The Secrets to Navigating Organizational Change Smoothly

New business strategies, the adoption of new technologies, business rightsizing, etc can drive organizational change. In each situation, IT will be a key area of concern—people, infrastructure, and operations! Therefore, it’s important that IT departments can adapt rapidly to organizational change.

In this article, we’ll look at what that means for managing organizational change in IT teams, including the challenges you might face, the types of strategies adopted, and recommended practices.

Understanding the Nature of Organizational Change in IT Teams

Before we can discuss how to navigate organizational changes, it's important to get a feel for how those changes occur and how those changes can impact IT teams. IT organizational change management is driven by different types of change, including:

• Structural changes: Occur as a result of corporate mergers and acquisitions, as well as reorganizations undertaken for efficiencies or maybe as required because of bankruptcy. 

• Technological changes: As a result of the adoption of new systems or platforms, as current systems reach the end of their lifecycle. 

• Process changes: These can occur due to workflow redesign, agile transformations, or operational shifts.

Of course, some organizational changes will feature elements of all three.

Impact on IT Teams

IT teams can be impacted by organizational changes in several ways. The exact impact, of course, will vary based on the types of changes and why they occur. In general, you'll want to plan for impacts like: 

• Changes in project priorities: Due to the new organizational design, teams may  see some projects canceled, others delayed, and new ones initiated, resulting in

• Adjustments in team structure, roles, and responsibilities: As existing teams are reorganized, positions are eliminated, and personnel are reassigned, expect changes to teams and jobs, which can lead to: 

• Need for new skills: Training or hiring may be required due to new technologies, the adoption of streamlined development processes, or the need for project managers to retire old systems and bring new ones online.

Hiring new IT personnel is always an option, but realistically, you’ll want to retrain current staff in the new technologies. You’d also want to invest in developing your own project managers, as well as training development teams in Agile development processes.

Challenges IT Teams Can Face During Organizational Change

When managing IT organizational change, you’ll be faced with numerous challenges, including:

• Resistance to change: People may be scared of losing their jobs or having to retrain if their jobs are redefined. With new tools, systems, methodologies, and technologies being adopted, there’ll be concerns about how easy it will be to learn and adapt to them.

• Maintaining productivity during the transition: Another challenge for IT organizational change management is keeping current systems and processes running while the new environment is developed and tested. This means that for some time, IT and operating personnel may be required to perform double duty as the new processes come online.

• Communication and alignment: Communication is a key challenge in IT organizational change management. Most organizational changes involve many moving parts, and the “left hand must know what the right hand is doing.” You’ll need to ensure that expectations for the new organization are clearly articulated for both the IT teams and affected business departments. They need to share a standard view of what should be done, by whom, and when! 

Strategies for Navigating Organizational Change

Your strategies for IT organizational change management should aim to neutralize the challenges of resistance to change, maintain transitional productivity, and promote clear communication. Let’s look at some common strategies.

Foster a Culture of Adaptability

You’ll need to openly address the “fear of change” by encouraging your IT teams to be open-minded about the upcoming changes. Offer them continuous learning opportunities to help them adapt to the new environment. Make sure that your organization’s learning management system provides access to online training for the new tools, procedures, and methodologies. 

Involve IT Teams Early in the Change Process

Make sure that IT team members are involved in designing the organizational change. The planned changes will likely have implications for the IT infrastructure, so IT technical feasibility has to be determined. By having IT technical staff involved from the start, you’ll hopefully get a better technical solution, improved buy-in, and less resistance to change!

Provide Clear Communication and Transparency

You’ll have a cadre of staff involved in the planning, but it’s important to keep the overall IT team updated on the proposed organizational change – the reasons for the changes, the goals, and the timeline for the change. Following project management practices, define clear channels for communication with the IT team. Avoid communication overload and decide the types of change management information that you’ll share and through which channels.

Offer Training and Support

As mentioned above, it’s important to have structured training programs available for your IT teams and other departments to learn the new systems. Throughout the transition period, IT employees must also have access to hands-on support and resources that will augment and reinforce what they learn from the formal training programs, 

Best Practices for Leading IT Teams Through Organizational Change

Any significant IT organizational change should be treated as a project, and thus, project management methodologies and practices should be applied. Project management training can help get your IT organizational change project started. Let’s pick out some IT change management project practices, beginning with the plan!

Develop a Phased Implementation Plan

As the organizational change project manager, you’ll create a phased implementation plan with manageable, scheduled steps. Using metrics such as Key Performance Indicators (KPI) you will be able to track the progress of the organizational change and evaluate its actual impact.

Encourage Collaboration and Cross-Functional Teamwork

Organizational change projects typically require coordinated actions across relevant departments, with staff in the affected departments working in sync. Cross-department briefings are just one way of ensuring this alignment, but you can also set up cross-functional task forces or working groups to address specific change-related challenges.

Celebrate Milestones and Successes

Organizational change can be a worrying time, so it’s important to boost morale by recognizing team achievements as milestones are successfully completed. Success breeds success, so use small wins to build momentum for larger organizational change efforts.

Common Pitfalls During IT Organizational Change and How to Avoid Them

Any time significant changes are made, there is the risk of drawbacks. In IT organizational change, common pitfalls to keep an eye out for include: 

• Neglecting employee feedback: Failure to gather input or address concerns from IT staff may result in missing warning signs of trouble and also lead to staff discontent. Help overcome these issues by establishing two-way communication throughout the change process.

• Underestimating the complexity of change: Don’t assume that the organizational change will happen seamlessly without detailed planning. And don’t overlook the need for continuing support even after the change has been implemented.

• Focusing solely on technology: Don’t ignore the human aspect of change! Maintaining positive team dynamics and morale is critical both during and after the transition.  Remember,  organizational change is not a success if team morale crashes after the change!

Conclusion

Some of the key success factors for IT organizational change management are thorough planning, cross-department collaboration, comprehensive communications, and structured training programs!  Through your learning management system, help your IT teams adapt to the new environment by offering opportunities to learn relevant technical, project management, and Agile skills.

Learn how CBT Nuggets LMS can help your IT team learn new skills.