In Episode 41 of Razorleaf’s Stay Sharp podcast, What Is OCM?, co-hosts Jen Ferello and Jonathan Scott interview each other on the topic of organizational change management (OCM). Specifically, they dive into the importance and the value of a structured way to manage cultural change, what components must be part of your OCM effort, and how to tackle OCM in your organization.
Why OCM is Important
So many of Jen and Jonathan’s prior podcasts have included discussions about how people are the biggest challenge in any project or implementation, that it’s the perfect time to tackle the reasons and some solutions. The duo starts, as usual, by defining terms. Jen puts it simply: “OCM is really nothing other than preparing, supporting, and helping individuals, teams, organizations, etc., move from current state to future state. It’s helping people through that change.” While OCM is now seen as a formal discipline, it’s made up of a collection of practices, some of which organizations have been implementing for years. But taken together, they provide a useful framework for companies to follow if they want to make headway on cultural change.
Fundamental to OCM—and the duo would argue, to any implementation—is recognizing how difficult change is for people. “It’s important to recognize that change is hard,” Jen says. “And by default, we are hardwired to resist change.” Getting anyone who will be affected by a change involved in the process and showing them the value of the change to them and to the organization, will get the organization through a change efficiently and quickly. Because nothing’s going to happen fast if people are digging their heels in, being roadblocks, or simply not using the new system in place. Jen adds that another critical misconception about OCM, or change in general, is that managing change involving people is more than just “implement and done.” “OCM really isn’t one of those things that just starts and stops,” Jen says. “It just keeps going.”
The Components of OCM
Jen and Jonathan waste little time getting to the keys to implementing OCM. The first major component is leadership and vision—not just a strong leadership position, but a clear vision that helps every role in the company understand the value of the change to the company and the value of individual roles to the change itself. Jonathan notes, “If you don’t paint that picture of where we’re going and why we’re going there, what the project is about, what the outcome is supposed to be, how it’s going to help us—if you’re not crystal clear on that, it’s very difficult to get everyone aligned and pulling in that same direction. And there’s a huge time-waster.”
A second component of OCM is identifying the stakeholders and making sure they’re involved. What many organizations may not realize, or particularly want to address, is that the term “stakeholders” really casts a wide net. Stakeholders will be people who directly use the system, but also the people who administer it, who own it in IT, even suppliers, partners, and customers—even the naysayers or “contrary positions,” as Jonathan describes them. Planning, the next component the duo discusses, should involve impacts to all of those stakeholders, along with understanding what state you’re in and what you’re trying to get to. Planning should be done early and hand-in-hand with another major component of OCM, communication.
Communication relies on identifying stakeholders, so you know who your different audiences are and how you need to communicate with each one differently. Jonathan points out that branding is also a form of communication, saying “Communication can mean a lot of things … it’s not just about having an email or making a phone call.”
Education and training are two of the last major components of OCM. What’s most important, Jonathan says, is process-based training. “You shouldn’t be training on the tool,” he explains. “What you want to train people on is the process. What are they trying to accomplish?” Another key to training and education is not to push it all off until the end. As Jen says, education and training “are part of that continuum of communication. Because you’re not educating at the end or just in the beginning. It’s a constant ‘where do we need to go next’ conversation.”
Learn More About How to Make Cultural Change
The full podcast episode offers more details including why a support network is a vital piece of your OCM process for post-implementation phases, how measuring and monitoring help you figure out when you’re actually done, and how everyone can—and should—get started with OCM right away.
Check out the full conversation in Stay Sharp Episode 41: What Is OCM?, and join us each week for a new podcast.
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