presentation on importance of change management

Change management presentations: The all-in-one guide

Learn how to create effective change management presentations that engage your audience and help you achieve your goals.

Raja Bothra

Building presentations

Hey there, fellow presentation enthusiast!

If you're reading this, you're probably gearing up for a change management presentation.

Well, you're in luck because today, we're diving deep into the world of change management presentations.

Get ready to discover everything you need to know to ace your next presentation and leave your audience not just informed but inspired.

What is change management?

Change management is a concept that's become essential in today's ever-evolving business landscape. It's all about making strategic shifts within an organization while ensuring a smooth transition. Why? Because change is inevitable, but its success isn't. Companies that adapt effectively thrive, while those that struggle often find themselves facing a bumpy ride.

Reasons why change management initiatives fail

Now that we know the importance of change management let's explore why some initiatives hit a brick wall. The truth is, not all change efforts yield the desired results. Here are a few common reasons why:

• Resistance to change: One of the most significant roadblocks to change is resistance from employees. It's like trying to push a boulder uphill. We'll discuss strategies to tackle this later on.
• Lack of executive commitment: If the top brass isn't fully on board, it's tough to expect employees to embrace change wholeheartedly.
• Unrealistic expectations: Sometimes, organizations set the bar too high, leading to disappointment when results fall short.
• Inadequate team: Building a capable change management team is crucial. Without the right players, your strategy may crumble.

How to structure an effective change management presentation

Now that we understand what change management is and why it often hits roadblocks, let's get into the nitty-gritty of crafting a compelling presentation. Your presentation should be like a well-structured roadmap, guiding your audience through the change journey. Here's how you can achieve that:

• Introduction to change management: Start by defining change management. Explain why it's vital for organizations today. Make it crystal clear.
• The change management process: Dive into the step-by-step process of change management. It's like following a recipe – each ingredient plays a crucial role.
• Utilizing powerpoint templates: Presentation slides are your canvas. Explore how templates can make your presentation visually appealing.
• Understanding organizational change: Delve into the dynamics of organizational change. What drives it? What are the forces at play?
• Overcoming resistance to change: Address the elephant in the room: resistance. Share strategies to navigate this challenging terrain.
• Executing the change process: Break down the implementation phase. What steps should you follow to make it successful?
• The change management team: Introduce the key players behind change management. It's a team effort.
• Navigating current and future states: Discuss the transition from the current state to the future state. It's like crossing a bridge – a bit shaky but necessary.
• Identifying barriers: What obstacles might you face on your change journey? Identify and strategize.
• Engaging key stakeholders: Your stakeholders are your allies. How can you get them on board with the changes?

Do’s and don'ts for an effective change management presentation

Congratulations, you've mastered the structure of a compelling change management presentation. Now, let's delve into the critical do's and don'ts to ensure your presentation not only hits the mark but leaves a lasting impact.

Do's :

• Engage your audience : Start by captivating your audience's attention. Share relatable stories, use visual aids, or pose thought-provoking questions.
• Stay focused on the message : Keep your presentation laser-focused on the core message. Avoid veering off into tangents.
• Use visuals effectively : Incorporate compelling visuals to reinforce your points. A well-placed graph or chart can convey complex information with ease.
• Simplify complex concepts : Break down intricate ideas into digestible pieces. Your audience should leave with a clear understanding of the subject.
• Interact with your audience: Foster engagement by encouraging questions and discussions. Make your presentation a dialogue, not a monologue.

Don'ts :

• Avoid jargon : Steer clear of technical language or industry jargon that might alienate your audience. Speak in plain, understandable terms.
• Don't overload with information : Less is often more. Don't overwhelm your audience with a barrage of facts and figures. Focus on the most relevant information.
• Refrain from reading slides : Your slides are there to complement your presentation, not serve as your script. Avoid simply reading off them.
• Don't rush through : Take your time to explain concepts clearly. Rushing through your presentation can leave your audience bewildered.
• Steer clear of negativity : Maintain a positive tone. Avoid dwelling on the challenges of change; instead, emphasize the opportunities it presents.

Summarizing key takeaways

Let's take a moment to distill the wisdom you've acquired throughout this journey. Consider this section as your treasure chest of insights, a concise roadmap to guide you in your pursuit of mastery in change management presentations.

• Engagement is essential: Begin with a captivating introduction. Engage your audience from the start.
• Clarity is king: Maintain a singular message. Avoid tangents and information overload.
• Leverage visual aids: Use charts, graphs, and images. Simplify complex ideas and enhance understanding.
• Simplify complexity: Break down intricate concepts. Ensure a clear and uncomplicated understanding.
• Encourage interaction and dialogue: Foster questions, discussions, and engagement. Make your presentation a two-way communication.
• Avoid jargon: Speak in plain language. Keep it accessible and relatable.
• Quality over quantity: Focus on the most relevant information. Prioritize content wisely; avoid overwhelming your audience.
• Be the narrator, not the reader: Use slides as visual aids, not scripts. Engage through storytelling and explanation.
• Avoid rushing: Take your time for clarity. Don't rush through your material.
• Emphasize positivity: Highlight the opportunities that change presents. Maintain a positive tone throughout.

In conclusion, change management presentations are your ticket to successfully navigating organizational transformations. By following these guidelines and using Prezent, you're well on your way to becoming a change management presentation pro. Remember, change is constant, but with the right tools and knowledge, you can ride the waves of change with confidence.

1. What is the significance of using a change management powerpoint or change management ppt in presentations?

Utilizing a change management powerpoint or change management ppt is crucial for visually representing complex ideas. These presentations help convey the forces for change effectively. Visual aids simplify understanding, and you can easily download templates to streamline the process.

2. How do you ensure active manager involvement in the change management process?

Managers play a pivotal role in change management. To foster their involvement, align their objectives with the change plan's objective. Ensure they have the necessary support system for change agents and understand their performance management role in the transition.

3. What are the key phases of change in a change management plan, and how do you ensure a smooth implementation of change?

The phases of change typically include preparation, planning, execution, and evaluation. To ensure smooth implementation of change, focus on alignment with your team members, provide the required resources for change, and gauge the organization's readiness for change.

4. Can Google Slides be used effectively for change management presentations?

Absolutely, Google Slides can be a valuable tool. They offer collaborative features, making it easier to work on a change project. Just ensure they align with your change plan and conduct a gap analysis if needed to evaluate their suitability.

5. How can organizations maintain sustaining momentum during a change initiative, especially when facing restraining forces?

To maintain sustaining momentum, it's crucial to identify and address restraining forces effectively. This often requires strong sponsorship, a clear understanding of driving forces, and a commitment to learning and reinforcing new behaviors. Effective leadership at all levels is essential to navigate these challenges successfully.

Create your change management presentation with Prezent

Are you excited to put your newfound knowledge to use? We recommend using Prezent, the all-in-one AI presentation software for enterprise teams. With a library of over 35,000 slides, real-time collaboration, and brand-approved designs from Fortune 500 companies, Prezent can save you up to 70% of presentation creation time while keeping you 100% on brand.

So, go ahead, create a presentation that not only informs but inspires change. Good luck!

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Home Blog Business A Guide to Organizational Change Management for Leaders

A Guide to Organizational Change Management for Leaders

Nearly 7 in 10 business leaders have experienced at least one corporate crisis in the past 5 years — with the average number of crises, handled by them being three. And that’s even before 2020 has rolled it. So it only makes sense why business leaders today are increasingly focused on getting better at organizational change management. 

What is Change Management?

SHRM defines change management the following way:  

Change management is the systematic approach and application of knowledge, tools, and resources to deal with change. 

In essence, the purpose of change management is to determine, structure, manage, and execute any initiative that would challenge the current status quo . The change management process includes multiple steps and structural elements, aimed at ensuring that:

• The organization can adapt/react to the changes, prompted by external conditions (e.g. market turbulence). 
• The people, employed by the company, can go along with the proposed internal changes, prompted either by an internal or external need. 

Change management is a cross-functional action, leaders pursue when they want to drive sustainable transformations and effective decision making across their organization with minimal resistance and disruption.

What is Organizational Change Management?

Organizational change management is a more narrow scope of action, aimed at altering how the organization operates. Organizational change can assume improvements in the company’s culture, standard operational procedures, service or technology portfolios.  

The need for organizational change can be prompted by different factors such as:

• A slow rate of innovation
• Low operational efficiency
• Shift to another business model (e.g. from sales-led to product-led growth ). 

Why is change important? The global pandemic is a good illustration. Agile companies, capable of pivoting and driving organizational changes fast (and effectively), ended up among the market movers. Whereas more reluctant or ineffective companies are still struggling to shake off the disruptive impact of COVID-19 on their operations. 

Certainly, a ‘swan’ event such as the global pandemic is a more rare case of organizational change. Far more frequently, businesses introduce a change management policy as a response to the following types of changes:

Adaptive changes — small-scale, incremental changes leaders pursue as the company’s needs and priorities evolve. In most cases, such changes are slight adjustments to existing processes, planned out in advance along with other initiatives on the annual/monthly agendas. These may apply only to certain people, processes, or tech, rather than the company as a whole

Transformational changes — large-scale, radical initiatives, involving multi-vector transformations. For example, a shift in the company vision can require changes in the product portfolio, management, team structure, and business processes. 

Due to the sweeping scale and vast impact, transformational changes required careful orchestration. Typically, such organizational change management strategies are put in place as a response to a major shift in market conditions, a disruption in the supply chain, or another major event. 

Transitional changes — a group of ‘sub-changes’ aimed at taking the company from its current state towards the desired to-be to solve a particular issue. For example, after M&A the parent company will develop a change management plan, aimed at aligning operations within the purchased asset with the rest of the organization.

Organizational Change Examples

• Implementation of new technology or digital transformations 
• M&A activity, company group consolidation 
• Change in company leadership and strategic priorities 
• Change in organizational culture 

Popular Change Management Models: Overview

Old habits die hard. We are reluctant to change our usual ways, especially when the request for change is imposed on us (rather than manifests internally). That’s why formal change management techniques exist in the first place. They facilitate a paced and non-disruptive introduction of new practices, address resistance, and minimize turbulence, experienced during the change period. 

But given that change comes in different shapes (and manifests as a response to different stressors), there is a range of change management tools leaders can leverage.

Kotter’s Change Management Theory

Dr. John Kotter, an author, and professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School developed an 8-step framework for leading change. Each of the proposed change management steps is aimed at mobilizing the people around the purpose of change, getting a unified buy-in, and ensuring fast-paced action. 

