In today’s ever-evolving world, a change management consultant can help you plan for the best and protect against the worst.
The role of a change management consultant is a vital one, and the role has a diverse set of disciplines. Transformational, transitional, developmental, and social change management have the potential to shift your company culture towards a healthy, productive, collaborative environment. Allowing this potential of what change management can be rather than focusing on what it has traditionally been used for (simply systems or process shifts) allows for a more meaningful systemic change within your organization.
Change management consultants play a crucial part in assisting companies and their staff through major transitions. Whether you’re making a change from working in person to working remotely or you’re hoping to change your company completely from the top-down, it takes a considerable effort to introduce, implement, and maintain any new changes.
Recent research indicates that fewer than 10% of leaders have the necessary change management capabilities and experience to lead successful transformations. Moreover, only 25% of change management strategies are successful in the long term.
These statistics show that with major change comes an increased chance of challenges, conflict, and cultural shifts. Having a change consultant on staff helps companies, internal teams, and their clients and stakeholders make such a significant shift with as little strife as possible.
While change rarely comes easy, the help of a change management consultant can make the transition easier. In this article we’ll discuss:
- The Role of a Change Management Consultant
- Why Change is Vital
- The Diverse Disciplines of Change
- The Benefits of Change Management
- How Expert Facilitation Changes Everything
Change comes easily and is an unavoidable part of any organization. As you look to the future, taking steps to prepare for change will help protect your company against the common challenges that come with major transformations.
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Change management consultants help teams and the company at large make the necessary steps when a major change is afoot. Such consultants help to simplify transitions, redirect resources, and manage business operations as they work alongside the company to reshape its organization. These experts put the needs of those most affected first by taking a human-centered approach to change. With this strategy, change management consultants can apply certain methodologies to create shifts that center on the needs of your team and clients.
Why Change is Vital
Change is vital in every stage of a business’ life. The ability to transform helps organizations reach their potential as they design and market their dream products and services. While change doesn’t come without stress or struggle, it is an unavoidable constant that we all must prepare for. Resistance to change will ultimately lead to failure. Statistics show the survival rate of businesses is intrinsically tied to their propensity to change. A 2020 survey discovered that 58% of businesses need to reinvent their companies at least every three years to survive.
While a lack of change can threaten the growth and long-term health of a company, an eagerness to change makes all the difference. Change management consultants help organizations embrace change. Moreover, they can help companies adopt a culture of change, making it easier to accept transformations as they come.
The Diverse Disciplines of Change
Change management consultants are experts in the unexpected. While it’s impossible to perfectly plan for change, understanding how change is classified in the workplace will help you successfully navigate this process.
The following are four diverse disciplines or classifications of change:
1. Transformational Change
Transformational change is one that fundamentally and radically changes company culture at its core. This includes changes to a company’s values and how the business operates. While transformational change may be sorely needed, it is often met with the most employee resistance.
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For transformational change to have a lasting effect, it should be handled strategically and as quickly as possible. The help of a change management consultant will allow companies to usher in a season of change without giving in to collective fear.
2. Transitional Change
Transitional change occurs as a reaction to a problem within the company. With a transitional change, the company must adopt new operational standards in the way of automation, acquisitions, or mergers.
3. Developmental Change
Developmental changes are those that optimize an organization’s already established processes, procedures, or business strategies. This adaptive approach allows for modifications such as implementing new equipment and updating protocols.
4. Social Change
Social changes are adjustments made as a result of external forces like the ever-shifting social landscape. Social change focuses on improving a company’s work conditions, the health of its employees, and the structure of the organization as a whole.
The Benefits of Change Management
As a company approaches an upcoming change, aligning all the moving parts can be challenging. As you prepare for an impending transition, consider taking on a change management consultant. With the help of a change expert, you’ll be able to enjoy the following benefits:
- A Fresh Perspective
One major benefit of working with a change management consultant is finding a way to integrate a new perspective. Challenging company culture from within or changing the status quo in any way can be incredibly difficult. This is where a change management consultant comes in as they bring in a fresh perspective and a new point of view.
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This fresh perspective is especially helpful as the change management consultant won’t have an emotional attachment to your company or the “old way” of doing things. This detached style will be instrumental as it encourages your team members to adapt to the change.
2. Reduce Costs
Investing in a consultant to implement change is an effective way to cut development costs. With the help of a single consultant, you’ll avoid overspending on irrelevant training tools. Moreover, you’ll be able to spend your day-to-day running your company rather than helping your team members make the necessary steps to implement changes.
3. Achieve Implementation Faster
Another important benefit of working with an external change management consultant is enjoying faster implementation of new strategies. Accepting change isn’t easy and waiting for changes to be implemented in your company can take a considerable effort. In situations requiring rapid change, change consultants can facilitate, implement, and maintain change as quickly as possible. These experts can work with a constrained timeline to deliver the best quality products and the transformation you’re hoping to achieve.
4. Identify Hidden Gaps
Many companies don’t realize the gaps in their training strategies until it’s too late. Change consultants can help teams evaluate their training engagement statistics to determine where adjustments should be made. Moreover, a change management consultant will help tailor your training content to meet your employees’ expectations and needs.
5. Retain Top Talent
Companies that are better equipped to handle the changes and challenges of business can retain top talent. With the help of a change management consultant, you’ll be able to give your team members the support they need to grow. Moreover, these consultants can reassure the team that their employer is committed to their long-term growth by investing in resources to help facilitate change.
Expert Facilitation Changes Everything
Expert facilitation is the key to leading remote, hybrid, and in-person teams. When you know and understand how to collaborate and communicate effectively with your team, you truly unleash their potential. Choosing the right change management team can be a challenge, but if you keep in mind a skilled facilitator can massively enhance team performance, productivity, and problem-solving it becomes clear that choosing a change management leader who is also an expert facilitator is the right course. Navigating change can be difficult, but with the right guidance and training, the sky is the limit.
