The Key to Effective Change Management: Data, Communication, and Purpose

by Becky Breeden,

It takes a lot more than luck to create an environment that embraces change. Change Management has become a highly valued business skill, and it’s about time. For many years, the disruption that came as part of substantive organizational changes was simply collateral damage that left a lot of relationships, valuable time, and an incredible amount of money in its wake.

Fortunately, organizations like the Change Management Institute have dissected the intricacies of change and created powerful frameworks for creating success. In their overview of the Change Practice Framework, CMI reminds us that at the center of all change is people.

Strategico Consultants recognized this core concept from the beginning by making our approach to every challenge about People, Process, and Technology – in that order. CEO Daniel Elaqua shares some of the transformative changes that have impacted him personally and professionally in this post from December 2024.

It does not take a news junkie to see that change is dominating life for many, and associations have faced more than their fair share in the past several years. COVID picked us up and slammed us to the ground where many are only now scrambling to their feet. Coping with change, whether rapid or gradual takes mental resilience and preparation. By the time the change is happening, it’s often too late to direct its path. 

As an association executive and vendor partner, I have learned a few lessons along the way about change and change management. Here are a few of those insights.

3 Lessons Learned about Change and Change Management 
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1. Change for the sake of change is not change.
That was a mouthful, but it is a critical perspective to keep in mind. If your organization cannot articulate why you are changing a system, a person, a process, or a policy, then you may be changing for the sake of change. This most often happens during leadership changes, following a critical failure, or when there is too little attention given to true exploration of what is causing friction.

2. Change without communication is simply disruption.
As a lifelong communicator and writer, I pin an awful lot of society’s ills on poor communication. The failure to communicate change is no different. Communicating that there will be a change is insufficient. The focus must be on why the change is critical and how it will yield results for your business or organization.

Every change comes with its own story, and telling that story is where organizations can
find consensus and energy for innovation.

For those of us who were around in the early days of TQM (Total Quality Management), that process, which is alive and well today, was rooted in the idea that through continuous improvement, incremental changes, and strong team involvement (communication), changes would be less disruptive and yield far better results. Baked into that concept is communication. By sharing the idea and the need in a structured, consistent, and transparent way, many industrial giants smoothed their paths as innovation and modernization loomed.

3. Change without data is guesswork.
Initiatives that will require change for even one person require some level of data – whether qualitative or quantitative – upon which to determine the rate, scope, and nature of change. While the headline here is dogmatic, the fact is that most change is backed by some level of data - it is just not well communicated, tracked, or documented.

Associations are increasingly clamoring for more data-driven decisions and the data that supports them. Sometimes it is necessary to take a step back and create a mechanism for capturing, retaining, and assessing the data you will need to decide upon a substantive change. A great example is an AMS change. Can you equate a given system issue with a specific volume of inefficiency? Is a system limiting your opportunity by causing users to abandon transactions. These are great examples of foundations for decision-driven change.

If you are wondering what types of data can help you determine the need for change, reach out to me at Strategico Consultants. Include my name and this blog title in the section for “How can we help?”.

Real World Change: Three Key Questions

Here are three key questions to ask yourself as you think about a major people,
process, or technology change.

1. Do you have data to back up your decision?
If you don’t, start collecting it immediately and pause your decision.

2. Do you have a communication plan for explaining your change?
This extends not just to the team but also to your members.

3. Can the change makers clearly articulate why change is necessary?
​Remember when your parents said “Because I said so” as a child? Did that really resonate with you and keep you from asking “why” in the future? Be sure you are not changing for the sake of change.