McKinsey 7-S Framework 

This change management model identifies 7 strategic areas, companies need to focus on in order to sustainably transform. These include: 

• Strategy – a step-by-step roadmap for executing proposed changes. 
• Structure – the company’s current structure and desired future state of it. 
• Systems – new systems that will be required to support new operations. 
• Shared values – core values and main principles that the company adheres to. 
• Style – approach in which the change is adopted.
• Staff – current workforce composition and new roles that will become in demand. 
• Skills – Competencies, possessed by the current workforce.

ADKAR model

ADKAR is an acronym for awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement — the five main components of effective change management, according to Jeff Hiatt. This model provides a great framework for formalizing the scope of change and identifying ways to support the employees during the transition. 

Lewin’s Change Management Model

This model focuses on helping leaders pursue stages in three phases:

• Unfreeze — a prep stage, aimed at ‘activating’ employees to make them more receptive to the imposed changes. 
• Change — the active phase where change is introduced. 
• Freeze — concluding stage, where all employees have adopted the change and can go back to a more ‘passive’ state of day-to-day activity. 

Organizational Change Management Best Practices

Organizational change and development is a multi-step process, requiring strong employee and stakeholder engagement . 

To succeed with change management, leaders need to focus on the next 4 actions: 

• Change Planning

Change Leadership

Change management, change maintenance, change planning .

As the name implies, at this stage leaders analyze the current state of affairs, refine their vision, define future goals, analyze risks, and put plans for change.

To succeed with subsequent implementation, leaders need to:

• Create a detailed roadmap of change
• Set measurable and realistic objectives
• Identify success measurement
• Analyze and address possible risks
• Create a preliminary timeline for execution 
• Set milestones and checkpoints 

Best practices:

• Honesty and transparency: Prepare to have conversations with other leaders, stakeholders, and employees regarding the current state of affairs and the underlying needs for change. 
• Regular conversations with the employees: To secure buy-in, communicate early and frequently with your people in regards to your plans, goals, and potential scope of change. 
• Seek opinions from your teams. Gain grassroots support by having conversations with staff at different levels. Taking the planning conversations outside of the boardroom can help you gain fresher perspectives, and yet again — secure faster buy-in.   

In most companies, change happens from the top-to-bottom. Yet, directions issued from the above can be rather unsettling for people at lower levels and create unnecessary tensions, or worse — outright resistance. To prevent such scenarios, ensure that you are listening to people at all levels and obtain their support. 

Outstanding change leadership involves the ability to communicate appropriately with others — motivate, engage, influence, and reassure people of the positive impact of upcoming changes. 

• Address and resolve concerns early: Understandably, some of your employees may resist change or otherwise feel threatened by it. Talk to such people. Provide them with reassurance and extra information in regards to the impact of change. 
• Communicate status updates regularly: To facilitate faster adoption and alignment, provide plenty of information —  update your company practices, provide status updates, schedule training if necessary. 
• Assume a position of a servant leader: Servant leaders assume a supporting position and act as ‘facilitators’. They empower, support, and emphasize with their people and rally them around the shared cause. 

The change management stage is all about overseeing how the people, processes, systems, and other moving parts contribute to the end goal of change. This phase will require the most targeted actions as leaders will need to constantly monitor progress and rapidly react to the slightest deviations on the change management timeframe. At this point, you should be focused on ensuring that: 

• Changes are implemented sustainably, according to the plans. 
• Risks are identified early and mitigated.
• Communication happens frequently 
• Encourage knowledge sharing: Ask the early adopted to facilitate others with jumping on the new best practices. Create and support peer-to-peer learning opportunities and remove bottlenecks in information flows when those arise. 
• Provide training: Some people will require upskilling to thrive in the new environment. Put plans for formal training initiatives. 
• Recognize and reward: Make positive behaviors stick by recognizing change pioneers. At early stages, external motivation can be crucial to help with the development of intrinsic motivation later down the road. 

Change maintenance is the final stage of the transformations. At this point, your main goal is to ensure that the change is successfully implemented and all the initiatives on the roadmap are finished. Focus on reinforcing positive behaviors, addressing remaining inefficiencies, and facilitating the people to reach a productivity plateau within the new environment.

The conclusion of this change is when the proposed change is fully transferred and embedded within your organization. 

Best practices : 

• Schedule an after-action review: To better reflect on the entire change management process and its success/shortcomings, schedule follow-up AAR meetings with your team. 
• Create evaluation plans: To better monitor and evaluate the state of change, set extra milestones —  short evaluation sessions, held every 3 or 6 months, during the first year — where your team analyzes the set success metrics and brainstorms ways to strengthen change. 

To Conclude

Every organization, at some point, will undergo a transition or change. Whether prompted by external market conditions or internal processual inefficiencies, the scope of changes can have a major impact on the company’s viability. While organizational change management isn’t an easy process, you now know the main change management principles, models, and frameworks for orchestrating it effectively!

If after this article, you want to learn more about change management models visit our recent blog post on Proven Change Management Models .

1. Organizational Change Management Plan

Change management is now more than ever a challenge to organizations of all sizes. This is why having an orderly, well-organized plan will make an absolute difference for any team when heading to implementation. In this template, you will find the diagrams and formats that will support you in building and transmitting your change management strategy’s key facts.

Use This Template

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Thanks for the article, simple and a lot of insight.

good information and reliable

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Free PowerPoint Change Management Templates and Slides

By Kate Eby | February 16, 2024

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We’ve collected the most useful free PowerPoint change management templates for change managers, organizational development specialists, and communication, project, and human resources managers to outline and present essential planning and processes.  

Included on this page, you’ll find a  PowerPoint change management plan template with an eight-point plan, including cost data ; a  PowerPoint change management process template that breaks down into five phases for clear visualization ; and a  PowerPoint organizational change management plan template with a post-implementation plan that’s essential for achieving change .

PowerPoint Change Management Communication Plan Template

Download the Change Management Communication Plan Template for PowerPoint  

When to Use This Template:  Change managers, organizational development specialists, and communication, project, and human resources managers use this template to present change data for smooth transitions and stakeholder alignment with objectives.

Notable Template Features: Outline your change management communication plan with this presentation template. It features dedicated slides for change details, stakeholder roles, and a reporting timeline. The timeline table includes specific columns for stakeholders, communication channels, reporting, and timing concerning each communication plan activity. Document the situation statement by entering data for the current standing, type, and reason for the change, then listing the affected parties. Close your communication plan presentation with a customized summary statement of encouragement for your team. 

Check out these  free change management communication plan templates to share change project adjustments and updates with internal and external stakeholders.

PowerPoint Change Management Plan Template

Download the Change Management Plan Template for PowerPoint  

When to Use This Template:  Change management consultants, coordinators, and specialists; business transformation executives; and strategy and planning managers use this template to articulate the change management plan to stakeholders.

Notable Template Features: This comprehensive template includes slides detailing your organization's change management plan. Enter bulleted data in the table columns for an eight-step plan. Use this template to map change management activities in the 10-month-timeline slide. Prioritize change requests and list each change request's impact, hours, and cost data. Use the readiness table to document and update your organization's plan status. This change management presentation template lets you chart and present your plan timeline.

Learn more about planning in order to help your organization prepare for and manage change, discover best practices and tips, and more with this  expert roadmap for writing an effective change management plan .

Check out these  free change management templates to help your organization manage and achieve successful change outcomes.

PowerPoint Change Management Process Template

Download the Change Management Process Template for PowerPoint  

When to Use This Template:  Change management specialists, project managers, organizational development consultants, business analysts, and human resources managers use this template to define and present process steps and strategies for change implementation.

Notable Template Features: Simplify your change management process in a flow diagram with this presentation template. You can map change requests from submission, description, and review to approval. This template breaks down into five phases to help you visualize the change management process, including plan development, implementation, monitoring, and change assessment. The template provides the structure for you to see your change management process at a glance.

Learn more about the history, models, challenges, and tips for successful change management with this  indispensable guide to all aspects of change management .

PowerPoint Organizational Change Management Plan Template

Download the Organizational Change Management Plan Template for PowerPoint

When to Use This Template:  This template is ideal for organizational development managers, change management consultants, project managers, and human resources directors who need to present a change approach that promotes buy-in from stakeholders within the organization. 

Notable Template Features: This change management plan template provides the structure for presenting the analytical, strategic, and process elements of successful organizational change, and it summarizes your organization's implementation plan, objectives, methods, and activities. Document the need for change and its impact in the introduction slide. Detail the post-implementation plan by listing the assets and monitoring and evaluation processes you require to achieve change. This template has everything you need to present each part of your management plan for organizational change.

Check out this collection of  free change management strategy templates to help you plan and ensure successful change.

Master Change Management with Templates and Slides from Smartsheet

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5 Critical Steps in the Change Management Process

• 19 Mar 2020

Businesses must constantly evolve and adapt to meet a variety of challenges—from changes in technology, to the rise of new competitors, to a shift in laws, regulations, or underlying economic trends. Failure to do so could lead to stagnation or, worse, failure.

Approximately 50 percent of all organizational change initiatives are unsuccessful, highlighting why knowing how to plan for, coordinate, and carry out change is a valuable skill for managers and business leaders alike.

Have you been tasked with managing a significant change initiative for your organization? Would you like to demonstrate that you’re capable of spearheading such an initiative the next time one arises? Here’s an overview of what change management is, the key steps in the process, and actions you can take to develop your managerial skills and become more effective in your role.

Access your free e-book today.

What is Change Management?

Organizational change refers broadly to the actions a business takes to change or adjust a significant component of its organization. This may include company culture, internal processes, underlying technology or infrastructure, corporate hierarchy, or another critical aspect.

Organizational change can be either adaptive or transformational:

• Adaptive changes are small, gradual, iterative changes that an organization undertakes to evolve its products, processes, workflows, and strategies over time. Hiring a new team member to address increased demand or implementing a new work-from-home policy to attract more qualified job applicants are both examples of adaptive changes.
• Transformational changes are larger in scale and scope and often signify a dramatic and, occasionally sudden, departure from the status quo. Launching a new product or business division, or deciding to expand internationally, are examples of transformational change.

Change management is the process of guiding organizational change to fruition, from the earliest stages of conception and preparation, through implementation and, finally, to resolution.

As a leader, it’s essential to understand the change management process to ensure your entire organization can navigate transitions smoothly. Doing so can determine the potential impact of any organizational changes and prepare your teams accordingly. When your team is prepared, you can ensure everyone is on the same page, create a safe environment, and engage the entire team toward a common goal.

