A change management plan is the most important document in change management. It states all the requirements and specifications for the change. Change is a necessary evil in the changing business world of today. Organizations and businesses have a constant need to change their attitudes, behaviors, technology and other core values to be able to cope with the changing trends.
A change management plan is very comprehensive and anyone who takes it gets an understanding of what is happening. It states the reasons for the change, which values are to be changed, in what direction the change will be and departments or individuals who will be affected by the change. Duration is also set for the completion of the change. A change management plan may have as content
- Executive Summary
- Purpose
- Change request roles and responsibilities
- Change control procedure
- Change control flow process
Executive Summary
The executive summary, as the name suggests is a summary of all the contents of the document. The executive summary is purposely designed so that anyone who reads it knows what the document is about and what is in it. It states what the change is about and what it seeks to achieve. An Example is as follows:
Areas Addressed
This document is a description of the change management plans to innovate and re-brand Cus Production Limited’s products and to improve customer service to ensure:
- Increase in goods produced
- Increase in customer patronage of our goods and services
- Improved customer care
To bring about these improvements, the change will focus on
- Improvement in the technology infrastructure of the company
- Motivation of staff to give off their best
- Promotions and rewards for loyal customers
Purpose
The purpose of this section of the change management plan is to state the aim of the proposed change. It gives all details, supported by facts, figures and charts. For example:
“Looking at the current statistics, controls only about 20% of the telecommunications industry and our production levels are not at the maximum. The changes proposed seek to increase our production by 95 % and also claim over 70% of the telecommunications industry. This increment is not expected overnight, but is expected to be achieved by 2012. “
Change Request Roles and Responsibilities
This section of the change management plan states into detail the responsibilities and duties expected from the rank and file in bringing about the proposed changes. It states what management is supposed to do in terms of providing adequate funding for the change process. Employees’ expected roles are also stated, classified according to departments or by position in the company. For instance:
“the marketing department is expected to conduct aggressive advertising by producing and distributing flyers as well as staging strategic advertising campaigns in the print and electronic media”.
Change Control Procedures
A change management plan should as well state what controls are in place to ensure that everything works accordingly as planned. It states what should be done to prevent things from going wrong and what is expected to be done when things go wrong. For example, a company that buys a new software to change the manual ways of doing things will put as a control procedure: “If the software crashes, log off immediately and contact the systems administrator”. In this case, a statement is made as to what the administrator is expected to do, more helpful hints.
The final portion of the chance management plan talks about the flow of control processes. It spells out the actions that should be taken, in chronological order, which should be first and which should be last.
The change management plan, if well followed will lead to a successful change managements.