Strategic Transformational Change: An e-HIM® Challenge

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Program Agenda

Additional details on CARE's framework for leading change  

CARE draws on four bodies of knowledge, which when woven together provide a comprehensive framework and set of processes and tools for leading transformative change: Systems-based Leadership and Change Management™.

The four components of the framework are

1. Systems-based Leadership™
2. Transition management
3. Change management
4. Project management

Concept One:  Systems-based Leadership™

Leadership is a reciprocal process, in which the actions of the leader and the group influence each other. Thus, leading organizational transformation is greatly enhanced by teaching leaders a sound theory of relationship behavior.  The first component of CARE’s Systems-based Leadership and Change Management™ is based on Bowen Family Systems Theory, a theory of human behavior widely used by mental health professionals and business consultants to facilitate improved functioning in families and organizations. The theory heightens the awareness in leaders of behaviors in the system that compromises the success of important change initiatives. Predicated on the principle that, in a relationship system, when one person changes his or her behavior, everyone’s behavior changes, leaders are encouraged to focus first on how their behavior impacts the whole system. By improving their own functioning, leaders effect changes in the system that ultimately result in more consistent goal achievement.

Addressing the strategic, logistical and emotional sides of change 

Key to the uniqueness of the CARE process is recognizing and addressing the impact of anxiety on organizational performance.  Change is anxiety provoking at a profoundly human level. Symptoms of organizational anxiety include resistance and opposition to new ideas, failed or delayed implementation of new systems or procedures, turnover of staff, sub par performance by normally capable staff and increased patient or client dissatisfaction. Anxiety spreads like a virus through an organization, ultimately exacting a costly toll in people and resources. But these problems can be prevented. Change doesn’t have to be that painful, or that expensive!

Concept Two: The psychological process of transitions

William Bridges, Ph.D., a psychologist, business consultant, and preeminent authority on change and managing change observes that change and transition are different. Change is an event or a new situation that happens to people. Transition is the psychological process one goes through to come to terms with the change that has taken place.  An essential part of a strategic change process is a transition plan that helps those most affected by the change to get through their individual transitions as close to the time of the change as possible.

Concept Three: An eight-step strategic change process

John Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor and change management expert, describes an eight-step iterative process for the change leader to create a strategy and roadmap for transformational change. From creating urgency through making change stick, Kotter also recognizes the strong emotional component to successful change.

Concept Four: Highly Visible and Universally Used Project Management Tools and Processes

No complex change project will be completely successfully without careful attention to logistics, implementation timelines, and the coordination of multiple inter-related events. The project management process is well understood and usually well executed in the Information Technology world. However, more and more of the work in our 21st century organizations is accomplished through projects. Outside of IT departments, standard project management tools are less universally used. Participants in all types of change will benefit from knowledge of project management processes. Successful change leaders make sure that their organizations use state-of-the-art project management tools and processes to create a readily recognizable model for managing the logistics of all large-scale change projects in the organization.

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