Change processes have a set of starting conditions (point A) and a functional endpoint (point B). The process in between is dynamic and unfolds in stages. Here’s a summary of the key steps in the change management process.

Check out our video on the change management process below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more explainer content!

5 Steps in the Change Management Process

1. prepare the organization for change.

For an organization to successfully pursue and implement change, it must be prepared both logistically and culturally. Before delving into logistics, cultural preparation must first take place to achieve the best business outcome.

In the preparation phase, the manager is focused on helping employees recognize and understand the need for change. They raise awareness of the various challenges or problems facing the organization that are acting as forces of change and generating dissatisfaction with the status quo. Gaining this initial buy-in from employees who will help implement the change can remove friction and resistance later on.

2. Craft a Vision and Plan for Change

Once the organization is ready to embrace change, managers must develop a thorough, realistic, and strategic plan for bringing it about.

The plan should detail:

• Strategic goals: What goals does this change help the organization work toward?
• Key performance indicators: How will success be measured? What metrics need to be moved? What’s the baseline for how things currently stand?
• Project stakeholders and team: Who will oversee the task of implementing change? Who needs to sign off at each critical stage? Who will be responsible for implementation?
• Project scope: What discrete steps and actions will the project include? What falls outside of the project scope?

While it’s important to have a structured approach, the plan should also account for any unknowns or roadblocks that could arise during the implementation process and would require agility and flexibility to overcome.

3. Implement the Changes

After the plan has been created, all that remains is to follow the steps outlined within it to implement the required change. Whether that involves changes to the company’s structure, strategy, systems, processes, employee behaviors, or other aspects will depend on the specifics of the initiative.

During the implementation process, change managers must be focused on empowering their employees to take the necessary steps to achieve the goals of the initiative and celebrate any short-term wins. They should also do their best to anticipate roadblocks and prevent, remove, or mitigate them once identified. Repeated communication of the organization’s vision is critical throughout the implementation process to remind team members why change is being pursued.

4. Embed Changes Within Company Culture and Practices

Once the change initiative has been completed, change managers must prevent a reversion to the prior state or status quo. This is particularly important for organizational change related to business processes such as workflows, culture, and strategy formulation. Without an adequate plan, employees may backslide into the “old way” of doing things, particularly during the transitory period.

By embedding changes within the company’s culture and practices, it becomes more difficult for backsliding to occur. New organizational structures, controls, and reward systems should all be considered as tools to help change stick.

5. Review Progress and Analyze Results

Just because a change initiative is complete doesn’t mean it was successful. Conducting analysis and review, or a “project post mortem,” can help business leaders understand whether a change initiative was a success, failure, or mixed result. It can also offer valuable insights and lessons that can be leveraged in future change efforts.

Ask yourself questions like: Were project goals met? If yes, can this success be replicated elsewhere? If not, what went wrong?

The Key to Successful Change for Managers

While no two change initiatives are the same, they typically follow a similar process. To effectively manage change, managers and business leaders must thoroughly understand the steps involved.

Some other tips for managing organizational change include asking yourself questions like:

• Do you understand the forces making change necessary? Without this understanding, it can be difficult to effectively address the underlying causes that have necessitated change, hampering your ability to succeed.
• Do you have a plan? Without a detailed plan and defined strategy, it can be difficult to usher a change initiative through to completion.
• How will you communicate? Successful change management requires effective communication with both your team members and key stakeholders. Designing a communication strategy that acknowledges this reality is critical.
• Have you identified potential roadblocks? While it’s impossible to predict everything that might potentially go wrong with a project, taking the time to anticipate potential barriers and devise mitigation strategies before you get started is generally a good idea.

How to Lead Change Management Successfully

If you’ve been asked to lead a change initiative within your organization, or you’d like to position yourself to oversee such projects in the future, it’s critical to begin laying the groundwork for success by developing the skills that can equip you to do the job.

Completing an online management course can be an effective way of developing those skills and lead to several other benefits . When evaluating your options for training, seek a program that aligns with your personal and professional goals; for example, one that emphasizes organizational change.

Do you want to become a more effective leader and manager? Explore Leadership Principles , Management Essentials , and Organizational Leadership —three of our online leadership and management courses —to learn how you can take charge of your professional development and accelerate your career. Not sure which course is the right fit? Download our free flowchart .

This post was updated on August 8, 2023. It was originally published on March 19, 2020.

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Change management introduction powerpoint presentation slides

Manage the imposed or unplanned change with the help of professionally designed ready-made Change Management Introduction PowerPoint Presentation Slides. Drive an effective change within an organization using Change management introduction powerpoint presentation slides. Get practical organizational change methodologies, frameworks, steps, processes and implement a successful change. Add change management ppt covers topics like change management implementation drivers, identify the change, types of change management, forces for change, gap analysis, organization change readiness checklist, etc. These change management introduction PPT slide layouts are editable. You can utilize them as per your organizational need. Make your employees ready for the change and go through a successful transition. Add organizational change management PowerPoint templates to control and improve processes for the betterment of an organization as whole. It becomes necessary in the business cycle of an organization to have business process reengineering. Adopt a change and go through a smooth transition with change management introduction PPT slideshow. Break it all down with our Change Management Introduction Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Allow every element to emerge effectively.

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Presenting change management introduction PowerPoint presentation slides. This deck comprises total of 25 change management PPT templates. This change management complete PowerPoint slideshow comprises of content-ready templates Each slide is well crafted and designed by our PowerPoint experts. Our designers have included all the necessary PowerPoint layouts in this deck. From icons to graphs, this PPT deck has it all. The best part is that these templates are easily editable Change colour, text, font size, add or delete the content as per the requirement.

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Slide 1 : This slide presents Change Management Introduction. State Your Company Name and get started. Slide 2 : This slide shows Change Management Strategy Key Objectives such as- Manage Expectations, Drive Engagement, Ensure Consistency, Build Capability, Solicit Feedback & Participation. Slide 3 : This slide shows Change Management Team & Roles showing- Head: Corporate Management. Head: Organizational Development Coordinate overall change program, Develop clear change strategies for change. Communication Role: Provide clear communication to all key stakeholders on change related issues. Human Resource Role: Provide expert HR advice on personal transitions & support. Slide 4 : This slide showcases Change Management Implementation Drivers divided into- Competency Drivers: Coaching, Training, Selection. Organization Drivers: Systems Intervention, Facilitative Administration, Decision Support System. Leadership Drivers: Technical, Adaptive. Slide 5 : This slide shows Identify The Change with the following subheadings- Types Of Change Management, Forces For Change, Vision For Change, Gap Analysis, Organization Change Readiness. Slide 6 : This slide presents Types Of Change Management showcasing- Description, Used For, Who Impacted. Change happens at every level of your organization. We have listed common changes which happen in an organization. You can choose the type of change your organization is going through. Slide 7 : This slide showcases Forces For Change such as- Mergers & Acquisitions, Political-Legal Reasons, Electronic Commerce, Knowledge Economy, Digital Convergence, New Technology, Privatizations, Social-culture Reasons. There are several reasons for change at every level of your organization. We have listed few reasons for the changes that happen in an organization. You can choose the appropriate reason for your organization. Slide 8 : This slide shows Define Your Vision with a creative iceberg imagery. Define your Vision for change management considering what are the current situation/ challenges of the organization and what it will look like in future Slide 9 : This slide shows Define Your Vision with a creative semi circular imagery. GAP analysis helps in identifying key areas of improvement from current state to future state. Using this tool, you can make important decisions about the future and how the business needs to change. Slide 10 : This slide shows Gap Analysis displaying- Current State, Future State, Gap, Actions To Close Gap. GAP analysis helps in identifying key areas of improvement from current state to future state. Using this tool, you can make important decisions about the future and how the business needs to change. Slide 11 : This slide presents Organization Change Readiness Checklist showing- Deliverable, Implementation Team Leader, Implementation Sponsor, Action Required, When, Completed, People Readiness. This checklist is an important factor in successful implementation of new policies, programs. A detailed checklist must be completed to ensure all elements of the change have been addressed. Slide 12 : This slide presents Organization Change Readiness Checklist showing- Systems Readiness Action Required When Completed This checklist is an important factor in successful implementation of new policies, programs. A detailed checklist must be completed to ensure all elements of the change have been addressed. Slide 13 : This is a Change Management Introduction Icon Slide. Use the icons as per need. Slide 14 : This slide is titled Additional Slides. You may change content as per your need. Slide 15 : This slide showcases a Column Chart for two product/entity comparison, information, specifications etc. Slide 16 : This slide showcases a Clustered Bar Chart for two product/entity comparison, information, specifications etc. Slide 17 : This slide showcases an Area Chart for two product/entity comparison, information, specifications etc. Slide 18 : This slide contains Our Mission with Vision and Goal. State them here. Slide 19 : This is Our Target slide. State them here. Slide 20 : This is an About Us slide. State your position, facts or anything business here. Slide 21 : This slide presents Our Team with designation, image text holder and text boxes to fill information. Slide 22 : This slide shows Comparison in a creative manner displaying male and female imagery. State comparing aspects here. Slide 23 : This is a Puzzle image slide with text boxes to state information, specifications etc. Slide 24 : This is an Idea or Bulb image slide. Present any new information, data here. Slide 25 : This is a Thank You slide with Address # street number, city, state, Contact Numbers, Email Address to be put and displayed.

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Change Management Presentation Template

Motivate your staff to support change with Miro's Change Management Presentation Template. Explain the benefits of transformation and prevent employee frustration.

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About the Change Management Presentation Template

Impactful change management communication begins with the right slides. Use our Change Management Presentation Template to help your staff, colleagues, and partners prepare for change and embrace it.

Build awareness, eliminate stress, and get your employees excited about the future transformation. This template allows you to create an effective change management process presentation in minutes and personalize it to match your unique strategy.

What is change management?

Organizations undergo all sorts of human-centered, structural, technological, or cultural changes. These can be proactive or reactive and caused by external or internal factors.

Whatever your case may be, your employees have the right to know what’s happening and how it’s going to affect their work. They also need to understand how to support the transition and make things run more efficiently than before.

That’s where change management comes in. It’s a framework for implementing change and ensuring everyone’s on board. A change management plan helps your entire organization prepare for it and successfully navigate the new landscape, be it a merger, software migration, or major shift in the hierarchy.

Why give a change management presentation?

