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Change Planning:
Busby & Associates provides change planning and stakeholder consultation services for forward-thinking clients needing to create strategic change in their business environments. The ability to proctively, adaptively, and flexibly plan for and manage change is, in our view, the most critical aspect to success in any organization.
 Only a minority of people readily embrace change. Change can be among the most disruptive and exciting of business (and life) processes. Implementing change where adequate, up-front, strategic change planning is not performed and/or where change is viewed as unnecessary or redundant, is challenging. Also, rolling out change processes within a culture of "been there done that" or animosity toward management can stretch even the most seasoned change manager's abilities. Alternatively, it should be noted that while strategic change planning does not guarantee success, the lack of it virtually guarantees failure.
Whether your change is incremental (building on previous change efforts or program alterations - evolutionary) or discontinuous (abrupt and radical often resulting from inflective changes in operating environment - revolutionary), Busby can help you anticipate, plan, and create change in your business environment.
It is important that the client understand and map out all environmental and cultural influences, barriers and key success factors when embarking on a change process. Whether you are roling out a new policy change for your department; a new or improved Information Management system; or are undertaking organization or system-wide restructuring, a strategic change management plan and stakeholder consultation framework are keystones for success.
The change process we advocate is based on the seminal work of two of the leading authors in change leadership theory, i.e., John Kotter of Harvard Business School and Todd Jick of Columbia Business School.
Stakeholder Engagement:
Often change planning & management and Stakeholder Engagement (nee stakeholder consultation) are lumped together as the same process. While the two processes are closedly interlinked they are distinct and separate; with stakeholder engagement being one strategy under the broader heading of change planning & management.
Next to strategically planning change, stakeholder engagement is the most important aspect of any change process. While there are no guarantees that a change process will be successful, there is a virtual guarantee that a change process will fail if adequate or incorrect stakeholder engagement is not undertaken.
While there are no "set in stone" rules for stakeholder engagement, having a good change plan developed and a thorough stakeholder analysis and engagement plan goes a long way to realizing success.
In any change process, those leading the change and other key stakeholders need to engage in clear, direct, respectful, multi-way communication and feedback. Unclear words or articulated concepts need to be written down and communicated in a manner easily understood by all parties. The "high level" or "jargony" language pervasive in some organizations often muddies or obfuscates key change concepts and processes and should be avoided wherever possible.
People generally know when they are being "hoodwinked", so it is best to not create this impression at the outset of or during a change process. It is also our experience that regardless of how people are affected by change, a clear, honest message is the preferred approach.
NOTE: Stakeholder consultation used to imply that consultation would occur only with those with a direct economic, policy or philosophical vested interest in the initiative in question. However, practice has proven this belief often leads to limited success. Now, the definition and practice of stateholder engagement includes primary stakeholders, secondary stakeholders and tertiary (potential or other) stakeholders. It is important to recognize these three audiences when embarking on a change process and the organizational culture in which they operate. Failure to adequately engage one or more of these stakeholder groups decreases the probability of success.
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