Basic Principles of Change
Management
G. Michael Campbell, has led many
large, global initiatives involving
stakeholders from around the world.
He has also written Succeeding with
Senior Management: Getting the
Right Support at the Right Time for
Your Project, The Complete Idiot’s
Guide to Project Management and
Communication Skills for Project
Managers and authored numerous
industry publications. He is currently
adjunct professor of business
management at St. Edward’s University
in Austin, Texas, USA.
© Business Expert Press 978-1-94858-056-4 (2018)
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G. Michael Campbell
Abstract: Every executive has been tasked at one time or
another with leading a major initiative for the company.
These opportunities can lead to promotions and exciting
new challenges or to misfires that can set you back. In the
political environment at the senior levels, an ­executive
cannot afford to fail at delivering on the project. The
­common element in these step-change i­nitiatives is the
significant changes that will occur within the company.
Then reality sets in and the leader realizes that he must
get hundreds of people moving in the same direction for
this initiative to succeed. Frankly, change management is
a fact of life in business today. And change is happening at
an accelerating rate. The obvious conclusion is that execu-
tives must embrace that fact and learn to manage change.
Keywords: change management, change management
requirements, communication, company politics, fear
of change, stages of change
This is the first in a series of four articles that e
­ xplain
why executives need knowledge and skills in change
management. You will learn how to apply that
­
­information in practical ways to lead successful change
­initiatives. This article starts with the answers to why,
and the future articles are devoted to how.
Why Do New Initiatives Require Change
Management?
In larger companies, employees will generally fall into
four groups in the way they react to a potential change.1
As you can see from the chart above, there is no
­universal response to a new initiative. In fact, only a
small percentage (15 percent) are actually energized by
the possibilities associated with a change. The rest are
1 
R. D’ Aprix. 1996. Communicating for Change (San Francisco,
CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers)
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 Basic Principles of Change Management
either unsure or skeptical at best. At the
end of any initiative, the general rule is
that people will be asked to complete their
work in a new and different way. Over the
years of leading initiatives, I have come to
understand the environment that all of us
as executives live in from day to day. As
senior management, we must manage two
important workstreams simultaneously—
operational performance and future per-
formance. On the one hand, there are all
the elements required to succeed in opera-
tional performance. In simple terms, the
operational priorities are:
■■ Constant pressure related to profit and loss
■■ Minimizing headcount as much as possible
■■ Increasing productivity to do more with less
■■ Improving efficiency to drive waste out
of the processes
At a high level, these priorities are usu-
ally submitted in reports that we must
submit to our CEO, CFO, and others at the
highest levels in the company.
On the other hand, two major consider-
ations come from a company’s customers
and competitors:
1. Provide lower prices
2. Deliver better service
Customers are constantly demanding
lower prices and want better products and
2 © Business Expert Press 978-1-94858-056-4 (2018)
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services for those lower prices. All execu-
tives know that the company’s competitors
are working hard to take customers away if
the company fails to deliver on these two
key items.
Planning for Future Performance
The drivers of future initiatives might be:
■■ A market demand to expand the produc-
tion of products
■■ An organizational need to train people
with new skills
■■ A specific request from a key customer
■■ A legal requirement from the government
or regulatory body
Projects and initiatives may have a variety
of outcomes in the forecast, but one constant
is the same: the need to improve performance
in the future by expecting our employees to
do their jobs differently. When you are the
executive responsible for the initiative, your
professional reputation is on the line.
Since we are asking employees to work
in a new way, one of the underlying emo-
tions involved in potential changes is fear.
In my experience in leading change initia-
tives, this fear can be summarized broadly
in two ways:
1. People are worried that changes will
make them appear incompetent. As you
can imagine, no one wants to move to
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 Basic Principles of Change Management

a new way of working that will make
them look inept.
2. Employees worry that there may be
­retaliation if they make mistakes, so they
move into a passive/aggressive response
to the implementation.
Needless to say, both of these responses
will not help the initiative to be s­ uccessful.
In an initiative I led, we were implement-
ing a new system that replaced a legacy
system that had been developed with i­ nput
from the engineers. They felt very con-
fident in their system because they had
­created the work processes a­ ssociated with
it. ­However, the reality was that most of
them had invented work-arounds to com-
pensate for the deficiencies in the system.
However, no one used the same work-
around; they all used different ones. The
inefficiency in that should be obvious.
­ ple will get stuck in a phase and not move
However, it still took a lot of effort and
communication during the project to get
them comfortable with the new system as
a replacement.
Stages in the Mind-Set of Employees
There are some common stages that peo-
ple work through when faced with a major
change. Understanding the stages and what
to expect is helpful to guide you as you lead
the initiative. Here is a description of each
stage:
■■ Issues associated with the stage
■■ What you should expect to hear
■■ Tools you can use to deal with the stage
■■ Expected results and linkage to the change
Monitor the environment carefully ­using
the guidelines above. You biggest risk is not
necessarily resistance; it is that your peo-
forward.

Expected results
Stage Issue What you’ll hear Tools and linkage
Denial: People “This too shall pass.” Communication telling People accept
Uncomfortable withdraw I’ll believe it when I them over and over what the change is
and therefore and resort to see it.” is changing. real and move to
rejects the change. business as I’ve heard this Explain why the change the next stage
usual from before.” is occurring (see the case (resistance).
the past. “Just keep your head for change later).
Lots of down and let it blow Give them time to let it
activities over.” sink in.
but little
progress.
This is a
defense
mechanism
and is only
damaging if
people get
stuck here.
Resistance: Complaints, “What’s the Listen. Don’t try to Allow people to
Predictable part errors, anger, difference, the talk them out of their say “good-bye”
of change and the apathy, company doesn’t feelings. Accept and to what they
most difficult to absence due care anymore.” acknowledge those lost through the
deal with. to illness and feelings. change. This
sabotage. proves people
have moved
beyond denial.

(Continued)

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