Contrary to popular opinion, sending a memo isn’t the best way to deliver important news. If anything, it’s guaranteed to sow confusion across the entire company and spark heated debates in the break room. If you want to tell your team about an upcoming organizational change, it’s better to go face-to-face or jump on a video call with them to explain what’s about to come and leave no questions unanswered.

A well-structured change management presentation can help you communicate organizational change effectively and ensure a smooth transition. If you find the right way to tell your employees the big news, you can boost their morale and help them mentally prepare for the shift. They won't be taken aback or outright scared when sudden changes come into effect, and they’ll have time to process them.

How to use the Change Management Presentation Template

You can map out your change management presentation and communication plan on Miro’s infinite canvas. Define your organizational change, highlight its benefits, address challenges, and outline the implementation timeline.

Once the backbone of your presentation is ready, pick this Change Management Presentation Template and start editing it frame by frame. Replace the generic information in the template with your own and tweak its structure by adding or removing slides.

When you’re done customizing your Change Management Presentation Template, switch to Presentation mode . This mode allows you to see the slides as your audience sees them, without any distractions. Use the arrow buttons or keys to navigate between slides. You can always jump back to editing mode if you need to make some adjustments.

Miro is the perfect presentation creator for quickly building presentations using one of many ready-made templates.

Tips for giving a change management process presentation

Show empathy : Speak to your team directly and try to look at the situation through their lens to fully understand how the new order of things is going to affect them.

Address the underlying causes of change : Don’t mask unpleasant truth just to make your organization appear invincible. If financial or legal problems influence the current change, your team will find out about it sooner or later.

Don’t steer away from discussing potential problems : Openly address the “side effects” of the transformation and let your staff know that you’ve performed a thorough risk assessment.

Demonstrate responsibility : Show that you’re aware of what’s at stake and that your organization is pursuing long-term benefits, not short-term wins.

Use facts and numbers : Squeeze the water out of your presentation and populate your change management slides with data from real reports, case studies, or publications to prove why this particular solution or structure is better than what you had before.

Facilitate open communication : Collect feedback and ask questions to understand how ready your staff is to accept the change and what’s holding them back.

Invite participation : Encourage your employees to vocalize their thoughts and worries and welcome any bottom-up initiatives that can help make the transition seamless.

How do I communicate organizational changes to increase trust?

The key is to show your team that you all are leaving your comfort zone for a reason. You’ll have a much easier time convincing your employees to accept change if you stay honest with them and prove that this temporary turbulence is well worth it. Combat uncertainty with facts, avoid false positivity, and focus on long-term goals. Use real-world examples to demonstrate what the future transformation means in practice. Also, make your employees feel seen and respected by recognizing and addressing their fears, concerns, and skepticism.

When is the right time to give a change management presentation?

A strong change management plan requires agility. You don’t want to wait for the perfect moment and end up delivering your change management presentation too late to ease the transition. If rumors about the upcoming change have already started circulating, they’ll negatively affect your company’s image and undermine staff trust. Prioritize timing over the perfect presentation. The goal is to announce organizational change before it’s in full swing and clearly communicate what it means. This way, you’ll prevent misconceptions or panic from spreading far and wide — and inspire genuine organizational commitment.

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The four building blocks of change

Large-scale organizational change has always been difficult, and there’s no shortage of research showing that a majority of transformations continue to fail. Today’s dynamic environment adds an extra level of urgency and complexity. Companies must increasingly react to sudden shifts in the marketplace, to other external shocks, and to the imperatives of new business models. The stakes are higher than ever.

So what’s to be done? In both research and practice, we find that transformations stand the best chance of success when they focus on four key actions to change mind-sets and behavior: fostering understanding and conviction, reinforcing changes through formal mechanisms, developing talent and skills, and role modeling. Collectively labeled the “influence model,” these ideas were introduced more than a dozen years ago in a McKinsey Quarterly article, “ The psychology of change management .” They were based on academic research and practical experience—what we saw worked and what didn’t.

Digital technologies and the changing nature of the workforce have created new opportunities and challenges for the influence model (for more on the relationship between those trends and the model, see this article’s companion, “ Winning hearts and minds in the 21st century ”). But it still works overall, a decade and a half later (exhibit). In a recent McKinsey Global Survey, we examined successful transformations and found that they were nearly eight times more likely to use all four actions as opposed to just one. 1 1. See “ The science of organizational transformations ,” September 2015. Building both on classic and new academic research, the present article supplies a primer on the model and its four building blocks: what they are, how they work, and why they matter.

Fostering understanding and conviction

We know from research that human beings strive for congruence between their beliefs and their actions and experience dissonance when these are misaligned. Believing in the “why” behind a change can therefore inspire people to change their behavior. In practice, however, we find that many transformation leaders falsely assume that the “why” is clear to the broader organization and consequently fail to spend enough time communicating the rationale behind change efforts.

This common pitfall is predictable. Research shows that people frequently overestimate the extent to which others share their own attitudes, beliefs, and opinions—a tendency known as the false-consensus effect. Studies also highlight another contributing phenomenon, the “curse of knowledge”: people find it difficult to imagine that others don’t know something that they themselves do know. To illustrate this tendency, a Stanford study asked participants to tap out the rhythms of well-known songs and predict the likelihood that others would guess what they were. The tappers predicted that the listeners would identify half of the songs correctly; in reality, they did so less than 5 percent of the time. 2 2. Chip Heath and Dan Heath, “The curse of knowledge,” Harvard Business Review , December 2006, Volume 8, Number 6, hbr.org.

Therefore, in times of transformation, we recommend that leaders develop a change story that helps all stakeholders understand where the company is headed, why it is changing, and why this change is important. Building in a feedback loop to sense how the story is being received is also useful. These change stories not only help get out the message but also, recent research finds, serve as an effective influencing tool. Stories are particularly effective in selling brands. 3 3. Harrison Monarth, “The irresistible power of storytelling as a strategic business tool,” Harvard Business Review , March 11, 2014, hbr.org.

Even 15 years ago, at the time of the original article, digital advances were starting to make employees feel involved in transformations, allowing them to participate in shaping the direction of their companies. In 2006, for example, IBM used its intranet to conduct two 72-hour “jam sessions” to engage employees, clients, and other stakeholders in an online debate about business opportunities. No fewer than 150,000 visitors attended from 104 countries and 67 different companies, and there were 46,000 posts. 4 4. Icons of Progress , “A global innovation jam,” ibm.com. As we explain in “Winning hearts and minds in the 21st century,” social and mobile technologies have since created a wide range of new opportunities to build the commitment of employees to change.

Reinforcing with formal mechanisms

Psychologists have long known that behavior often stems from direct association and reinforcement. Back in the 1920s, Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning research showed how the repeated association between two stimuli—the sound of a bell and the delivery of food—eventually led dogs to salivate upon hearing the bell alone. Researchers later extended this work on conditioning to humans, demonstrating how children could learn to fear a rat when it was associated with a loud noise. 5 5. John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner, “Conditioned emotional reactions,” Journal of Experimental Psychology , 1920, Volume 3, Number 1, pp. 1–14. Of course, this conditioning isn’t limited to negative associations or to animals. The perfume industry recognizes how the mere scent of someone you love can induce feelings of love and longing.

Reinforcement can also be conscious, shaped by the expected rewards and punishments associated with specific forms of behavior. B. F. Skinner’s work on operant conditioning showed how pairing positive reinforcements such as food with desired behavior could be used, for example, to teach pigeons to play Ping-Pong. This concept, which isn’t hard to grasp, is deeply embedded in organizations. Many people who have had commissions-based sales jobs will understand the point—being paid more for working harder can sometimes be a strong incentive.

Despite the importance of reinforcement, organizations often fail to use it correctly. In a seminal paper “On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B,” management scholar Steven Kerr described numerous examples of organizational-reward systems that are misaligned with the desired behavior, which is therefore neglected. 6 6. Steven Kerr, “On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B,” Academy of Management Journal , 1975, Volume 18, Number 4, pp. 769–83. Some of the paper’s examples—such as the way university professors are rewarded for their research publications, while society expects them to be good teachers—are still relevant today. We ourselves have witnessed this phenomenon in a global refining organization facing market pressure. By squeezing maintenance expenditures and rewarding employees who cut them, the company in effect treated that part of the budget as a “super KPI.” Yet at the same time, its stated objective was reliable maintenance.

Even when organizations use money as a reinforcement correctly, they often delude themselves into thinking that it alone will suffice. Research examining the relationship between money and experienced happiness—moods and general well-being—suggests a law of diminishing returns. The relationship may disappear altogether after around $75,000, a much lower ceiling than most executives assume. 7 7. Belinda Luscombe, “Do we need $75,000 a year to be happy?” Time , September 6, 2010, time.com.

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Money isn’t the only motivator, of course. Victor Vroom’s classic research on expectancy theory explained how the tendency to behave in certain ways depends on the expectation that the effort will result in the desired kind of performance, that this performance will be rewarded, and that the reward will be desirable. 8 8. Victor Vroom, Work and motivation , New York: John Wiley, 1964. When a Middle Eastern telecommunications company recently examined performance drivers, it found that collaboration and purpose were more important than compensation (see “Ahead of the curve: The future of performance management,” forthcoming on McKinsey.com). The company therefore moved from awarding minor individual bonuses for performance to celebrating how specific teams made a real difference in the lives of their customers. This move increased motivation while also saving the organization millions.

How these reinforcements are delivered also matters. It has long been clear that predictability makes them less effective; intermittent reinforcement provides a more powerful hook, as slot-machine operators have learned to their advantage. Further, people react negatively if they feel that reinforcements aren’t distributed fairly. Research on equity theory describes how employees compare their job inputs and outcomes with reference-comparison targets, such as coworkers who have been promoted ahead of them or their own experiences at past jobs. 9 9. J. S. Adams, “Inequity in social exchanges,” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology , 1965, Volume 2, pp. 267–300. We therefore recommend that organizations neutralize compensation as a source of anxiety and instead focus on what really drives performance—such as collaboration and purpose, in the case of the Middle Eastern telecom company previously mentioned.

Developing talent and skills

Thankfully, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Human brains are not fixed; neuroscience research shows that they remain plastic well into adulthood. Illustrating this concept, scientific investigation has found that the brains of London taxi drivers, who spend years memorizing thousands of streets and local attractions, showed unique gray-matter volume differences in the hippocampus compared with the brains of other people. Research linked these differences to the taxi drivers’ extraordinary special knowledge. 10 10. Eleanor Maguire, Katherine Woollett, and Hugo Spires, “London taxi drivers and bus drivers: A structural MRI and neuropsychological analysis,” Hippocampus , 2006, Volume 16, pp. 1091–1101.

