hi I'm kchoi welcome back to my channel if you're new here I have a full-time job as a
consultant so I post videos about consulting more general career stuff education and anything else
I really feel like posting about so if that vague description appeals to you then please subscribe
I've posted some videos like what is consulting in general a week or a day in my life as a consultant
and some Q&A is about consulting but today I'm going to focus on a more specific topic which
is change management consulting which is the type of consulting that I do so to begin what
is change management in any organization there is going to be change at some point or at multiple
points really because they do say that change is the only constant in life and if you're in
the workforce or even as a student in some cases you've probably experienced some of these types
of changes it might be a new process like a review or approval process or product development process
or application process it might be a new system like a technological system or program that's
replacing an old system or it might be brand new never been used before a new strategy like the way
the company is interacting with its customers or the different products that the company is
offering a new organization or hierarchy like people are getting new roles are being divided
into different departments I feel like this type of change is what comes to mind first when people
think of change management like a company is going through a merger or an acquisition and
so people are being organized differently some people need to be let go but that's just one type
of change in one aspect of change management and the list goes on and on there's so many different
types of changes like leadership changes culture changes etc so that's the change part now the
management part that is about getting everybody in the organization on board with whatever the
change is because if you don't get everybody on board then that change is never going to happen
so simply a change management consultant helps to make change stick in an organization now within
change management there are multiple stages and as a consultant you might help the organization
through all of those stages or just one or two of those stages it really all depends one way that
you can think of or categorize the stages is in these three parts defining the change implementing
the change and keeping the change going and in each of these stages you have a different goal and
you're usually working with different levels in the organization when you're defining the change
your goal is really to create a roadmap for what the change is where you are today and where you
will be once the change is made so let's take an example from the list of different changes that I
went into earlier so let's say a company has a new system like a new technological system that they
are going to be rolling out today the company might be using two different tools or systems
that are doing mostly the same thing so there's a lot of duplicate work information is different
on both of the systems and so it slows things down people aren't getting the right information
to each other or to their customers and it's just not working out in the future with this new system
people will have the same information at the same time you won't be looking in multiple places and
getting inaccurate information and it's just going to make working with each other and working with
the customer much better change is a journey so with any journey or trip you're going to
take you need to map out where you're starting and where you're ending up it's like inputting
your destination into Google Maps before you get on the road you need that information before you
start your journey usually at this stage you're working with leaders in the organization who are
the ones that are influencing and deciding where the company will go so another goal at this stage
is to make sure that those leaders are on the same page as each other because if they don't
agree then the rest of the company is definitely not going to agree or be on the same page so as a
consultant you might be part of that conversation of actually strategizing and recommending what the
change should be or you might be facilitating a conversation or something with the leaders to
get them on the same page once the leaders of an organization have to find the change they're on
the same page they know what the ultimate goal and benefits are then it's time to communicate that to
the rest of the organization in general this could consist of different internal communications and
training so if we continue with the example earlier if your company is rolling out a
new system you'll probably get some sort of announcement about it explain that this new
system is coming and you might get some different trainings on your calendar so that you know how to
use it this step is much easier said than done because if there's one thing that human beings
have in common it's that we don't really like to change at least not when someone just tells you
to change and especially not when we don't see the benefit in changing or why we should do anything
differently there are probably people who like using the old system and they don't see a reason
to do anything differently because it doesn't affect their work in fact if they were to change
to a new system that's going to affect their work more because they have to learn this new
thing on top of what they're already doing this is where so many change initiatives can fail for
an organization because even if leaders know that this new system is the right choice and it's going
to help the company succeed in the future unless they communicate that in a way that everyone in
the organization can digest and understand and see how it impacts them personally then it's just not
going to happen that's why at this step it's not just important to tell people there's a new system
coming and train them on how to use it but you need let them know why this new system is coming
and why it's going to make their lives better make the company better etc so lots of companies will
probably have internal employee engagement or employee experience departments or an internal
learning or training and development team and they'll often work with consultants in this
area and the last stage or category is keeping the change going so you launch this new system you got
people on it learning about it it doesn't just end there now I might have chosen a bad example with
this tech implementation because usually old tech will end up fading out and you are forced to move
on to the new tech but let's just say it takes a while for the old tech to fade out there are
going to be people who continue using the old tech even after they've gone through the trainings for
the new tech so you need to keep reinforcing the change you've probably experienced working at a
company and they make an announcement of some new initiative and then after a couple weeks or
a month or whatever it just kind of fizzles out it happens to us personally too like if you have
a new year's resolution and you're really good at keeping it for the first few weeks but then
you end up just going back to your old ways unless you keep reinforcing it and reminding
yourself why you made that resolution it's going to be really hard to keep it going so that's why
this step of keeping the change going is really important because without it then all the work
before it is kind of pointless I personally find change management so interesting and energizing
because you're ultimately making people's work lives better and people spend so many hours of
their weeks and of their lives at work and so it sucks if you're at work and you just don't feel
like you understand or see the point of where your company is going or why they're making
certain decisions so to be able to help bring people along on that journey and just help them
feel more connected at work is really fun that's it for this video I hope it gave you a little bit
more insight into what change management is and what I do in my role I'm sure I missed a lot of
different aspects or details so if you have anything to add or resources to share please
leave them in the comments I love when people add helpful information because it just helps me learn
and helps everyone else who's watching the video if you made it this far into the video please give
it a like and as always thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next one bye