Change Management Case Study

A government department was introducing new working practices and structures into each of its' thirteen regions. We assisted one region with ten local offices by designing a change programme involving "action workshops" at three levels - regional, local office management, and a pilot office.

Regional Management Team Workshop
Focussed on the key change issues facing the region, how they could be best managed, their own role and that of the local office managers, and planned how best to move forward.
Pilot Office Workshop
Staff worked on the imminent changes - identifying what problems would arise and working in project teams on the hot-spots.
Workshop for managers of the other local offices.
Focussed on the regional key change issues and their role in managing them, and the preparations they needed to make for the roll-out.

And the Outcome
The pilot changes went extremely smoothly. Of the pilots, this one was recognised as particularly successful. The payoff was:- less cost in errors or wasted time, fewer customer dissatisfactions, and a better staff morale. Plus, subsequent changes managed better.

Our approach

We worked with the senior managers to design and run a change programme involving "action workshops" at three levels:

the regional centre management
the pilot branch office.
the management of the ten local offices in the region

First, we organised and ran a workshop for the regional management team. This focussed on the key change issues facing the region, how they could be best managed, and the management team's own role and that of the local office managers. During this workshop, we and the team planned the work with the pilot branch.

Next we organised and ran a workshop for all managers and staff in the pilot branch. This workshop focussed initially on discussion about the future and about feelings and concerns, and then moved onto work on the imminent changes - identifying what problems would arise, and how to resolve them. It resulted in a branch action plan for introducing the changes.

Finally we ran a workshop for the managers of the other local offices. This focussed on the regional key change issues and their role in managing them, but also the preparations they needed to make for when they themselves needed to introduce the changes, based on the results of the pilot office. It also laid the foundations for a support network where they could call on each other for support in their own office.