Despite an amazing ability to learn new things, human beings all too often lack insight into what they need to know but don’t. Biases, for example, can lead people to overlook their limitations and be overconfident of their abilities. Highlighting this point, studies have found that over 90 percent of US drivers rate themselves above average, nearly 70 percent of professors consider themselves in the top 25 percent for teaching ability, and 84 percent of Frenchmen believe they are above-average lovers. 11 11. The art of thinking clearly, “The overconfidence effect: Why you systematically overestimate your knowledge and abilities,” blog entry by Rolf Dobelli, June 11, 2013, psychologytoday.com. This self-serving bias can lead to blind spots, making people too confident about some of their abilities and unaware of what they need to learn. In the workplace, the “mum effect”—a proclivity to keep quiet about unpleasant, unfavorable messages—often compounds these self-serving tendencies. 12 12. Eliezer Yariv, “‘Mum effect’: Principals’ reluctance to submit negative feedback,” Journal of Managerial Psychology , 2006, Volume 21, Number 6, pp. 533–46.

Even when people overcome such biases and actually want to improve, they can handicap themselves by doubting their ability to change. Classic psychological research by Martin Seligman and his colleagues explained how animals and people can fall into a state of learned helplessness—passive acceptance and resignation that develops as a result of repeated exposure to negative events perceived as unavoidable. The researchers found that dogs exposed to unavoidable shocks gave up trying to escape and, when later given an opportunity to do so, stayed put and accepted the shocks as inevitable. 13 13. Martin Seligman and Steven Maier, “Failure to escape traumatic shock,” Journal of Experimental Psychology , 1967, Volume 74, Number 1, pp. 1–9. Like animals, people who believe that developing new skills won’t change a situation are more likely to be passive. You see this all around the economy—from employees who stop offering new ideas after earlier ones have been challenged to unemployed job seekers who give up looking for work after multiple rejections.

Instilling a sense of control and competence can promote an active effort to improve. As expectancy theory holds, people are more motivated to achieve their goals when they believe that greater individual effort will increase performance. 14 14. Victor Vroom, Work and motivation , New York: John Wiley, 1964. Fortunately, new technologies now give organizations more creative opportunities than ever to showcase examples of how that can actually happen.

Role modeling

Research tells us that role modeling occurs both unconsciously and consciously. Unconsciously, people often find themselves mimicking the emotions, behavior, speech patterns, expressions, and moods of others without even realizing that they are doing so. They also consciously align their own thinking and behavior with those of other people—to learn, to determine what’s right, and sometimes just to fit in.

While role modeling is commonly associated with high-power leaders such as Abraham Lincoln and Bill Gates, it isn’t limited to people in formal positions of authority. Smart organizations seeking to win their employees’ support for major transformation efforts recognize that key opinion leaders may exert more influence than CEOs. Nor is role modeling limited to individuals. Everyone has the power to model roles, and groups of people may exert the most powerful influence of all. Robert Cialdini, a well-respected professor of psychology and marketing, examined the power of “social proof”—a mental shortcut people use to judge what is correct by determining what others think is correct. No wonder TV shows have been using canned laughter for decades; believing that other people find a show funny makes us more likely to find it funny too.

Today’s increasingly connected digital world provides more opportunities than ever to share information about how others think and behave. Ever found yourself swayed by the number of positive reviews on Yelp? Or perceiving a Twitter user with a million followers as more reputable than one with only a dozen? You’re not imagining this. Users can now “buy followers” to help those users or their brands seem popular or even start trending.

The endurance of the influence model shouldn’t be surprising: powerful forces of human nature underlie it. More surprising, perhaps, is how often leaders still embark on large-scale change efforts without seriously focusing on building conviction or reinforcing it through formal mechanisms, the development of skills, and role modeling. While these priorities sound like common sense, it’s easy to miss one or more of them amid the maelstrom of activity that often accompanies significant changes in organizational direction. Leaders should address these building blocks systematically because, as research and experience demonstrate, all four together make a bigger impact.

Tessa Basford is a consultant in McKinsey’s Washington, DC, office; Bill Schaninger is a director in the Philadelphia office.

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Leadership strategies for evolving health care executives, related articles, health system leaders face disruption and uncertainty in 2024, how to build, manage, and maintain strong teams in the modern health care space, reinvigorate your health care system: build meta-leadership into your practices and thinking, change management: why it’s so important, and so challenging, in health care environments.

by Katherine J. Igoe

Medical professionals excel at finding solutions in patient care. “We are great at coming up with the ‘next big thing’: we have brilliant people who are at the front lines of innovation,” says Louise Keogh Weed , program director of the Leadership Strategies for Evolving Health Care Executives program and a practice transformation specialist at the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care. “Where we fall short is actually implementing it, because it’s a different skill set and fewer people want to do it.”

Thus, it can be easy to ideate and harder to execute on brilliant ideas in health care—which means, generally, that the industry is constantly at risk of coming up with ideas but not delivering on maximum impact. The challenges are manifold, but the unique systemic, monetary, and hierarchical challenges in these environments make change particularly thorny. “Health care is filled with moral injury, because you’re constantly failing—you want to help people, and the system isn’t built to do that,” says Keogh Weed.

But change management takes into account the various barriers to success. When done properly, it lays out a step-by-step process to identify a challenge, make changes, and execute successfully. It’s not as easy as it sounds. “Change management makes you use every tool in your leadership toolbox to be successful,” says Keogh Weed. 

Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change

As originated by Dr. John Kotter, there’s an 8-step process to execute change management:

• Create urgency: get the attention of the team/community about the importance of making change. This step involves convincing them that it’s important to act immediately, and highlighting the consequences of not changing.
• Form a guiding coalition: make a team with key stakeholders to drive this change forward. Prioritize finding multidisciplinary, potentially even opposing members with a wealth of cognitive diversity to ensure efficacy.  
• Create a vision: make a vision statement and strategic initiatives that will guide the coalition. This allows for accountability in decision-making and centers a commitment to shaping and improving the community culture.
• Rally and communicate: balancing both support for and opposition to the goal, bring people together around this shared vision but allow for anger, resistance, and debate. Model this behavior and show openness to feedback and error.
• Remove barriers and empower: get rid of obstacles (institutional or otherwise) to the changes that the coalition identifies. Share information as it arises, encourage risk-taking, and work cross-functionally to help the coalition move forward. 
• Execute on and celebrate short-term wins: have an easily achievable goal in mind that you can tout as proof of the goal’s efficacy. This also helps to reward team member contributions and build momentum for future action items.
• Don’t let up: as the coalition moves forward with recommendations, make necessary institutional changes. This can involve hiring, promoting, implementing tools or training, establishing new projects, and other systemic improvements. 
• Further cultural and institutional change: make these recommendations part of the organization. Forming new habits and unlearning the old ones can involve training and a new reward system for workers. Monitor efficacy and find ways to improve.

To Kotter’s steps, Keogh Weed adds two core concepts that play a role in effective change management: 

• The Three Dimensions of Success: framed as a triangle, the three points stand for results, process, and relationships. Each is as important as the others—it’s not just about the end result, in other words, but about how the results are obtained and how team members work together. As Keogh Weed notes, “We are very results-oriented in health care, but process and relationships make things sustainable.”
• Kurt Lewin’s Stage Theory of Change: the circular process of “unfreezing” the current status quo, “changing” operational and cultural norms, and “refreezing” with new changes in place. Critically, this process repeats as necessary when a leader identifies the need. 

Pitfalls to Avoid in Change Management Execution

Keogh Weed cautions that, while Kotter’s steps don’t necessarily always proceed in order, the latter steps are impossible without the former ones. It’s critically important to think through the change(s) in a systematic, methodical way. The first step, for example, poses a particular problem in health care because so much is urgent. COVID-19 was and is a perfect example of something that’s truly time-sensitive; Keogh Weed saw practices change their health delivery systems in a week to account for remote access and safe patient care. Knowing why a problem needs solving, right now, is essential to change management.  

The steps that will pose the greatest challenges for leaders will depend on their personality and leadership style. When set up properly, though, the steps can cascade in a positive way and get easier over time—or they can cascade negatively if leaders don’t implement proper planning and strategy at an earlier stage. For example, skipping immediately to execution (steps 5 and 6) based on an executive decision is another common mistake, since it can come off as superior and patronizing. In the hierarchical, fast-paced world of health care particularly, a leader may feel tempted to gloss over the strategic steps. 

“You’re constantly wrestling with the stakes being high and feeling like we need to move fast—but, if we don’t slow down and do this right, we’re not going to do a very good job. It’s a leader’s responsibility to sit with both of those things and manage people through it,” says Keogh Weed. 

The same goes for excessive rigidity. If a guiding coalition starts work on a particular problem, and then decides that they’re actually focusing on the wrong issue, it may be necessary to go back several steps, realign the vision statement, and execute on a different goal—taking more time in the process. If a leader forces the process of change and innovation to go step by step without any flexibility, the intervention won’t be as effective.

What to Look for in Effective Change Management

Good change management means leaders identify the correct problem(s) that need to be solved before they even get to step 1 and communicate effectively throughout, encouraging coalition members instead of dissuading them. Reducing hierarchy is critical. Change management might mean bringing physicians and medical assistants in the same room and having both perspectives matter equally in the context of problem-solving. This can be challenging, so it’s up to the leader to ensure discussion remains productive and respectful—creating and sustaining psychological safety. 

A leader also needs to pay close attention to burnout. Coalition members who attempt to make changes but are unsuccessful can feel exhausted and lose confidence. This is particularly true if, mid-way through solving a problem, the groups need to abandon or switch focus. Change management isn’t as effective when the guiding members are burned out—already a common problem in health care—and feeling like they’re not getting anything done. Thus, step 6 is particularly tricky, and particularly essential. “How do you define success in a way that’s tangible enough for people that you’re moving things forward without it being disingenuous?” Keogh Weed explains.

Throughout the process, leaders need to work on refining and growing their leadership and management skills. Change management requires them to toggle effectively between the micro- and macroscopic needs of the project quickly and effectively, without being either overconfident or indecisive. “It brings us back to those fundamentals that we need to be continually working on throughout our careers,” says Keogh Weed. “We often feel like we’re good on that front as we’re thinking about the bigger picture, but without that piece, we’re not getting anywhere.”

Health care executives looking to learn more about conflict resolution, operational analysis, employee management, and quality management techniques may be interested in our program, Leadership Strategies for Evolving Health Care Executives .  

