You can have the most state-of-the-art technology or innovative process, but without people to enable them, you are left with non-operating assets.
You cannot change without people.
The expertise of an organizational change management consultant can empower your change leaders and employees alike, guiding your organization through a process that makes change easier and your investment stick.
Everything you need to know about OCM consulting:
- What is Organizational Change Management (OCM)?
- What Does an Organizational Change Management Consultant Do?
- Organizational Change Management Consultant Responsibilities & Services
- When Should You Hire a Change Management Consultant?
- 7 Ways Organizational Change Management Consultants Can Help Your Business
- Types of Projects OCM Consultants Work On, With Examples
What is Organizational Change Management (OCM)?
Organizational Change Management is the strategic framework designed to influence specific behaviors in preparation for organizational, process, and technology change. It is deployed to maximize adoption and minimize resistance, guiding an organization to realize the benefits of the intended change.
At AIM Consulting, we view OCM as the people side of change.
What Does an Organizational Change Management Consultant Do?
An organizational change management consultant helps organizations implement, manage and sustain internal change. They accomplish this by gaining a strong understanding of the future state of the change and guiding members of the organization to achieve that future state.
This includes:
- Identifying the key stakeholders within the organization that need to change their behaviors to meet the needs of that future state; consultants include those people in all phases of planning and execution.
- Assessing and assigning risk to the gaps in awareness, desire, knowledge, and ability of the people needing to change their behaviors.
- Developing strategies and tactics to help people adopt future state behavior with the least amount of resistance possible and build tools to sustain the desired behaviors over time.
Organizational change management consultants can offer further support by conducting training and knowledge-sharing sessions, implementing communication strategies, and defining and measuring success related to an organization’s people strategy.
Organizational Change Management Consultant Responsibilities & Services:
- Building meaningful relationships and establishing trust with people at all levels
- Utilizing art and science to build strategies that influence specific behaviors needed in the future state
- Aligning and activating business leaders and employees around strategic initiatives
- Pinpointing the activities that will be most likely to help the program or project meet its high-level goals
- Seeing the big picture and connecting the dots to build a thorough and cohesive strategy
- Possessing a blend of empathy, positivity, adaptability, and calm
- Implementing learning and knowledge-sharing as a continuous and ongoing initiative, not just a one-time event
- Measuring change adoption throughout the project’s lifecycle
When Should You Hire a Change Management Consultant?
If your team or organization does not have the skills, experience, or bandwidth to build and execute a successful adoption strategy, it is wise to hire the expertise of an organizational change management consultant.
Most teams only realize they need OCM when it is too late: when their people aren’t adopting the desired behaviors, there are serious gaps in knowledge or skills, the company is receiving complaints, and much more.
Strategic change management ensures your organization sees maximum adoption, minimum resistance, and maximum return on your investment.
7 Ways Organizational Change Management Consultants Can Help Your Business:
- Increases the chances of meeting project objectives by six times
- Brings the people, the most important asset to a company, to the forefront
- Improves alignment and accountability across the organization
- Increases the probability of the project coming in/under budget
- Ensures speed, cost, and quality metrics are met
- Improves employee retention and satisfaction
- Is the ultimate insurance policy for your technology investment. With no adoption or benefit realization, you are left with vaporware.
Types of Projects OCM Consultants Work On, With Examples
The work of change management consultants varies significantly. As one example of these projects, let’s look at one of AIM Consulting’s previous experiences. For a more detailed look, see our Organizational Change Management case study.
Example of Organizational Change Management Consulting Project:
A major U.S. airline faced an urgent need to implement stronger security for its email and critical internal applications following a series of phishing and password attacks into corporate workers’ email accounts.
Airline leadership decided to implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for its corporate workforce to create a layered defense and enlisted AIM Consulting for help in change adoption.
AIM’s organizational change management expert worked with stakeholders from IT, engineering, communications and training teams to implement the required MFA solution, with an approach that included vendor selection, alpha tests, first beta, second beta, and end-user deployment.
The consultant ensured consistent communication with every deployment group, reminding them of key details including the importance of MFA authentication, the location of training documentation, and a link for registering a second-factor device.
The implementation of the interim password solution and MFA resulted in zero breaches of email or other critical business assets. The smooth rollout was made possible with knowledgeable and effective OCM practices from AIM’s consultant.
Need Help Making Your Investment Stick?
At AIM Consulting, we help you properly plan for upcoming changes and incorporate OCM into delivery processes – ensuring change that sustains and an investment that is worthwhile.
Contact us today or learn more about our organizational change management services.
