Change Management Checklist. There are many reasons why your organization may need to go through a change process – generally out of some sort of necessity. It might be for financial reasons, because of regulatory framework changes, because of a merger or acquisition, or because you need to change direction as a business to remain competitive, viable, and solvent.

Change can be difficult. There’s no quick fix solution. You can’t wave a magic wand and have everything transform into something new easily.

Change is a process that needs a lot of hard work, planning, dedication, and commitment to carry out. In fact, many businesses get it wrong – some 70 percent of change initiatives globally fail every single year.

The following processes and systems should be followed to successfully bring about change in your organization:

Planning:

• Establish a project team with governance and other structures.
• What is the outcome you would like to achieve? How will you get to this point? Establish your key deliverables as well as terms of reference.
• Create a business case for the changes you would like to make.
• Select a proven change management methodology that will help you to bring about change in your organization.
• Clearly set out your plan in an easy-to-follow format.
• Determine if there are any obstacles that could prevent you from achieving your goals and if appropriate devise mitigation strategies.
• Determine if there are any risks and create mitigation strategies
• Ensure that you have the resources necessary to implement your plan.
• Determine if there are any costs involved and if so, dedicate time to planning a budget.
• Identify who is going to be affected by the change – map your stakeholders.
• Seek ways to involve those affected by the change.
• Assign responsibilities to relevant staff members.
• Set timelines.

Leadership

• Ensure that all members of your organization’s leadership team thoroughly understand the goals and objectives of organizational change and can talk to employees about it.
• Identify “sponsors” or “champions” of change who can help to lead initiatives and be the public face of your change campaign.
• Develop your sponsors’ and champions’ understanding of roles and responsibilities as well as the change initiative
• Ensure your sponsors and champions are able to deliver your key messages and communicate effectively
• Set clear expectations of your managers about the role they will play in the success or failure of your change campaign.
• Middle managers can help to play a crucial role in identifying and managing any resistance to change among the staff they supervise – they will need coaching to help them with this role.

Communication, Change Management Checklist

• Develop a communication plan
• Identify the key messages about your change initiative and the process
• Identify audience groups
• Create appropriate information resources in different formats, and for different audiences if appropriate
• Determine the communication channels that you are going to use
• Identify who the appropriate sender of any communications should be (eg: CEO, supervisors, project sponsor, other?)
• Determine the frequency of communication
• Assign responsibility for communication tasks
• Create mechanisms that will allow two-way communication
• Monitor and evaluate the success of your communication strategy

Stakeholder engagement

• Identify any stakeholders, internal and external, who could be affected by your change initiative.
• Consult and engage with your stakeholder groups to determine how they feel about the change and what work needs to be done to get them ready to embrace the change.
• Facilitate the sharing of information among stakeholders – consider events, briefings, and other activities as part of or in conjunction with your communication strategy.
• Give opportunities for two-way communication.
• Record any feedback or issues that arise when you consult with your stakeholders.
• Report progress to stakeholders.

Cultural change, Change Management Checklist

• What are your desired values, behaviors and other organizational culture attributes that you want to see once your change is implemented?
• Ensure you are clearly articulating the link between the new behaviors and the ongoing success of your organization.
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the existing workplace culture (or cultures if you are going through a merger or acquisition)?
• How can you put these cultures together (also if going through a merger or acquisition?).
• How can you facilitate your employees to engage on a social level to build culture?
• Are there any training needs that will assist with this?

Training

• Evaluate what training and development will be required as a result of your change initiative. Do you need to retrain your entire workforce or just those who are engaged in a specific role?
• Plan your training sessions in a way that you can cater for everyone with minimal disruption, eg: staggering over multiple days.
• Assess your employees after training and offer follow-up training if necessary.
• Include this training in your onboarding process for new employees.
• Set the expectation with managers and supervisors that they will have a role to play in coaching their direct reports during the change process.
• Prepare these managers to be able to answer questions about the change process and to explain what is new.

Evaluation, Change Management Checklist

• How well do your employees understand your messages about your change?
• Do you have metrics in place to help with the evaluation process? If so, what are they saying?
• Has there been resistance to change?
• If there has been resistance, how has it been managed?
• What feedback have you received from employees?
• Have you conducted any pulse or benchmarking surveys to determine engagement and morale levels?
• What have you learned as an organization from the process?
• What improvements could you make to this process?
• What are the next steps?