Why Strategic Change Management is Important

When a corporation needs to reinvent itself, the change that needs to occur should be purposeful. Trying to decide how to change and what to change can be just as frustrating as the actual change. The process of strategic change management involves developing an innovative vision for where the company needs to be, and then developing and equally innovative path for achieving the goal. Sound like a lot of hype? Truly, it is not. No one wants to have change just for the sake of doing things differently. It needs to make sense with the direction the company is trying to move in. A reasonable pathway toward the goals needs to be determined and embarked upon by all the people in a company in a choreographed manner.

Take for instance a bakery that has had a steady decline in sales. The first step is to decide what caused the decline. As the employees brainstorm and decide that the customer base wants, more healthy choices in addition to the standard bakery fare the beginnings of a strategic change plan form. In order to provide healthier food choices many things have to occur. What foods will be offered must be decided. How will they be prepared, who will prepare them, what type of daily inventory needs to be kept, what types of packaging are needed and the list goes on and on. In order to manage all of the steps a well thought out plan must be developed. This is the basis of strategic change management.

The bakery employees will have to work as a group to determine a map for which items must be adjusted and at what stages in the process. They cannot order new packaging supplies before deciding what foods they will be selling. The plan needs to follow a logical order. It also needs to be flexible to account for changes along the way. Encouraging all the employees to participate ensures that all areas of the change are reviewed. One person cannot think of everything so everyone needs to share in the plan.

Strategic change management is not a difficult or foreign concept. It is just about putting a name to a natural organized process. Outcomes are usually better and the organization can withstand the changes better when they are purposeful and universally agreed upon. Even if the individual elements are not what everyone thinks is best as long as they are working together toward the common goal the successful implementation of change will occur.