Think of organizational change agility as a jigsaw puzzle. The pieces that make up that puzzle include change staff, tools, systems, methodologies, metrics, and more! We call these critical pieces, or components, change infrastructure. Your organization's change efforts won't come crashing down if you're missing one or two key items, but it's important to consider them all as you lay the foundation for your organization's change culture, agility, sustainability, and growth.

Are you missing a piece of the puzzle?

Lately, we've been working with organizations that are building new Change Management Centers of Excellence, strengthening their change capacity, or trying to build an enterprise-wide change approach.

Each business has its own flavor, culture, resourcing capacity, and change approach. Despite their different industries (retail, insurance, education - you name it), each organization is intent on a similar vision: building a culture of change agility.

We think of change agility as a completed puzzle. Most people come to us holding a few pieces of the puzzle and trying to identify and fill in missing gaps. The truth is that your change agility puzzle is a combination of staff, systems, methodologies, tools, processes and more. So many components go into building a culture of change agility and it's important to define and pay attention to them all.

Change Management Infrastructure

Let's talk about some of these components using a term that's much less catchy than our puzzle metaphor: change management (CM) infrastructure. Buildings, bridges, and structures probably come to mind when you think of "infrastructure." By definition, it means the essential structures or core support systems necessary for something to function or operate smoothly.

CM infrastructure encompasses all the intangible AND logistical, technical, and structural considerations of delivering change to people across an organization.

The Building Blocks Of CM Infrastructure

Your organization's change efforts won't come crashing down if you're missing one or two pieces, but it's important to consider them all as you lay the foundation for your organization's change culture, agility, sustainability, and growth.

To create a culture of change agility you must have strong, solid CM infrastructure! This entails a combination of staff, systems, methodologies, tools, processes and more. Consider which pieces you're missing and invest in the support systems your organization needs to truly establish a culture of change agility.

Change Team Members

An obvious, although not always simple, component. Change management leaders, support staff, and change advocates are key contributors to change success. These are the people dedicated to doing daily change work

Systems and Tools

Everything the change team needs to effectively do their jobs like collaboration spaces, tracking and task management tools, survey and feedback platforms, as well as reporting tools to name a few. Shameless plug: you can use ChangeSync for all the above!

Leadership and Governance

Examples include executives, sponsors, and change leaders. Your governance model should clearly define these oversight roles, support expectations, requirements, and escalation paths.

Change Actions and Processes

These are the tools of your trade! They yield tangible results like templates, job aids, timelines, reports, stakeholder maps, change impact analysis, and more.

Change Methodology and Framework

This is the specific change management style your organization uses to implement change in a strategic and structured way. These are characterized by specific steps, elements, phases, or models. Popular examples include Kübler-Ross, Prosci, McKinsey, Kotter, or home-grown methodologies.

Stakeholders and Organization

If nobody participates or engages in a change program, then you don't have a program! These represent the people impacted by a change. Consider the ways in which you must reach them, mitigate their resistance, motivate participation, and solicit feedback.

Evaluation and Measurement

Having change programs is one thing, but it's vital to convey and paint a meaningful picture of the change landscape for your leaders. Reporting and analysis of your efforts provides change leadership with clear, data-driven insight into trends, saturation, fatigue, impact, interdependencies, and more.

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