The four Cardinal Ws of Change Management

There is more to just configuring a system to suit the business processes of a company. End users attitude go a long way to determine if the system rollout will be a success. Many system implementation fail because of users resistance to change. This resistance is usually out of the “fear of the unknown”. Users tend to corroborate the dictum that says “the devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know”. Change management is a lot much easier when computer phobia as a phenomenon does not exist in a company i.e. users presently use a computer system for their business operations.

Consider a worse case scenario when people that handle core functional operations of a business do not make use of a system. Introducing an ERP system and getting them to use it can be a daunting task. Resistance can vary in degree depending on the extent of collaboration amongst the work force. The greater the number of opposing users, the more difficult will change management be. Irrespective of this degree, I intend to present a concise analysis of what I call the four Ws of Change Management namely:-














* Why the Change?
* What will change?
* When is the change?
* Who will change?

To guarantee successful implementation of a system, addressing the above mentioned fundamental questions is pertinent.

Why the change?
The aim of any organization is to make profit. To be profitable, organizations must streamline and optimize their business processes. The need for change to meet this challenge is thus inevitable. Change is further necessitated by the fact that organizations are continually looking for ways to run their business processes better.

What will change?
Ideally, everything will change. As a matter of fact, the phenomenon of business process re-engineering cannot be wholly separated from change management as a concept. The way business processes are carried out will change. Not only that, employee personal attitude to work will change. In some complex system transition, the corporate culture of an organization does change.

When is the change?
Change can be “total” or “in phase”. Thus, when the change will take place is ambiguous. However, the latter is more system transition specific. Employees attitude or if you like psychology must have been tuned (social and technical training) to the reality of an upcoming change. When the change will occur is also subject to the geographical and financial capacity of an organization. Suffice to say that, “total” change might not mean so much to organizations that don’t have disparate locations and more importantly, are financially buoyant to accommodate the total cost of such change.

Who will change?
Everybody! The truth of the matter is that, most changes are not one sided. This fact is more credible when the system bringing the change is an ERP system that integrates all the functional areas of an organization. In which case, the productivity of an individual is indirectly or indirectly linked to another individual. Thus, to optimize the change, everybody must change.