Lifecycle of Organizational Change

This phase includes the activities needed to: 

	implement the remedy,
	mitigate the implementation risks, and
	monitor progress toward successful conclusion.

Flawless execution is now expected!  When reality and expectations meet (or collide), contingency becomes the operative phrase. It is doubtful that all relevant information was known, or even knowable, in prior phases. Implementation teams may be faced with situations and circumstances that were beyond prediction--such as a sudden catastrophe or truly unexpected resistance, etc.. Flexibility and resilience (the ability to regroup and recover) become important attributes. 

Communication processes are the life-support system for organizational change initiatives. Groups and individuals impacted by change want and need information. Change implementers need timely, reliable feedback mechanisms.

Education processes provide the means for supporting people in acquiring new knowledge and developing new skills needed to be successful.  

The implementation phase often suffers from a lack of, or unclear, endings. Over time, organizations may become fatigued, bored, or distracted, stopping short of actually achieving the benefits and envisioned future which originally set the organizational change process in motion. Sponsors, implementation teams, and targets of change may collude in a "don't ask, don't tell" conspiracy wasting valuable resources on changes which no longer matter. 

Ideally, this phase ends with a clear ending of implementation activities, and a recognition of having achieved one of three outcomes. The first outcome, is success as originally defined--financial, technical, and human objectives on time and on budget--is achieved or exceeded. Two, the modified definition of success the sponsor(s) agreed to was achieved. The third option acknowledges the change process is over, and the change implementation failed to achieve critical aspects of the success definition, e.g., took too long, cost more than what was acceptable, the outcomes do not meet expectations and/or requirements, wrong remedy, etc..

Regardless, this phase should end with a harvesting of key lessons learned. For organizations to improve their future change implementations, lessons learned need to be disseminated in some way. Individuals and teams involved in change efforts should be aware of what went well, and what could be improved for next time. Even though no two changes are exactly alike, there are many areas for using the same or similar change processes. Thus, there are areas for process improvement.