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health offers Leadership Strategies for Evolving Health Care Executives .   , an on campus program designed to develop skills in conflict resolution, operational analysis, employee management, and quality management to achieve individual and organizational goals.

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Importance of Change Management

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How to Become More Comfortable with Change

• Kathryn Clubb

Overcome these three (very common) change-averse mindsets.

One of the most common unconscious mindsets is that “change is temporary,” but when you see something as temporary, you tend to cope with it instead of accepting and embracing it. The reality is that change is a constant, and you’ll need to navigate it often in your career.

• The authors identify three common change-averse mindsets: receivers, resistors, and controllers. Receivers see change as something that happens  to  them that shakes up their sense of control.
• Resistors push back against change, falsely hoping it might go away. And controllers find change overwhelming and isolating.
• By consciously examining how you approach change, you can adopt these strategies to move toward a more change-ready mindset, and welcome change as an opportunity.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

The pace of change has increased massively in light of the pandemic. Managing it now requires a strategy akin to whitewater rafting. New and unpredictable obstacles will continue to present themselves every day — and not just for companies, but for workers themselves.

• Kathryn Clubb  is head of  change and transformation  at  BTS , an organization that works with leaders at all levels to help them make better decisions, convert those decisions to actions, and deliver results. After being a partner in Accenture’s Strategy Practice, Kathryn was the Chief Innovator at WHWest, Inc. With decades of experience helping companies transform and execute strategy, Kathryn has extensive experience working with a variety of top global organizations.
• Jeni Fan  is a senior director at  BTS  and leads  change and transformation  for the East Coast of the United States. She serves as a strategist advisor and thought partner to clients undergoing large-scale change: from culture to strategy, to pre- and post-M&A. Taking a human-centered, evidence-based approach, her work focuses on alignment and building sustained systemwide change at all levels of an organization. Her work spans multiple industries and sectors.

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Explore the Levels of Change Management

9 Successful Change Management Examples For Inspiration

Updated: February 9, 2024

Published: January 3, 2024

Welcome to our guide on change management examples, pivotal for steering through today's dynamic business terrain. Immerse yourself in the transformative power of change management, a tool for resilience, growth, innovation, and employee morale enhancement.

This guide equips you with strategies to promote an innovative, adaptable work environment and boost employee morale for lasting organizational success.

Uncover diverse types of change management with Prosci's established methodology and explore real-world examples that illustrate these principles in action.

What is Change Management?

Change management is a strategy for guiding an organization and its people through change. It goes beyond top-down orders, involving employees at all levels. This people-focused approach encourages everyone to participate actively, helping them adapt and use changes in their everyday work.

Effective change management aligns closely with a company's culture, values, and beliefs.

When change fits well with these cultural aspects, it feels more natural and is easier for employees to adopt. This contributes to smoother transitions and leads to more successful and lasting organizational changes.

Why is Change Management Important?

Change management is pivotal in guiding organizations through transitions, ensuring impactful and long-lasting results.

For example, a $28B electronic components and services company with 18,000 employees realized the importance of enhancing its processes. They knew to adopt more streamlined, efficient approaches, known as Lean initiatives .

However, they encountered challenges because they needed a more structured method for effectively managing the human aspects of these changes.

The company formed a specialized group focused on change to address their challenges and initiate key projects. These projects aligned with their culture of innovation and precision, which helped ensure that the changes were well-received and effectively implemented within the organization.

Matching change management to an organization's unique style and structure contributes to more effective transformations and strengthens the business for future challenges.

What Are the Main Types of Change Management?

Discover Prosci's change management models: from individual application and organizational strategies to enterprise-wide integration and effective portfolio management, all are vital for transformative success.

Individual change management

At Prosci, we understand that change begins with the individual.

The Prosci ADKAR ® Model ( Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement ) is expertly designed to equip change leaders with tools and strategies to engage your team.

This model is a framework that will guide and support you in confidently navigating and adapting to new changes.

Organizational change management

In organizational change management , we focus on the core elements of your company to fully understand and address each aspect of the change.

Our approach involves creating tailored strategies and detailed plans that benefit you and manage you to manage challenges effectively, which include:

• Clear communication
• Strong leadership support
• Personalized coaching
• Practical training

Our strategies are specifically aimed at meeting the diverse needs within your organization, ensuring a smooth and well-supported transition for everyone involved.

Enterprise change management capability

At the enterprise level, change management becomes an embedded practice, a core competency woven throughout the organization.

When you implement change capabilities:

• Employees know what to ask during change to reach success
• Leaders and managers have the training and skills to guide their teams during change
• Organizations consistently apply change management to initiatives
• Organizations embed change management in roles, structures, processes, projects and leadership competencies

It's a tactical effort to integrate change management into the very DNA of an organization—nurturing a culture that's ready and able to adapt to any change.

Change portfolio management

While distinct from project-level change management, managing a change portfolio is vital for an organization to stay flexible and responsive.

9 Dynamic Change Management Success Stories to Revolutionize Your Business

Prosci case studies reveal how diverse organizations spanning different sectors address and manage change.  These cases illustrate how change management can provide transformative solutions from healthcare to finance:

1. Hospital system

A major healthcare organization implemented an extensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and adapted to healthcare reform. This case study highlights overcoming significant challenges through strategic change management:

Industry: Healthcare Revenue: $3.7 billion Employees: 24,000 Facilities: 11 hospitals

Major changes:

• Implemented a new ERP system across all hospitals
• Prepared for healthcare reform

Challenges:

• Managing significant, disruptive changes
• Difficulty in gaining buy-in for change management
• Align with culture: Strategically implemented change management to support staff, reflecting the hospital's core value of caring for people
• Focus on a key initiative: Applied change management in the electronic health record system implementation
• Integrate with existing competencies: Recognized change leadership as crucial at various leadership levels

This example shows that when change management matches a healthcare organization's values, it can lead to successful and smooth transitions.

2. Transportation department

A state government transportation department leveraged change management to effectively manage business process improvements amid funding and population challenges. This highlights the value of comprehensive change management in a public sector setting:

Industry: State Government Transportation Revenue: $1.3 billion Employees: 3,000 Challenges:

• Reduced funding
• Growing population
• Increasing transportation needs

Initiative:

• Major business process improvement

Hurdles encountered:

• Change fatigue
• Need for widespread employee adoption
• Focus on internal growth
• Implemented change management in process improvement

This department's experience teaches us the vital role of change management in successfully navigating government projects with multiple challenges.

3. Pharmaceuticals

A global pharmaceutical company navigated post-merger integration challenges. Using a proactive change management approach, they addressed resistance and streamlined operations in a competitive industry:

Industry: Pharma (Global Biopharmaceutical Company) Revenue: $6 billion Number of employees: 5,000

Recent activities: Experienced significant merger and acquisition activity

• Encountered resistance post-implementation of SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing)
• They found themselves operating in a purely reactive mode
• Align with your culture: In this Lean Six Sigma-focused environment, where measurement is paramount, the ADKAR Model's metrics were utilized as the foundational entry point for initiating change management processes.

This company's journey highlights the need for flexible and responsive change management.

4. Home fixtures

A home fixtures manufacturing company’s response to the recession offers valuable insights on effectively managing change. They focused on aligning change management with their disciplined culture, emphasizing operational efficiency:

Industry: Home Fixtures Manufacturing Revenue: $600 million Number of employees: 3,000

Context: Facing the lingering effects of the recession

Necessity: Need to introduce substantial changes for more efficient operations

Challenge: Change management was considered a low priority within the company

• Align with your culture: The company's culture, characterized by discipline in projects and processes, ensured that change management was implemented systematically and disciplined.

This company’s experience during the recession proves that aligning change with company culture is key to overcoming tough times.

5. Web services

A web services software company transformed its culture and workspace.  They integrated change management into their IT strategy to overcome resistance and foster innovation:

Industry : Web Services Software Revenue : $3.3 billion Number of employees : 10,000

Initiatives : Cultural transformation; applying an unassigned seating model

Challenges : Resistance in IT project management

• Focus on a key initiative: Applied change management in workspace transformation
• Go where the energy is:  Establishing a change management practice within its IT department, developing self-service change management tools, and forming thoughtful partnerships
• I ntegrate with existing competencies:  "Leading change" was essential to the organization's newly developed leadership competency model.

This case demonstrates the importance of weaving change management into the fabric of tech companies, especially for cultural shifts.

6. Security systems

A high-tech security company effectively managed a major restructuring.  They created a change network that shifted change management from HR to business processes:

Industry : High-Tech (Security Systems) Revenue : $10 billion Number of employees: 57,000

Major changes : Company separation; division into three segments

Challenge : No unified change management approach

• Formed a network of leaders from transformation projects
• Go where the energy is:  Shifted change management from HR to business processes
• Integrate with existing competencies:  Included principles of change management in the training curriculum for the project management boot camp.
• Treat growing your capability like a change:  Executive roadshow launch to gain support for enterprise-wide change management

This company’s innovative approach to restructuring shows h ow reimagining change management can lead to successful outcomes.

7. Clothing store

A major clothing retailer’s journey to unify its brand model.  They overcame siloed change management through collaborative efforts and a community-driven approach:

Industry : Retail (Clothing Store) Revenue : $16 billion Number of employees : 141,000

Major change initiative : Strategic unification of the brand operating model

Historical challenge : Traditional management of change in siloes

• Build a change network :  This retailer established a community of practice for change management, involving representatives from autonomous units to foster consensus on change initiatives.

The story of this retailer illustrates how collaborative efforts in change management can unify and strengthen a brand in the retail world.

A major Canadian bank initiative to standardize change management across its organization.  They established a Center of Excellence and tailored communities of practice for effective change:

Industry : Financial Services (Canadian Bank) Revenue : $38 billion Number of employees : 78,000

Current state : Absence of enterprise-wide change management standards

Challenge :

• Employees, contractors, and consultants using individual methods for change management
• Reliance on personal knowledge and experience to deploy change management strategies
• Build a change network:  The bank established a Center of Excellence and created federated communities of practice within each business unit, aiming to localize and tailor change management efforts.

This bank’s journey in standardizing change management offers valuable insights for large organizations looking to streamline their processes.

9. Municipality

You can learn from a Canadian municipality’s significant shift to enhance client satisfaction. They integrated change management across all levels to achieve profound organizational change and improved public service:

Industry : Municipal Government (Canadian Municipality) Revenue : $1.9 billion Number of employees : 3,000

New mandate:

• Implementing a new deliberate vision focusing on each individual’s role in driving client satisfaction

Nature of shift : 

• A fundamental change within the public institution

Scope of impact :

•  It affected all levels, from leadership to front-line staff

Solution : 

• Treat growing your capability like a change: Change leaders promoted awareness and cultivated a desire to adopt change management as a standard enterprise-wide practice.

