Change Management Models

"Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." - John F. Kennedy

The secret of consistent success lies in the change that should be introduced according to the time and this is the basic concept of change management. Along with the rapidly changing environment and culture throughout the globe, it becomes a must for every business organization irrespective of its size and industry to adopt the change to survive in the world of cut throat competition. The organizations that accept the change will exist and those that don't accept, will keep on struggling to survive with the change. This concept has become common among the business firms, but how successfully these changes are implemented and accepted depends on many factors like nature of the firm, type of change, the people involved in it and their understanding of the change. Though initially, change is not welcomed because we generally overestimate what we have and underestimate the good things that change would bring to us. To understand the changes in the organization many change management models have been developed by many social scientists. Let me explain to you what this concept is all about with the help of some models.

Different Types of Models

Krut Lewin's Model
Krut Lewin developed his model way back in the 1950s and it is applicable in today's environment for change. The model works on three levels: Unfreeze - Change - Refreeze. The change in an organization has been explained using an analogy of an ice. If you want to make a conical ice shape out of a cubical shaped ice, what do you do? You will first melt the conical shaped ice and then freeze it in cubical shape mold to get the desired change. This same concept has to be applied on the change in an organization.

Lewis's model says that while dealing with change, the process must begin with the understanding of the change like why and what kind of change is required. This starts with unfreezing that needs preparation in the organization according to the changes required and involves demoting the present status quo to establish the new one. This is the most difficult stage to handle. This can be done by challenging the current status, beliefs and behavior by referring to the current figures and results and at the same time projecting the future plan. The changes would not occur overnight, it needs time, patience and above all understanding. So, give time to the members of the organization to understand and accept the changes. Though there are some people who might not be benefited with the change at the moment, but they have to realize that it would better the condition in the future. Once the change has been embraced and accepted by all, then the time has come to refreeze the change. The refreeze means, stability in the organization, working environment, employees being confident about the change and comfortable in the new working environment.

Kotter's Model
John Kotter, a renowned change expert has given an eight-step change model in the year 1995. The first step demands to create an urgency of the change. It simply means initial motivation requires to make a move towards the new change by communicating and conveying the need to change. The second step requires a powerful coalition and need to convince the members of the organization for the necessity of the change. This stage does not need to manage a change, rather requires a leader to lead the change who will bring people together and start working as a team. In the third step, the organization must work upon creating a vision for change that is easily understood and acceptable by the members.

The next step is to communicate the vision that has been created to all. There might be many obstacles in the way of introducing the change, so now you need to remove the barriers to change in the fifth step of change process. This might be little uncomfortable, but can be easily compensated with the introduction of short-term wins in the sixth step. Small success will be a great source of motivation to all and also make the tough way of changes easier. The seventh step asks to build on the changes that can be done by evaluating the success, not just one, but of the whole project. Once the changes have been accepted and successfully implemented, the last thing that is to be done is to inculcate the changes in the corporate cultures and make it an essential part of the organization's values.

So, these were the two most popular management models that have been accepted by most of the organization. Change management requires proper planning and implementation of the plans sensitively. The success key depends on the co-operation and patience. The success of every change should be celebrated and thank each other for standing the discomfort, pain and helping in coping with change and should end with a promising future ahead with the change.