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  LaMarsh & Associates ("L&A") is a global consulting firm specializing in strategic and tactical change management solutions and learning services. For nearly 30 years our innovative approach has helped a broad range of clients—from large multi-nationals to small startups—with their change management needs. Our approach, called Managed Change™, is a data-driven process that produces a roadmap for project teams, internal change agents and sponsors to follow as they navigate through simple projects or complex initiatives. Its open architecture allows Managed Change to enhance and support other change management methodologies as well as to align and integrate with ongoing project management and Six Sigma disciplines. Fundamentally, the Managed Change Model reduces the financial and operational risks associated with change in any organization. Productivity can be increased and expenses can be reduced by simply focusing on a critical area that often is ignored by even the most strategic executives: organizational or individual resistance to change. In working with clients, our goals are simple. We want to help executives, management and key change agents:
The Challenge of Effectively Implementing Change Creating organizational acceptance of change is defined by many as "getting results," but leadership also expects on-time, on-budget and fully-functional deployment. Often these expectations go unrealized because, even with a great design and strong project planning, those being affected by the change resist or fail to embrace it. Identifying and proactively dealing with this resistance is what L&A calls Managed Change. And it is what we do best. Gaining and optimizing results can be defined by the following equation: R = Qs x A R=Results; Qs=Quality of the Solutions; A=Acceptance of the Solutions Too often, organizations invest all of their resources, energy and budget in creating and implementing elegant solutions (the "Qs") designed to maximize cost savings, productivity improvements, functional additions, etc. But major changes in infrastructure and business operations require employees - and sometimes vendors, suppliers, clients and retirees—to modify or radically alter their behaviors. In their zeal to deliver the perfect solution, organizations often overlook the importance of gaining acceptance of the change by those who are expected to change their behaviors (the "A" factor). They think the benefits of the solution will be so evident that audiences will automatically accept and embrace the change. To that end, most project teams will flood the organization with communications about how great the impending change will be for the shareholders, the organization and clients. But they fail to address a critical point: why change will be good for the individual employee who is being asked to change his/her behavior. The bottom line is, even the most elegant solution can fail because no investment is made in identifying and minimizing this organizational resistance. In ignoring the acceptance component of the equation this "Qs-focused" approach will naturally generate organizational and personal resistance. Ultimately, this resistance—either overt or silent—can cause projects to extend beyond the original timeframe, run over budget and/or under-perform in terms of delivery of the functionality. Leadership will look at the change as a major irritation, an under-performer or an abject failure on the part of the project team. Once that happens, moving to the original desired state will be difficult at best. The L&A Process and Methodology Change management is at its best when both factors of the Results equation are taken into consideration. While the project team creates and deploys elegant "Qs," L&A offers the most value by focusing on minimizing resistance and maximizing acceptance—the "A" factor. LaMarsh and Associates' Managed Change Model is targeted at developing and implementing winning solutions by helping clients systematically:
 The Managed Change Model Identify the Change The first step is to clarify and validate the stages of change from the perspective of key target groups. Define and understand the current and desired states from a broad perspective, and create the key messages that align with the statement of work and the known issues that will affect the project. Once this step is completed, it's smart to solicit additional input from representatives of target groups to ensure the stages of change were assessed and defined correctly. Prepare the Change The second step is to gather additional information on the critical variables that will determine success or failure, including the culture and history of change initiatives within the organization, and the levels of expected resistance. This step also requires defining and clarifying the roles of the key people charged with project deployment, including the change sponsor, change agent and targets of change. Lastly capture all the final data and analysis that will bring the third step—planning the change—to life. Plan the Change The third step is to plan the change by using the data and analysis from the previous steps to understand the degree of risk and build customized Communication, Learning and Reward plans across all target groups. These three components form an integrated change management strategy that mitigates risk, builds ownership and addresses the changes required in an organization's people and culture to ensure long-term success. Implement the Change The project team must overcome organizational resistance by implementing those Communications, Learning and Rewards programs. These three programs will demonstrate that information and knowledge is being shared freely so that those affected by the change can make "informed decisions" about why accepting and embracing the change is good for them as individuals. Sustain the Change Once the programs are in place and the change is accepted by targets, it is critical to set up a process and accountability to ensure the change is sustained over time. This is accomplished by determining what was neglected or where there are vulnerabilities to slippage and establishing key metrics. Lastly, this is also the step to chronicle the entire project so that lessons learned can help teams through subsequent changes. The resulting project book is an enduring record in case the change does slip and new change agents have to be assigned to shore up or reinstall the changes. The Value of Managed Change The Managed Change Model is both scalable and adaptable to any implementation of change at any level. There is no project too large or too small. Managed Change supports large, complex, corporate-wide implementations in global organizations as well as personal challenges. Effective deployment of the L&A Managed Change Model creates value for clients by reducing the financial and operational risks usually associated with change. Outlined below are four possible sources of financial and operational benefits generated in the lifecycle of a project using Managed Change versus one that doesn't.
 In addition, by choosing to deploy the Managed Change Model as the organizational standard for executing change initiatives, clients can expect:
(262) 236-0899 or llash@lamarsh.com. About LaMarsh and Associates LaMarsh and Associates is Chicago-based with full-time consultants around the United States and affiliates in Finland, Germany and the United Kingdom. Jeanenne LaMarsh, Founder and CEO, and Charlie Thalheimer, President have more than 40 years combined experience working with large and small organizations on their change management needs. Each of our consultants are experts in consulting with and training clients using the Managed Change Model to ensure single projects and/or ongoing change initiatives are implemented correctly and efficiently. Printable PDF version of this page. (PDF 1.6 MB) |
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