will replace them. The analyst and the owner explain that time saved on phone bookings will go to customer handovers, and recruit an experienced front-desk lead as a change agent. She uses the system first in one workshop; her short-term win, fewer missed bookings, is shared with all twelve. After launch, the paper diaries are removed.

Pitfalls#

  • Assuming a good system sells itself → plan communication, coaching and change agents.
  • Explaining business benefits before personal impact → follow the CBAM order.
  • Leaving old forms in circulation → remove them so people cannot slip back.

Sources and further reading#

  • D. Paul, D. Yeates, J. Cadle (eds.). Business Analysis, 2nd ed. BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, 2010, ch. 14 “Implementing Business Change”.
  • J. Kotter. Leading Change. Harvard Business School Press, 1996.
  • Other models summarized in the BCS chapter: Kübler-Ross (change curve), McGregor (Theory X and Y), Maslow (hierarchy of needs), Johnson, Scholes and Whittington (cultural web), Felder and Silverman (learning styles, 1988), Revans (action learning, 1982), Hord et al. (CBAM, 1987).