2023 was a year of immense change, think no further than the emergence of Generative AI into the mainstream and new terms in our vocabulary such as ‘prompt engineering’. At a human level, the cost of living, geo-political conflict and climate change acted as a reminder, if we ever needed one, to just how fragile our world and our lives really are. With all of this in the melting pot that’s the future of humanity, it’s not surprising that our businesses seem to be in a tail spin of strategic anxiety with the rudder jammed firmly in the ‘cost reduction’ setting.
When we think about the change management landscape, there are both some obvious and not-so-obvious trends that are expected to shape the industry this year. Let’s build on the growth of generative AI as an example – it's now so widespread and pervasive that it's impossible to ignore. We surely expect it to shape the way we manage change interventions and communications.
In conclusion, as we look ahead to 2024, several trends are shaping the future of change management. These trends reflect a growing recognition of the need for organisations to be adaptable, results-oriented, and harness the collective knowledge and expertise of their employees.
Now, we would love to hear from you. Which of these predictions do you believe will emerge as the biggest trend in 2024? Are there any other trends you are expecting to see? Please share your thoughts and insights with us.
Let’s meet in the comment section!
Change management and programme management have traditionally been seen as separate disciplines, but in 2024, we see the emerging trend of closer integration of these activities gaining momentum. As change moves from being the peripheral bolt on activity it once was to being the core of a human-driven transformation approach, it is clear that the skills of co-ordination, communication, prioritisation, planning and problem-solving can be built once and deployed many times across the programme. What this means is we are moving closer to a world where the PMO is being restructured to form something more akin to a transformation management office (TMO) and change specialists face the choice of broadening their reach into solutioning, value realisation, knowledge, reporting and planning or being overtaken by ambitious programme professionals moving in the direction of change skillsets.
In 2024, it will become non-negotiable for leaders to possess the skills and mindset needed to guide their teams through change. The COVID19 pandemic emphasised the need for leaders who can inspire trust, provide clear direction, and build organisational resilience. The workplace has undoubtedly become more human in the last few years and the ability to lead with empathy, clarity and authenticity have now become table stakes in the checklist of manager attributes. As organisations become increasingly aware of the critical role of change management, it comes as no surprise that they will heavily invest in developing change leadership skills internally.
Organisations are realising, albeit slightly slower than needed, that powerful data-driven insights are vital for successful transformations. This means much more than just a few change survey questions, a bit of random polling and some anecdotal feedback to the CEO being passed on to the programme team. It means advanced segmentation of audiences, it includes application of AI to interpret sentiment, it definitely encompasses visualisation and storytelling based on interpretation of the signals that predict whether the programme will fly or flounder. By using analytics throughout the entire transformation process, the development, application and adjustment of change strategy becomes a highly accurate and nimble capability. In a world where the speed and volume of change is greater than ever, the decision on the whether to go full in on analytics capability is becoming less of a debate in 2024. It's becoming a critical pillar.
However, it comes with risk. There’s the challenges of data use, there’s the ethics of AI application on the workforce, there’s the lack of change analytics skills and there’s the time it takes to spin up all this capability. Often the programme is out of the blocks and on lap 4 before the analytics infrastructure, approvals, risk reviews and dashboard design arm wrestle have even started.
Let’s uncover the difference between traditional hierarchical and agile models to back our prediction. Imagine a company facing intense competition. With a traditional approach, decisions are made by a small group of executives that often lack the diversity and cognitive dexterity to come up with anything better than they’ve been able to do before. However, by harnessing the collective intelligence of teams, the company creates cross-functional communities and ecosystems that
collaborate, share ideas, and make decisions from the bottom-up. This leads to more effective solutions and faster response times. This agile environment also fosters ownership and buy-in, enabling the company to navigate challenges and gain a competitive edge. Collective Intelligence of empowered teams will have its breakthrough year in 2024.
Change management is taking on a new role as the champion of value realisation. This is partly out of opportunity – it beats talking about the comms plan all day and partly out of necessity – well we’ve given everyone else a go at trying to manage benefits why not let change have a go. This is against a backdrop of organisations shifting gears when it comes top measuring the value of value. Hence the uptick in value realisation assurance workstreams tasked with ensuring that their initiatives not only get delivered on time and on budget but also deliver the agreed level of benefits. As the race to
reduce costs intensifies in boardrooms, this capability becomes even more crucial for the sustainability of organisations. But when you really examine what it takes to land the benefits case there’s a spaghetti of missed deadlines, unrealistic assumptions, left-field impacts, unimaginable risks and human ability to move the goalposts, who is best placed to unravel all that and develop the interventions which keep the benefits train rolling down the right track? Change professionals with commercial acumen of course.
There has been a growing recognition that change is not a one-time event, but a continuous journey that requires ongoing expertise and knowledge within the organisation. By developing internal change capabilities, organisations can empower their own employees to lead and drive change initiatives, fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, and innovation, which are all critical elements for building a future-proof organisation. This trend not only saves costs associated with external consultants but also ensures that change becomes ingrained in the organisation's DNA, enabling them to navigate the ever-changing business landscape with confidence and agility.
OK so maybe not a clear trend yet, as we don’t know which way this will go. However, for sure The Great Resignation phenomenon drastically changed the mindset of leaders. With the challenges of losing critical knowledge when someone leaves the team, or the frustration of finding themselves solving the same operations problem every 2 years because they’d lost the answer, leaders are left with no choice but to invest in tools and technologies that are making knowledge management mainstream again. Knowledge as the proponents of ADKAR will tell is a critical pillar for individuals to grasp
change. However, it also become a management discipline of significant influence in its own right. The advent of knowledge factories and tools to facilitate knowledge synthesis into the flow of work will either see the rise of knowledge teams assigned to transformation management offices or it will be a stronger string to the bow of change professionals. Time will tell.