The municipality's strategy shows us how effective change management can significantly improve public services and organizational efficiency.

6 Tactics for Growing Enterprise Change Management Capability

Prosci's exploration with 10 industry leaders uncovered six primary tactics for enterprise change growth , demonstrating a "universal theme, unique application" approach.

This framework goes beyond standard procedures, focusing on developing a deep understanding and skill in managing change. It offers transformative tactics, guiding organizations towards excelling in adapting to change.  Here, we uncover these transformative tactics, guiding organizations toward mastery of change.

1. Align with Your culture

Organizational culture profoundly influences how change management should be deployed.

Recognizing whether your organization leans towards traditional practices or innovative approaches is vital. This understanding isn't just about alignment; it's an opportunity to enhance and sometimes shift your cultural environment.

When effectively combined with an organization's unique culture, change management can greatly enhance key initiatives. This leads to widespread benefits beyond individual projects and promotes overall growth and development within the organization.

Embrace this as a fundamental tool to strengthen and transform your company's cultural fabric.

2. Focus on key initiatives

In the early phase of developing change management capabilities, selecting noticeable projects with executive backing is important.

This helps demonstrate the real-world impact of change management, making it easier for employees and leadership to understand its benefits. This strategy helps build support and maintain the momentum of change management initiatives within your organization.

Focus on capturing and sharing these successes to encourage buy-in further and underscore the importance of change management in achieving organizational goals.

3. Build a change network

Building change capability isn't just about a few advocates but creating a network of change champions across your organization.

This network, essential in spreading the message and benefits of change management, varies in composition but is universally crucial. It could include departmental practitioners, business unit leaders, or a mix of roles working together to enhance awareness, credibility, and a shared purpose.

Our Best Practices in Change Management study shows that 45% of organizations leverage such networks. These groups boost the effectiveness of change management and keep it moving forward.

4. Go where the energy is

To build change capabilities throughout an organization effectively, the focus should be on matching the organization's current readiness rather than just pushing new methods.

Identify and focus on parts of your organization that are ready for change. Align your change initiatives with these sectors. Involve senior leaders and those enthusiastic about change to naturally generate demand for these transformations.

Showcasing successful initiatives encourages a collaborative culture of change, making it an organic part of your organization's growth.

5. Integrate with existing competencies

Change management is a vital skill across various organizational roles.

Integrating it into competency models and job profiles is increasingly common, yet often lacks the necessary training and tools.

When change management skills expand beyond the experts, they become an integral part of the organization's culture—nurturing a solid foundation of effective change leadership.

This approach embeds change management deeper within the company and cultivates leaders who can support and sustain this essential practice.

6. Treat growing your capability like a change

Growing change capability is a transformative journey for your business and your employees. It demands a structured, strategic approach beyond telling your network that change is coming.

Applying the ADKAR Model universally and focusing on your organization's unique needs is pivotal. It's about building awareness, sparking a desire for change across the enterprise, and equipping employees with the knowledge and skills for effective, lasting change. 

Treating capability-building like a change ensures that change management becomes a core part of your organization's fabric, benefitting every team member.

These six tactics are powerful tools for enhancing your organization's ability to adapt and remain resilient in a rapidly changing business environment.

Comprehensive Insights From Change Management Examples

These diverse change management examples provide field-tested savvy and offer a window into how varied organizations successfully manage change.

Case studies , from healthcare reform to innovative corporate restructuring, exemplify how aligning with organizational culture, building strong change networks, and focusing on tactical initiatives can significantly impact change management outcomes.

This guide, enriched with real-world applications, enhances understanding and execution of effective change management, setting a benchmark for future transformations.

To learn more about partnering with Prosci for your next change initiative, discover Prosci's Advisory services and enterprise training options and consider practitioner certification .

Founded in 1994, Prosci is a global leader in change management. We enable organizations around the world to achieve change outcomes and grow change capability through change management solutions based on holistic, research-based, easy-to-use tools, methodologies and services.

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What is Change Management? Earn an MBA to be a Change Manager!

Published: May 6, 2024

One of the most challenging aspects of leadership is managing people. Employees are the heart and soul of a business, the ones who keep the wheels turning day-to-day. But people are also complex beings, and many of them do not like change.  

So, as a leader, how do you handle implementing change in the workplace? A process called change management can help.

What is Change Management?

Change management is a structured process that organizations follow to implement change effectively. This process typically encompasses five key steps: preparing the organization for change, planning, implementation, embedding the change, and review.

The goal of the change management process is to minimize resistance to change among stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition and achieve the desired outcomes. When applied correctly, these steps can ensure your organization remains resilient, competitive, and compliant with both external and internal pressures.

This process can be used to respond to change in a wide variety of situations. Improving business outcomes, adapting to customer needs and/or market dynamics, and embracing innovation and technological advancements are all situations in which change management can be effective, along with adjusting operations to comply with regulatory changes, going through a merger or acquisition, or responding to a crisis.

Breaking Down the Change Management Process

Let’s take a closer look at the five stages of the change management process, which are designed to guide organizations through the transformation from the current state to the desired future state:

Preparing the Organization for Change

During this first stage, the leader communicates the upcoming change to affected employees. They must articulate a clear and compelling case for change, explaining why it is necessary and how it aligns with the organization’s vision and goals. Building a coalition of support – champions who can influence and garner support across the organization – can further help the organization to prepare for the change initiative, as will sharing a strategic vision that provides a clear direction and end goal.

Once the leader has laid the groundwork for change, they must prepare a detailed roadmap that sets clear objectives, timelines, and roles, as well as strategies to manage employee feedback and possible resistance. Updating or creating new policies and procedures to support the change is essential, as is allocating the necessary resources, such as time, budget, and personnel. It’s also important that the leader assess potential risks and develop contingency and communications plans. A robust change management plan will enhance the likelihood of a successful outcome.

Implementation

In this step, the plans from the previous step are put into action. This phase is often the most challenging as it involves moving from theory to practice. As changes are implemented, it’s crucial to monitor and assess their impact on the organization and adjust course as needed. Continued open communication with all stakeholders is vital to keep everyone informed; consider regular updates which can help maintain engagement and manage expectations. However, the focus during this phase is on achieving the desired outcomes of the change initiative, ensuring that the new ways of working are adopted and that the organization transitions smoothly to the new state.

Embedding the Change

For change to be lasting, it must become ingrained in the organization. This involves strengthening new behaviors, integrating them into company culture, and aligning them with existing processes and practices. It may require ongoing training and support, along with positive reinforcement, such as recognizing and rewarding individuals and teams that exhibit the desired behaviors. To ensure that the changes are clearly understood and accepted as standard practice within the organization, leaders should update job roles, performance criteria, and even the organizational structure to align with the new ways of working.

The final step in the change management process is to evaluate your outcomes against the objectives set during the planning phase. Leaders should reflect on what worked well and what didn’t, make any necessary adjustments, and document lessons learned. Continuous monitoring helps sustain the change and builds a foundation for future changes.

These five steps are cyclical and iterative, ensuring the change management process is dynamic and responsive to the organization’s needs and external influences.

What is the Role of a Change Manager?

A change manager ensures that organizational projects and initiatives achieve their objectives efficiently and effectively. This role closely collaborates with senior leaders and project teams to manage the people side of change, including changes to business processes, systems, and technology. 

They are responsible for developing strategies that facilitate change, managing the change process from conception through to execution, and ensuring that the changes achieve their intended outcomes without disrupting the organization’s operations. 

To be successful, a change manager needs a blend of specific skills. Strong leadership and communication skills are paramount, as the role involves coordinating with various stakeholders, from top management to the employees affected by the change. The ability to manage and mitigate resistance to change is also critical, as is the skill to articulate the benefits and reasons for the changes to all involved parties. 

Additionally, change managers must be strategic thinkers who can anticipate potential challenges and devise effective solutions. Their role is not just to oversee the change but to ensure that it aligns with the organization’s overall strategy and goals, thereby enhancing its performance and competitiveness in the market.

Earn an MBA to be a Change Manager

One way to effectively prepare to be a change manager in the business world is by obtaining a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. An MBA program equips students with the comprehensive knowledge, skills, and mindset they need to excel as effective change managers in today’s dynamic business environment. 

UoPeople’s MBA program is perfect for working adults who want to prepare for leadership positions. Our curriculum includes strategic management, operations, finance, and marketing. This broad perspective ensures that when graduates become change managers, they will consider the implications of change across the entire organization and align change initiatives with the company’s strategic objectives.

UoPeople’s courses in leadership and organizational behavior hone the interpersonal and leadership skills essential for managing and leading change. Additionally, our coursework emphasizes critical thinking and problem-solving skills via hands-on learning. Case studies, projects, and discussions mimic real-world business challenges to help future change managers anticipate challenges, think strategically, and devise effective solutions.

Benefits and Challenges of Change Management

The biggest benefit of the change management process is arguably the improvement of overall organizational efficiency. Effective change management streamlines processes, enabling an organization to adapt to new changes, which in turn leads to improved operational efficiency. 

In addition, a change management process that effectively manages employee feedback and mitigates resistance will result in more engaged employees . Going forward, your employees will be more likely to embrace change, contribute to the smooth transition of processes, and drive the organization toward achieving its objectives with greater zeal. 

Of course, no change process comes without challenges. Some of the difficulties that could arise during a change initiative include a lack of executive support, communication issues, and difficulty implementing new technology. Any of these roadblocks can effectively derail a change process, so the change manager must use the five steps listed above to ensure a smooth process.  

Change, the only constant, is inevitable in the business world, and companies must have strong leaders with the skill set necessary to lead change processes. An MBA will prepare change managers to lead initiatives that address the complexities of business and human dynamics. 

UoPeople students are equipped with the necessary tools to lead and implement change successfully. As these graduates step into the world, they carry with them the vision to foresee change, the strategy to plan for it, and the fortitude to see it through. Thus, an MBA from UoPeople is not merely a degree; it is a commitment to future-oriented leadership in an ever-evolving business world.

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What is climate change mitigation and why is it urgent?

