Knowing how to do change control can be the difference between a healthy operation and an inefficient one. Still, many companies do not know how to execute this management correctly and, thus, fail to take advantage of its benefits.
So that this does not happen in your company, see what change control is, what its advantages are and how to implement it. Check!
What is change control?
Change control is not a single activity or tool. It is a complex process that involves people, teams, and areas. Your goal is to change something from a current state to a different, better future state.
Thus, change control exists for this transformation (whether of strategies, processes, technologies, or more general organizational changes) to be effective.
With it, you ensure that changes are successfully adopted and that organizational objectives are achieved, without neglecting compliance with internal and external guidelines.
Such importance is demonstrated by a study by the consulting firm McKinsey. He points out that when a company monitors the main performance indicators of the change process, the success of this change is four times more likely.
In other words: it is not enough to change in any way, it is essential to know why, how and what results are expected from it. In this way, you maximize the benefits of change management.
How to control change in your company in 5 steps
Let’s see how this happens in practice. After all, there is no point in knowing the importance of change control if you don’t know how it can be implemented in your company’s day-to-day life.
For this, below we have prepared five general tips that help to carry out a process of change in the vast majority of corporations and areas.
However, remember to also take into account the specifics of your sector, the standards applicable to it and other characteristics of your operation. Thus, you can build a change management process that encompasses all your needs.
1 – Identify the need to change something
This first step usually arises as a consequence of the audit and compliance areas. This is because it is during an audit that the need to change a process, tool, or even product is usually identified.
At this point, identify how your process/product/activity is currently used/executed, what aspects need to be improved, and what would be changed to achieve this.
For example, if you notice that there is no visibility into what all team members are doing, it can be helpful to change the way you manage your projects.
Then, you describe this need, define the objective as bringing greater visibility to each one’s tasks and, finally, point out a possible solution (such as a task management tool, for example).
2 – Assess the impacts of the change
In the second step, you must gather all the basic information that will support the approval and then implementation of the changes. The material usually includes details such as the resources needed for the change, the impact it will have and to whom the request should be passed on.
3 – Approve everything that will be done
Once you’ve identified what needs to be changed and how it will affect your business and what it will take to make it a reality, it’s time to approve all of it.
At this stage, the project is submitted for approval by stakeholders, who evaluate aspects such as its feasibility, alignment with the company’s strategic objectives, possible impacts on the operation, expenses/inputs used, among others.
4 – Plan the implementation of the change
Once you’ve gotten the project approved by everyone involved in change control, it’s time to create an implementation schedule. In it, you must include all the activities (and their respective responsibilities) for the change to be put into practice, as well as delivery dates and follow-up methods.
5 – Put everything into practice and monitor constantly
Finally, it’s time to get your hands dirty and make the change itself. Use all previously created documents for this, such as impact assessment and implementation planning.
After that, adopt ways to monitor the progress of the implementation. This provides continuous improvement of the entire process and helps to adjust what is necessary for the success of the change.
See more: Free ebook – Step by step to implement change management in your organization
3 advantages of doing change control
Although it requires a lot of work, change control has many advantages. First, as you’ve seen, it provides an organized and functional framework for evaluating, approving, and implementing changes.
In addition, change management has other benefits that are presented in your company’s day-to-day life. Check out the top three below!
1 – Reduce risks and expenses
One of the main positive consequences of good change control is precisely to reduce risks and expenses. First, by implementing changes, your company can improve processes, identify and mitigate problems, and adapt to standards, for example.
In addition, you can improve your spending. This saving occurs in the implementation of the changes themselves (as this happens in an organized way, avoiding waste of time/money) and in the resources used in a certain activity after it is optimized.
2 – Increase productivity and quality
Through efficient change control, you reduce failures and increase efficiency and speed in implementing changes — which in turn boosts the productivity of the operation.
Another benefit of this process being well-defined and organized is that changes are evaluated and tested before implementation. This ensures the quality and relevance of the changes (and their results).
3 – Reinforce alignment and collaboration between areas/teams
As you have already seen, change control must involve a series of people and areas. Therefore, it intrinsically optimizes communication and interaction between different sectors to ensure that everything occurs correctly.
By encouraging connection between stakeholders and documenting all stages of the process, you provide alignment of expectations and transparency in the decisions and actions to be taken.
The best change control and quality management tool
To make change control more intuitive, secure, and efficient in your company, you can rely on a quality management system. It automates tasks, integrates several tools, and documents the entire process virtually and intuitively.
See how this works in practice: talk to one of our experts without obligation and learn about the SoftExpert solution.
