Organizational Change Management Principles: Precede Action With Mindful Assessment

Is Your Organizational Change Management (OCM) Approach Based on Mindful Analysis or Checklist Completion?

I recently helped a busy executive perform a critical change management assessment. As this individual always does, they put great care into thinking about the assessment and provided detailed rationale for their recommendations. They contemplated the pressures in supply chains, conflicting project timelines, lack of funding, and a talent shortage being experienced across the organization. They considered the change impacts of inflation and rising project costs in the context of unrealistic timelines and mistakes made in the prior year rushing through critical project steps that resulted in increased spending.

Unfortunately, this exercise was not taken seriously by others on the team. When it came time to collectively review the entries, we were disappointed to see that the inputs were simply carried over (copy/paste) from the prior assessment with no mindful consideration of the current context. Action in this case was not preceded by mindful assessment.

The importance of this change management assessment was not lost on the busy executive and a handful of consultants on the working team. Sadly, it was lost on many others who took the easy path by reusing the same inputs already more than 14 months old. Ask yourself if things changed a bit between 2021 and 2022 that warrant reprioritization and action in 2023.

Nowadays we are all busy and at times just trying to keep our heads above the water line. There isn’t a magical change management software system that can make these kinds of problems disappear with the click of a button. The world is filled with challenges and organizations are facing staggering new realities caused by inflation, limited resources (human and otherwise), emerging legislation, and post-pandemic disruption being experienced globally. The priorities in strategic project planning must consider externalities and the risks of change like never before. Mindful assessment precipitating the recommendations in this case would have undoubtedly changed the inputs. But what does that mean and why is mindful assessment essential in organizational change management?

Applying Mindfulness to Organizational Change Management

Stating a very simple definition, mindfulness is a contemplative state of being highly focused. Without going into deep philosophical definitions, it is a mindset and a process that involves deliberation of the current situation, the problems being faced, the impacts that result from the problems, and alternatives to remedy. Staying mindful allows you to consider the issues fully and then select the action(s) needed to resolve it. A common mistake in OCM is to assume that all problems are caused by communications. While this may have a bit of truth to it, thinking that a quick email can resolve complex issues is like dropping a pebble in the ocean and expecting to create a wave. It just won’t happen.

The connection between organizational change management, the investment in today’s state-of-the-art technology, and external factors should start to make sense. If we are to survive these global realities, assessments must include mindful considerations that move away from the checklist mentality and instead take a deep dive into the complexities. Don’t get me wrong, checklists are helpful to ensure that work has been done. But too many OCM tools I have used make the work seem superficial and like trivial exercise. And far too many of the current tools are outdated. They were developed when our world was very different. This is also why I made a call to action for our industry in designing how OCM can effectively ease the burdens we all face. Again, not a checklist approach, but what if we came together and thought about these new pressures and the impact of the changes we all need to make? OCM is long overdue for big change but let’s start with some key assessments.

3 Types of Change Management Assessments That Require a Mindful Approach

There are three assessments that should never be conducted using a checklist approach:

Moving to Mindful Change Management Assessments

Change management assessments (not with specificity to any one methodology) should never be rushed or trivialized as they form the foundation for change. And there are other evaluations that may be warranted or required based on your OCM methodology of choice. But let’s not overlook that it is the way these are done and who does them that will provide the essential data. Experience matters. Words matter. And so does mindful assessment that is not rushed, diluted, or short-changed. Our ability to remain strong as an industry relies on all of us being successful in how we navigate and adapt to constant change. Are you ready to embrace mindful assessment?