Top Tips for Robust Change Management

We've posted previously about the frustration of badly managed change in a business, but what makes a truly useful change management system?

Small teams can manage change reasonably simply, but once you start growing into multiple departments with multiple staff, it can be very hard to always get those needed in a room together to hash out every change.

Keep in mind that most ISO standards have specific requirements around this topic, so it always pays to check what's relevant to your certification.

When Do We Need Change Management?

There's nothing worse than bogging a business down with red tape and paperwork unnecessarily, and there will be plenty of times when the change is small and genuinely only affects the department making the change.

Having a Management of Change procedure with clear guidelines on what constitutes a change large enough to trigger the formal process will keep everyone in the loop when it's required, but frees up the team to get on with general day to day.

Perhaps a list, i.e.

• Introduction of a new Chemical
• New Machinery Purchase/Installation
• Change of Process that affects more than one department
• Change of Documentation that affects more than one department
• New or updated training programs

Forms and Paperwork

Yes, I know you're groaning internally, but for major changes particularly, having clear forms to work through ensures the necessary questions are asked, and record of change is also a requirement of the standards.

The first thing to have on that form is WHY?! What are the pros and cons, what benefit will it bring to the process/business?What data/feedback is driving the change request?

Date required for change is also important as if there is a timeline, everyone involved needs to be aware and this will drive the dates of actions and plans.

There are plenty of digital forms or excel linked sheet options that can run your team through a list of considerations and lead to actions required by different departments.

Mango is a great example of digital Management of Change, with a dedicated module just for it – yes, it's that important! Systems like Mango give you the advantage of having dedicated and documented workflows, you can create tasks or implementation steps like a mini project plan, that way everyone knows what to do and by when. You can also take the hassle out of tracking the costs of the change, again an important thing to do if you want to ensure you are making money. The other important thing to think about with your changes is highlighting everything that is going to be impacted by it. Again, systems like Mango give you the ability to link any related documents, procedures, machinery, training, and risks, all of which makes it easier to make sure you have a great change process. Remember, the simpler you can make it for someone to do a process the more likely they are to follow it, and it's what we see in Mango.

Consider getting all the department heads together to brainstorm on all the things that might be affected by potential changes in the business, and start building a check-list. They may also wish to go back and ask the rest of their team, as everyone has different memories of things that have been missed in the past!

If you break it down in sections by department, or have questions that direct you to different sections, it can be quick and easy for those requesting a change to jump to the right places and not waste time (and frustration) slogging through a heap of irrelevant queries.

For example:

1. Chemical change? 
   •  Yes:
2. Have you got an SDS / TDS? 
   • If yes, is it an NZ version
3. Are there storage restrictions?
4. Where will it be stored?
5. Are there additional health risks that would require monitoring?
6. Has H&S reviewed the PPE requirements?
7. Does it pose a food safety concern?
   1. No:

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This will move the team through the requirements quickly. Triggers from the answers can then be set up to drive action allocation and ensure everything is covered, with restrictions on moving forward to the next step until certain items have been completed.

One Source Of Truth

There is nothing worse than 6 people having their own information or their own copies! You need to have everyone on the same page with the same information.

Find a way that suits your team to have one master version of the change information. That may be a co-ordinator who manages the information, a team on Microsoft Teams for the form and all associated info, or a folder on a server drive that has shared access or a system like Mango where you can have everything attached to the electronic change or in a Documents area.

Ideally you want one place where everything can be stored that relates to the change.

This may include

• The master form
• Quotes
• SDS/TDS information
• Copies of important emails
• Pictures/Videos
• Documentation
• Trial results
• Specifications

This keeps everything neatly together for review down the track, and to double-check information. (this also keeps auditors very happy!)

Approval

Any major change in a business should ideally have sign-off from those that are responsible for the outcome. There are a couple of different ways this can be done.

• 1. Bring up and discuss at a Lead Team level meeting, so can be signed off at the time by all present.
• 2. Delegate approval based on the change and who it affects. You can add this information in to your policy or procedure, hand in hand with the list of changes requiring Change Management. i.e.

Trials

A lot of changes in business can require trials to ensure the outcomes expected are actual. Consider a trial form or system that adequately addresses the requirements of the change. This will very much be individual to your product or service, and it's an entirely different topic on how to conduct good trials! A good trial form/plan will ensure that disruptions to normal operations are considered, work in with customers (if required) is managed and everyone who needs to be there knows about it.

Post Implementation Review

This one is KEY, and invariably the downfall of even the best CM systems, as it's the most likely area to be missed!

No matter how good your planning was and how thorough your check-list is, there will always be unexpected outcomes that crop up, uses you didn't know about, customer interaction that wasn't accounted for.

It may also be that there is a wait until you see the full benefits or issues from the change. That may be due to the time until it reaches the end user market, perhaps it's something that happens infrequently, there maybe a certain volume needing to be run to get enough data and so on.

It's also often the case that the time trialled wasn't long enough, or a big enough pool of data, so what initially seemed a positive result and got approval to go ahead, in the long term is a net negative.

It pays to schedule a review post change at an appropriate time from the change and select a person or team to follow up on how it's going.There's nothing worse than someone implementing a change that's “all good” and then finding out two other departments are losing time and patience 6 months later, because it didn't work how it was supposed to!

It can take trial and error and a good level of commitment from the team, but a robust change management system can save thousands of dollars, lost time, morale damage and customer complaints for your business.