What are the 5 key elements of successful change management?

Did you know that dolphins literally sleep with one eye open? These incredible creatures sleep by shutting down half of their brain at a time, and closing just one eye.

When the other side of the brain needs a rest, they switch which side of their brain is awake, and which eye is open. By doing this, dolphins continue to surface from the water to breathe (a conscious process for them, unlike humans) and watch out for predators…even while they are sleeping.

In business, embracing innovation mindsets in the workplace is one way to embody that same type of preparedness for what’s next. Your organisation won’t always swim in calm waters, free of problems and dangers. Markets change, new competitors emerge, and customers move based on changing needs and desires. Just like a dolphin, you need to resurface to take a breath and reorient yourself as you move forward through change.

To be clear, we are not change management experts at InkDot, and don’t pretend to be. We often say “change navigation” rather than “change management” because our work is more about building the adaptive capacity to “surf” the waters of change, staying alert, relevant, and responsive, than it is about changing from one static state to another.

At InkDot, we centre our work on cultivating the mindsets, tools, capacity, leadership, and culture that unlocks innovation – and that includes building the ability to respond to and navigate change. We are innovation specialists with a focus on culture and transformation ready to support you; we work with a culture transformation framework and approaches that enable you to innovate and future-proof your organisation. Schedule a Discover Call with our team to get started.

What is change management?

Change management is (hopefully) an intentional, thoughtful, proactive process of guiding organisational change. It begins by preparing and planning for change and continues through implementation. Our goal is always to embed change capabilities, ensuring they become part of the fabric of the organisation and are sustainable, long-term.

In our fast-paced world, it’s easy to find change management examples of organisations responding to specific internal and external changes. Here are just a few possible scenarios:

Integration of new systems and technologies
Development and delivery of new products and services
Responding to shocks in the market or external environment (such as COVID, or a financial crash)
Organisational restructures and leadership changes
Lagging performance

What are the key principles of change management?

“People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.”

― Peter Senge

There are a few simple, starting principles that are relevant for all change management:

Articulate: Always start by interrogating the impetus for change; a strong “why” that goes beyond the idea that doing something is better than doing nothing.
Be intentional: Don’t let change management be an afterthought, start thinking about proactive change management as far upstream as possible.
Understand: Know your organisation’s change readiness: your current status, capacity, and openness to change is an important starting point for tailored intervention.

It is also useful to understand the different types of change that organisations may need to navigate, each requiring different types of change management.

Change usually falls into these categories (in order of scale and complexity of change):

EVOLUTIONARY	Incremental (or developmental): rather than something completely new, this kind of change is about continuous improvements to strategy, products and services, processes and systems, ways of working.
RESPONSIVE	Transitional: a change that is spurred by the need to implement or integrate a new process, system, or way of working. Something is ending, and something new is necessary.
RESPONSIVE	Adaptive: there is a need to change in response to external changes in the operating environment around the organisation.
REVOLUTIONARY	Transformational: a radical, reshape of the entire organisation requiring fundamental changes to business model, operating model and/or culture. This is where InkDot most often operates.

What are the 5 C’s of change management?

Each of the types of change outlined above requires different change management strategies, which need to be grounded in the specific context and reality of each organisation. No matter the type of change, it isn’t going to be linear or follow a pre-defined pathway. Each organisation’s journey is unique.

At InkDot, we specialise in ensuring change is participatory – happening through, with, and among the people, teams, and leaders of your organisation. An employee experience through a change journey might guide the organisation through these 5 Cs:

Curiosity – “I understand we are going through change, and I’m anxious to contribute.”
Commitment – “I want to make things happen, and I feel equipped to do my part.”
Courage – “Our experiments don’t always work, but we are in it together.”
Conviction – “Change isn’t easy, and it requires collaboration from everyone.”
Celebration – “I am proud of what my colleagues and I are doing to make change happen.”

How do I create a change management process?

Know that most (if not all) organisational change requires people to move through change. Whether good or bad, change requires a period of processing and adaptation, which looks different person-to-person, and team-to-team. Change is both time and energy consuming, so expect people’s bandwidth to be less during a period of intensive change.

There are many change management models, but we often use “Grey Zones” by Dr. Yabome Gilpin-Jackson to ground our work. The Grey Zone change is the space between an existing system (System A) and an emerging or envisioned one (System B) that is still undefined and unknowable. This model encourages listening deeply, asking powerful questions, and co-creating actions as you move through change.

Real Impact Requires Real Commitment

Real impact requires more than managing change — it requires building the capacity to navigate it with confidence and intention. We support organisations in doing exactly that: turning uncertainty into opportunity, and change into a source of growth. We are ready to help you weigh the risks of change and to get strategic about building the capacity to navigate, face, and contend with change in a generative way that is filled with possibilities.

You can book a Discovery Call to explore ways to build the change capacity in your organisation

Let’s Face Your Complex Problem Together

At InkDot, we believe innovation is for everyone. Too often, solutions fail because we haven’t reached a contextual and empathy-driven understanding of the problems we are trying to address or because we don’t involve the people that will be most impacted by the innovations. At InkDot, we practice anti-business-as-usual, and we aren’t afraid to swim into the minnow trap or fishman’s net alongside you. We ground ourselves in your current reality, while being guided by the highest possibilities for your future.

Schedule a discovery consultation with us to uncover the possibilities!

Get in touch.

Tired of seeing or using old methods that only seem to add to current challenges, instead of helping you to adapt to and shape the world around you? Looking for a strategic innovation partner who can help you break out of business as usual?

Get in touch to book a discovery call with one of our innovation specialists.

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