I have been on hiatus from blogging for the last six weeks so, as a way to get back into the swing of things, I have been reviewing recent entries regarding pointers to keep in mind when undertaking change programs. Based on her experiences at BP, Fiona MacCleod provides great insight to the role culture and organization design play in any change program. Lynn Fraas, as part of the AIIM “8 Things” guest blog series, notes the often overlooked role marketing and PR play in getting your users onboard and keeping them there.

As much I enjoyed reading these perspectives, I did take a step back and start to think about why change management programs exist at all. The key points raised by both MacCleod and Fraas are similar to imperatives I remember learning when I first started my professional career in the mid-1990: engage your sponsors, spend time defining the organizational impact of the proposed change, pay attention to your message, and prepare employees for the change. If these principles have remained consistent for at least the last 15 years, why do we still need to talk about them today? What is causing this to be a topic of discussion?

Don’t get me wrong—we most certainly need to continue focusing on these fundamentals. If we do not address these building blocks, then we have not served our stakeholders well. That said, I also think there is an element of needing to have a deeper understanding among non-change management practitioners of why change occurs.

Taking a cue from the Taiga Forum, let’s start a discussion on what we think are the Provocative Statements for Change Management. In regards to how change occurs, how would you complete the following sentence: “In the next five years....”?

How will green initiatives impact the way change is initiated, executed, and sustained for business value? What about the shift in workforce generations? Technology? Others?

Over the next few weeks, I will post some initial thoughts on what I think those statements might be, and would encourage any thoughts or feedback. Through developing these statements, my goal is to provide a framework which allows us to foster in our stakeholders a greater sense of understanding and responsibility for change.