People facing change initiatives could also experience a change in emotions at an individual level.

According to the Kübler-Ross change curve, people could experience certain emotions when they are facing a
change, and their energy levels vary as they experience or go through these emotions or phases. The image
below depicts these emotions.

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The table below summarises the different stages of the change curve and briefly mentions how change leaders
can help individuals cope with them.

Stage Individual reaction in the stage How change leaders can help
individuals cope with the stage

Shock/Denial Individual being surprised by the Try to provide information

change initiative and trying to gradually or in phases. Try not to
process information / Individual overwhelm the employees with
not believing that the change is information
really happening.

Anger Individual being angered by the Allow people the time to

change initiative and expressing overcome anger as this could be a
the emotion either on themselves natural reaction
or on others

Bargaining Individual trying to come up with Impart training to the employees

a mutually beneficial solution or to ensure that the change is
trying to postpone the change successful

Depression Individual thinking about the Provide support to the employees

negative impact that the change to lift their spirits and impart
may have on them necessary training

Acceptance Individual accepting that the Celebrate the change

change is there to stay and that it
is their own needs that need to be
adapted

Providing stage-specific support to the targets plays an important role in setting up a change initiative for
success.

Changes in organisations can be caused by either the external environment or internal organisational factors,
and sometimes, they can even be caused by both. The factors that induce change in an organisation can be
called the change drivers.

Change drivers can be categorised as either internal or external depending upon their source. The different
drivers of organisational change are briefly summarised in this image.

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External drivers stem from the environment external to an organisation. They may be political, technological,
economical, social, environmental or legal in nature.

Internal drivers stem from within an organisation. They may include causes such as a strategy shift, a
reorganisation, a market shift, product changes, etc.

Organisations or change leaders can be proactive in understanding the internal and external drivers and be
prepared for a change.

For analysing external drivers, you can use the PESTEL (Political, Economical, Social, Technological,
Environmental and Legal) framework to understand the variety of external factors affecting the organisation.

For analysing internal drivers, change leaders can use the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats) framework to identify the state of an organisation’s capabilities, which could be a cause for a change.

These two frameworks are depicted in this image.

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In certain change initiatives, both internal and external drivers may be at play.

Typically, change teams should respond proactively to internal drivers, whereas for external drivers, they can
use both proactive and reactive approaches.

Once an organisation has decided to go ahead with a change initiative, the next step would be to come up with
a plan for its execution.
To begin designing a change plan, first you need to understand the methodology that you can use for this
purpose. In this context, you learnt about four methodologies, which are described below:

1. Business Analysis
○ It is used for identifying and clearly conveying the need for a change, as well as for facilitating
it. It can be used across industries and use cases.
○ It is a top-down design approach. Strategies and tactics flow from the leadership, and there
may be standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place.

2. Business Architecture
○ It acts as a bridge between strategy, capability and execution in organisations.
○ It provides a common understanding of the organisation and also the architecture of its
functions, processes and governance. It is suited for aligning strategic objectives and demands.

3. Lean Six Sigma

○ It focuses on reducing variation, removing waste and collaboration to improve performance.
○ It is typically used when processes need to be automated, scaled and made customer friendly.

4. Design Thinking
○ It encompasses a creative set of approaches that encourage devising innovative solutions to
problems. It can be used across industries and use cases.
○ It encourages holistic thinking of the business and its customers; hence, it requires more time
than a business analysis methodology.
○ It is a bottom-up design approach. Strategies and tactics stem from an understanding of the
customers and the core business and are then aggregated as the plan flows to the top. SOPs
may not be in place; hence, innovative thinking processes are encouraged.

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The applicability of these design methodologies depends upon the specific use cases and priorities of a change
initiative, i.e., the context helps determine the best methodology.

Note: The four methodologies above are not the only possible frameworks for designing a change plan. The focus of
this course is on these four frameworks and where they can be used. The aim of these frameworks is to provide you
with a launchpad to design a change plan.

After deciding on a methodology to design a change plan, the next step for an organisation would be to think
about an approach to implement the plan.

Here are some implementation approaches that you can consider for implementing change initiatives:

● Big Bang approach: Here, all the changes are made in one go or at the same time. This is suited for
projects that aim to bring about change simultaneously.
● Phased approach: Here, the project is done in phases. Each phase is independent of the output of the
other phases.
● Agile/SAFe approach: This is an iterative approach, which aims to provide iterative outputs. The
project specifics and requirements may change after each iteration.
● Waterfall approach: This is a stepwise approach, where each step depends upon the output of the
previous step.

The applicability of these implementation approaches depends upon the specific use cases and priorities of a
change initiative, i.e., the context helps determine the best implementation approach.

Note: There are also other project implementation techniques that are being used in the industry. However, we have
selected the most prevalent techniques for you to consider while designing your change project plan.

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