Change management

"Techniques and methods of managing change – impacting on attitudes, cultures, behaviours, practices, processes and working methods"

Achieving the Council of the Future means making substantial changes in the organisation - in how people think about their role and their work, in their attitude to customers, in their behaviours, and in their approach to change and to continuous improvement. These are fundamental changes that affect the organisation and everyone who works within it. These changes do not just happen - they need to be managed, and that takes time and resource.

Changing business processes is relatively easy - but if the culture remains unchanged, any benefit generated will be minor and short-lived. But changing culture and behaviours means that there is much more scope for achieving real benefits, and for these benefits to be long lasting.

Managing change requires some special skills and techniques, and often benefits from the use of external advisors and consultants - since initially, at least, change can come more easily from an outsider than from an internal source. In the long term, however, change has to come from within - so consultants and advisers should be used wisely - to transfer skills internally, and create the capacity for change within the organisation.