Destra's Approach to Change Management

Many business critical efforts fail to meet the high expectations set for them.  More often than not, these failures result from a lack of attention to the cultural, political, and social issues involved – the human elements of change!

As Destra we believe the strategy for managing this human element – change management – must be as rigorous as the strategy for the technical or operational changes being considered.  (Learn about the Change Effectiveness Equation)

In the early 90s, Destra assisted GE with the development and deployment of their change acceleration process (CAP). Grounded  in that experience and enriched by more than 15 years of successful change management work, Destra’s Accelerating Change and Transitions™ model provides a best practice framework for generating acceptance and commitment.

Our model is based on the universal principles required to create sustainable change -- principles that include Leadership, Creating a Sense of Urgency, Articulating a Clear Vision, and Engaging with Key Stakeholders.

What differentiates our model from many others is the set of pragmatic tools that allow change leaders and others to quickly translate ideas into action.

The Change Effectiveness Equation

Here is a simple equation we use to describe the relationship between the technical and human elements of change:

The Change Effectiveness Equation, E f Q x A, means that the Effectiveness of your strategic change is a function of the interaction between the Quality of your solution and its Acceptance by the people closest to and impacted by the change. (By “solution”, we mean what the change is about, e.g. a new performance management system, a redesigned process, a new software package, etc.)

Try this:  Assign numerical values to how well your organization pays attention to the "Q" (technical solutions) and the "A" (people impacted by the change).  Rate them on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high).

Q ___ x A ___ = E _____ .    This is out of 100 possible "E" points. 

Not so good?  Add 1-2 points to the "Q" side of the equation – which is where most companies invest their energy when things aren’t going so well.  Are you satisfied with the result?

Hint:  The only way you will see a quantum improvement in your overall "E" score is to pay equal attention to the “A”!