How to create a change plan for meaningful change?
In this post, we will be discussing how to go about creating a change plan and why it’s important to have a plan when implementing change.
What is a Change plan?
We discussed in our previous post about why it’s important to understand and own change.
I introduced this topic using a great example of change planning from my wife in this post:
A lesson from my Wife In Change Formulation
In the above post, we discussed why it was important to formulate a change idea and refine it to get objectives of the change you want to make.
Now you want to take the objectives that were refined in the above task and create a plan from it.
Highlight the items you want to change
You want to note down the items that will change, but equally as important you want to highlight the items that won’t change.
This is important as you don’t want to drive instability into any changing situation. You want to make people aware of the change but not destabilise organisations. It’s important to show the things and items that are changing in the same respect to the things that are not changing. This is so all stakeholders can have sight of the change project.
You want to drive as much stability into the situation as possible here.
Treat change like any project.
When you drive projects, you know that you need to have a schedule, you need to have risks recorded, and the contingencies noted down if risks occur.
Change is no different. You need to plan for risks, schedule in change meetings; CMM (Change Management Meetings, just in case you needed another TLA) and plan for the risks. Late changes are costly, and you want to ensure that any risks are highlighted and have timings that are controlled and monitored.
Build support systems
This may sound a strange one in principle. But in reality, its very simple. When you have support networks in place that owns the change that you are trying to implement; these networks become the owners of the change.
These networks become the change experts. They generate support structures and maintain them. If a change to equipment or process needs to happen, these networks pull in the relevant resource to make this happen.
These support structures could be individual team members to a full team of people. The size of the system is not important; what is important is the change team has enough resource and support to make the change happen in the timescale that’s required.
If these issues are not tackled inadequate time scales, then people become turned off by the change. It loses its momentum, drive, and potentially if items are not actioned fast enough, the change is lost, and nothing changes.
Create a plan for questions
One of the important items in the CMM meetings is to have the answers to the questions posed. A good way to get an understanding around these questions is to try to put your self in the shoes of the teams or team members on the receiving end of the change. Envisage the questions before the meetings. Try to give accurate responses, and if you don’t know the answers to the questions, don’t just make them up.
It erodes trust.
Plan for change
In conclusion, the change plan has:
- A list of items that will and won’t change and processes that will change
- Timeline of change
- An outline of the changes and outcomes
- Potential stakeholders of the change
- The support network and description
- Owners of the change process
- Answers to the frequently asked questions
- Change management meeting schedule.
Do you need to change the production process or any manufacturing setting?
If so, get in touch and find out how we can help you.
The above example of change may seem complex. But in reality, when placed in individual steps, it becomes much less overwhelming.
It’s much the same in manufacturing, lots of change in a concise period, and that time can drag on and on if not carefully planned. Suppose you want to look about how to change manufacturing plans. Or even start a new plan get in touch here.
We can help change your manufacturing plans in China and give support wherever in the world you may be if you want to follow us on Linked in finding us here.
How to create a change plan for meaningful change…
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