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.

Examples from organizations

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.