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• Climate change mitigation involves actions to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.
• Mitigation efforts include transitioning to renewable energy sources, enhancing energy efficiency, adopting regenerative agricultural practices and protecting and restoring forests and critical ecosystems.
• Effective mitigation requires a whole-of-society approach and structural transformations to reduce emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
• International cooperation, for example through the Paris Agreement, is crucial in guiding and achieving global and national mitigation goals.
• Mitigation efforts face challenges such as the world's deep-rooted dependency on fossil fuels, the increased demand for new mineral resources and the difficulties in revamping our food systems.
• These challenges also offer opportunities to improve resilience and contribute to sustainable development.

What is climate change mitigation?

Climate change mitigation refers to any action taken by governments, businesses or people to reduce or prevent greenhouse gases, or to enhance carbon sinks that remove them from the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the sun in our planet’s atmosphere, keeping it warm. 

Since the industrial era began, human activities have led to the release of dangerous levels of greenhouse gases, causing global warming and climate change. However, despite unequivocal research about the impact of our activities on the planet’s climate and growing awareness of the severe danger climate change poses to our societies, greenhouse gas emissions keep rising. If we can slow down the rise in greenhouse gases, we can slow down the pace of climate change and avoid its worst consequences.

Reducing greenhouse gases can be achieved by:

• Shifting away from fossil fuels : Fossil fuels are the biggest source of greenhouse gases, so transitioning to modern renewable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power, and advancing sustainable modes of transportation, is crucial.
• Improving energy efficiency : Using less energy overall – in buildings, industries, public and private spaces, energy generation and transmission, and transportation – helps reduce emissions. This can be achieved by using thermal comfort standards, better insulation and energy efficient appliances, and by improving building design, energy transmission systems and vehicles.
• Changing agricultural practices : Certain farming methods release high amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, which are potent greenhouse gases. Regenerative agricultural practices – including enhancing soil health, reducing livestock-related emissions, direct seeding techniques and using cover crops – support mitigation, improve resilience and decrease the cost burden on farmers.
• The sustainable management and conservation of forests : Forests act as carbon sinks , absorbing carbon dioxide and reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Measures to reduce deforestation and forest degradation are key for climate mitigation and generate multiple additional benefits such as biodiversity conservation and improved water cycles.
• Restoring and conserving critical ecosystems : In addition to forests, ecosystems such as wetlands, peatlands, and grasslands, as well as coastal biomes such as mangrove forests, also contribute significantly to carbon sequestration, while supporting biodiversity and enhancing climate resilience.
• Creating a supportive environment : Investments, policies and regulations that encourage emission reductions, such as incentives, carbon pricing and limits on emissions from key sectors are crucial to driving climate change mitigation.

Photo: Stephane Bellerose/UNDP Mauritius

Photo: La Incre and Lizeth Jurado/PROAmazonia

What is the 1.5°C goal and why do we need to stick to it?

In 2015, 196 Parties to the UN Climate Convention in Paris adopted the Paris Agreement , a landmark international treaty, aimed at curbing global warming and addressing the effects of climate change. Its core ambition is to cap the rise in global average temperatures to well below 2°C above levels observed prior to the industrial era, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.

The 1.5°C goal is extremely important, especially for vulnerable communities already experiencing severe climate change impacts. Limiting warming below 1.5°C will translate into less extreme weather events and sea level rise, less stress on food production and water access, less biodiversity and ecosystem loss, and a lower chance of irreversible climate consequences.

To limit global warming to the critical threshold of 1.5°C, it is imperative for the world to undertake significant mitigation action. This requires a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent before 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century.

What are the policy instruments that countries can use to drive mitigation?

Everyone has a role to play in climate change mitigation, from individuals adopting sustainable habits and advocating for change to governments implementing regulations, providing incentives and facilitating investments. The private sector, particularly those businesses and companies responsible for causing high emissions, should take a leading role in innovating, funding and driving climate change mitigation solutions. 

International collaboration and technology transfer is also crucial given the global nature and size of the challenge. As the main platform for international cooperation on climate action, the Paris Agreement has set forth a series of responsibilities and policy tools for its signatories. One of the primary instruments for achieving the goals of the treaty is Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) . These are the national climate pledges that each Party is required to develop and update every five years. NDCs articulate how each country will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhance climate resilience.   While NDCs include short- to medium-term targets, long-term low emission development strategies (LT-LEDS) are policy tools under the Paris Agreement through which countries must show how they plan to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century. These strategies define a long-term vision that gives coherence and direction to shorter-term national climate targets.

Photo: Mucyo Serge/UNDP Rwanda

Photo: William Seal/UNDP Sudan

At the same time, the call for climate change mitigation has evolved into a call for reparative action, where high-income countries are urged to rectify past and ongoing contributions to the climate crisis. This approach reflects the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which advocates for climate justice, recognizing the unequal historical responsibility for the climate crisis, emphasizing that wealthier countries, having profited from high-emission activities, bear a greater obligation to lead in mitigating these impacts. This includes not only reducing their own emissions, but also supporting vulnerable countries in their transition to low-emission development pathways.

Another critical aspect is ensuring a just transition for workers and communities that depend on the fossil fuel industry and its many connected industries. This process must prioritize social equity and create alternative employment opportunities as part of the shift towards renewable energy and more sustainable practices.

For emerging economies, innovation and advancements in technology have now demonstrated that robust economic growth can be achieved with clean, sustainable energy sources. By integrating renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind and geothermal power into their growth strategies, these economies can reduce their emissions, enhance energy security and create new economic opportunities and jobs. This shift not only contributes to global mitigation efforts but also sets a precedent for sustainable development.

What are some of the challenges slowing down climate change mitigation efforts?

Mitigating climate change is fraught with complexities, including the global economy's deep-rooted dependency on fossil fuels and the accompanying challenge of eliminating fossil fuel subsidies. This reliance – and the vested interests that have a stake in maintaining it – presents a significant barrier to transitioning to sustainable energy sources.

The shift towards decarbonization and renewable energy is driving increased demand for critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth metals. Since new mining projects can take up to 15 years to yield output, mineral supply chains could become a bottleneck for decarbonization efforts. In addition, these minerals are predominantly found in a few, mostly low-income countries, which could heighten supply chain vulnerabilities and geopolitical tensions.

Furthermore, due to the significant demand for these minerals and the urgency of the energy transition, the scaled-up investment in the sector has the potential to exacerbate environmental degradation, economic and governance risks, and social inequalities, affecting the rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and workers. Addressing these concerns necessitates implementing social and environmental safeguards, embracing circular economy principles, and establishing and enforcing responsible policies and regulations .

Agriculture is currently the largest driver of deforestation worldwide. A transformation in our food systems to reverse the impact that agriculture has on forests and biodiversity is undoubtedly a complex challenge. But it is also an important opportunity. The latest IPCC report highlights that adaptation and mitigation options related to land, water and food offer the greatest potential in responding to the climate crisis. Shifting to regenerative agricultural practices will not only ensure a healthy, fair and stable food supply for the world’s population, but also help to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  

Photo: UNDP India

Photo: Nino Zedginidze/UNDP Georgia

What are some examples of climate change mitigation?

In Mauritius , UNDP, with funding from the Green Climate Fund, has supported the government to install battery energy storage capacity that has enabled 50 MW of intermittent renewable energy to be connected to the grid, helping to avoid 81,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. 

In Indonesia , UNDP has been working with the government for over a decade to support sustainable palm oil production. In 2019, the country adopted a National Action Plan on Sustainable Palm Oil, which was collaboratively developed by government, industry and civil society representatives. The plan increased the adoption of practices to minimize the adverse social and environmental effects of palm oil production and to protect forests. Since 2015, 37 million tonnes of direct greenhouse gas emissions have been avoided and 824,000 hectares of land with high conservation value have been protected.

In Moldova and Paraguay , UNDP has helped set up Green City Labs that are helping build more sustainable cities. This is achieved by implementing urban land use and mobility planning, prioritizing energy efficiency in residential buildings, introducing low-carbon public transport, implementing resource-efficient waste management, and switching to renewable energy sources. 

UNDP has supported the governments of Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Indonesia to implement results-based payments through the REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries) framework. These include payments for environmental services and community forest management programmes that channel international climate finance resources to local actors on the ground, specifically forest communities and Indigenous Peoples. 

UNDP is also supporting small island developing states like the Comoros to invest in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure. Through the Africa Minigrids Program , solar minigrids will be installed in two priority communities, Grand Comore and Moheli, providing energy access through distributed renewable energy solutions to those hardest to reach.

And in South Africa , a UNDP initative to boost energy efficiency awareness among the general population and improve labelling standards has taken over commercial shopping malls.

What is UNDP’s role in supporting climate change mitigation?

UNDP aims to assist countries with their climate change mitigation efforts, guiding them towards sustainable, low-carbon and climate-resilient development. This support is in line with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to affordable and clean energy (SDG7), sustainable cities and communities (SDG11), and climate action (SDG13). Specifically, UNDP’s offer of support includes developing and improving legislation and policy, standards and regulations, capacity building, knowledge dissemination, and financial mobilization for countries to pilot and scale-up mitigation solutions such as renewable energy projects, energy efficiency initiatives and sustainable land-use practices. 

With financial support from the Global Environment Facility and the Green Climate Fund, UNDP has an active portfolio of 94 climate change mitigation projects in 69 countries. These initiatives are not only aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also at contributing to sustainable and resilient development pathways.

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Survey: ESG Strategies Rank High with Gen Z, Millennials

75% of U.S. executives say ESGs have positive impact on employee engagement

​Environmental, social and governance (ESG)—an employer's use of its financial resources to improve the environment and effect social and corporate governance change—is important to Millennials and members of Generation Z. And while ESG initiatives factor into many individuals' decisions to join and stay with an employer, they especially matter to younger generations, according to new findings from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) . ESG is used by organizations as a framework for initiatives such as:

• Reducing waste and pollution, increasing energy efficiency, and reducing climate change (environment).
• Ensuring human rights, improving employees' health and safety, and providing training and education programs (social).
• Ensuring board diversity, following ethical protocols and addressing executive compensation (governance).

A Focus on the Environment

What executives said.

• Among organizations with ESG-related goals, social objectives led the list, followed by environmental and governance (77 percent, 58 percent and 44 percent, respectively).
• If executives had to choose only one ESG factor for their organization to work on, social would lead the way (63 percent), followed by environmental (21 percent) and governance (16 percent). This differed from employees, who would choose the environment.
• 48 percent of executives have ESG-related goals, and 12 percent were unsure. Among the 40 percent who do not have ESG goals, the two reasons they most frequently cited were other organizational priorities and the size of their organization—they thought their companies were too small.

Impact on Organizations

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