Change Monitor

The Change Monitor shows you exactly what is going well and where the obstacles are in a change process that is already under way. This information will help you determine what you need to do to:

  1. enable improvements,
  2. reinforce the next steps, and
  3. achieve the desired result of the change.

Certified senior consultants support the organization while it is working with the Change Monitor. They ensure valuable discussions on the results of the Monitor, which lead to useful insights. The Change Monitor provides comprehensive solutions for the problem areas that have been identified and concrete proposals concerning actions for improvement. The Change Monitor helps you find out what you need to do to put things on the right track in order to achieve your objective.

Core

The strength of the Change Monitor lies in the collective discussion of the survey results and the development of actions for improvement. The people who have filled in the online questionnaire participate in an interactive discussion about the Change Monitor results, the organization’s change process and its change strategy. The topics they cover include: which things are going well and which are not, what are the reasons for that, what could be done to improved and which actions should be taken to improve or maintain the organization’s change strengths. Together, the results, the discussions and the actions for improvement form a particularly effective combination. The Change Monitor helps you achieve the goals of the change.

The core of the Change Monitor comprises three activities:

  • Mapping out the current situation in an ongoing change process;
  • Improving any problems that have been identified;
  • Retaining and strengthening what is going well.

The ‘active ingredients’ of the Change Monitor are:

  • enough time for reflection during the change process;
  • structured discussions with all parties concerned about what is really at issue (looking underwater, listening and probing, developing ideas);
  • universal participation, including those who are less apt to voice their opinions;
  • a broadly supported and realistic action plan that gives energy because the people came up with it themselves;
  • professional support from a certified senior consultant.

Application

The Change Monitor was developed to help you deal with complex changes that will have major consequences for numerous aspects of your organization and the work carried out by employees. Those could involve structural changes, process improvements, culture changes or new collaborations. It is the joint effort of everyone involved that determines the success of such changes. That is why it makes good sense to hold well-structured discussions with each other about how the change process is going and how people can contribute effectively towards realizing the goals that have been set.

So far, 70 organizations have worked successfully with the Change Monitor. This intervention has contributed to the successful realization of mergers, organizational development, result-oriented work, quality improvements, culture change, and customer-oriented work, among other things. Your situation can also ask for the Innovation Monitor, the Culture Monitor, or another adjustment (see also Practice > Approach).

When does it make sense to use the Change Monitor?

  • If a process of improvement, change or renewal is currently taking place within the organization;
  • If the management desires to enter into discussion with the rest of the organization about what is going well and what is not going so well within that process;
  • If there is confidence in the value of thinking collectively about solutions for problems that have been identified;
  • If there is a willingness to actually realize those solutions;
  • If time is made available for filling in the survey and for discussing the results.

When does it not make sense to use the Change Monitor?

  • If the change process involves fewer than 50 people (in which case there are alternatives to working with a survey);
  • If a change process has yet to begin (the survey is made for monitoring ongoing changes);
  • If the management is only interested in receiving managerial information but not in entering into a discussion with all of the parties involved in order to learn about change;
  • If there is already a crisis situation or if the change involves a major reduction in personnel (in which case there is no basis of trust).

Conditions

The following conditions are what determine the success of the Change Monitor:






Benefits

The most important benefit of the Change Monitor is that you know what is needed to realize the desired change. By working with the Change Monitor you will also be stimulating communication and cooperation during a change process. You will obtain new insights about the change and about the role of the people involved. You will gain Those often entail valuable insights that you can use to strenghten your leadership in other situations as well.

More specifically, the Change Monitor will provide you with:

a perceptive overview of the issues during the change process
a sustained proposal for solutions to any problems that have been identified;
a concrete and realistic action plan that allows you to get started immediately;
an increased capacity for change, with more people contributing to the change process.

A healthcare facility was working on professionalizing the services they offered. The board of directors and the department heads had been doing that gradually by means of their annual plans. Although they had hoped the employees would play an active role, the department heads never actually managed to involve the employees in their annual plans for the individual teams. The board of directors noticed the same problem when they made their rounds in connection with an annual plan for the healthcare facility as a whole. The board of directors wanted to know how their employees experienced the changes. They also wanted to know what it would take to work on the annual plans with those who actually provided the care to the clients. The Change Monitor showed that while many employees would like to contribute to that process, the current change strategy left little room for them to participate. The board of directors and the department heads entered into discussions with the teams on how they could create more commitment and which initiatives they could encourage. When the facility worked with the Change Monitor for the second time, eight months later, the positive results demonstrated the value of working more collectively on the further development of the facility.

Following the merger of two insurance companies, the new departments began working under the direction of a manager and team leaders. The announcement of the merger had led to considerable disquiet among the employees, although the structuring process was going smoothly. The management team noted that the ‘blood groups’ in the new departments were reluctant to mix with each other and that people still associated themselves with their respective former organizations. The goal was to encourage collaboration among the various groups and to give the new departments an impulse to start using their strengths. The Change Monitor showed how people in each department viewed the merger process and the new department. During the discussion of the results, the teams focused on how they could contribute to developing the new department. Each department came up with its own ideas. These were recorded in a preliminary memorandum. Six months later, most departments were ready for the next step.

A municipality is working on a new structure and new management for the organization. The town clerk asked the advice of the municipal works council regarding the change plan. Managers and employees from the different municipal services had participated in the committees that developed this plan. Nevertheless, along with its objections to certain details in the plan, the works council cited an insufficient base of support within the services as the main reason for its negative advice. Surprised at their response, the town clerk proposed taking a closer look at what the organization thought about the change and then entered into a discussion with the works council about what should happen next. The Change Monitor identified the problems within a number of services and showed that there was no general lack of support for the plan. The works council reflected on its contact with its constituency. The town clerck disbanded the committees and went on to work together with the entire organization to further its work to implement the plan and achieve the desired result.

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And read more about Conditions for an effective use