PMO | Getting Started with Change Management

Organizational Change Management (OCM) is in constant demand due to today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Whether it’s adapting to new competitors, emerging technologies, or shifting societal needs, organizations must proactively address change to stay relevant. Effective OCM focuses on collective strategies to prepare, support, and guide individuals, teams, and entire organizations through transitions.  Several major approaches provide frameworks for managing change effectively. 

• Lewin’s Change Management Model breaks change into three stages: Unfreeze, Change, and Refreeze. Organizations create awareness of the need for change, implement new processes or behaviors, and solidify the changes in their culture.
• Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model emphasizes urgency, coalition building, clear vision, and reinforcing change through structured steps that ensure stakeholder buy-in.  
• ADKAR Model takes a more individual-focused approach, highlighting Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement to drive transformation on a personal level. McKinsey 7-S Framework ensures alignment between organizational elements—Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared Values, Style, Staff, and Skills—during change. 
• Bridge’s Transition Model focuses on the emotional journey individuals experience, moving through phases of Ending, Neutral Zone, and New Beginning to embrace change.  ​

Each approach offers unique insights and strategies, enabling organizations to adapt effectively in a fast-changing world.

Reference 

1. ​Learning Resources: Managing Organizational Change for Managers by Donna Brighton, Linkedin Learning, 2018. Change management is about influence and inspire the team to change.
2. Change remains difficult. "The brutal fact is that about 70% of all change initiatives fail." (Cracking the Code of Change by Nitin Nohria and Michael Beer, HBR 2000; “Most Change Initiatives Fail—But They Don’t Have To,” D. Leonard and C. Coltea, Gallup, 2013) The failure could be losing the changing focus, the change happened in the wrong way, or changes don't happen at all. ​​​