Change Management Strategy: Use Social Media

If constant change is the new normal, what then is the strategy that you can adopt to cope within a world of rapid change? The answer is Change Management.

Change Management is a structured approach to change that not only updates systems but prepares and retrains employees with the goal of reaching a higher level of efficiency and success. Adapting to remain relevant and competitive in a dynamic global market is inevitable.

In today’s fast-paced world, effective Change Management increases the success of organizational change and project initiatives by applying a structured framework of methods, tools and processes, managing the change from a current state to a future state. Regardless of the scale of change, applying a framework increases the probability of staying on schedule and budget, resulting in higher benefit realization and ROI.

For this blog, I will focus on the use of social media as a strategy to facilitate and manage change for business transformation—to stay competitive and survive in increasingly harder business climates.

Use of Social Media

The points listed below facilitate better and faster Change Management strategies through social media:

• • Involve and Engage Employees

    Social media facilitates free flow of information in multiple directions. Short nuggets of information are easily shared via microblogging to engage employees in the change program. This is a convenient and active way of soliciting feedback on change related issues.

• • Build a Collaborative Culture

    The use of social media gives a big boost to creating a more collaborative environment for change initiative. Social networking and collaboration are extremely effective ways that are rapidly bringing employees to comply with the changes as well as to share their experiences.

• • Generate Ideas

    An open format to receive suggestions and feedback through social technologies provides a popular mechanism that has visibility throughout the organization.

• • Establish an Effective Two-way Communication

    Social media helps to effectively communicate the company’s change initiative. The effort to identify and address ‘pain points’, is accelerated through a cooperative communication process.

• • Create Engaging Learning Experiences

    To foster an effective platform for relaying personal learning experiences related to the change effort, social media is a great avenue. Employees can use a variety of effective platforms, some of which include personal training videos on YouTube and hosting live web meetings to engage in change related discussions.

• • Share Through a Knowledge Network

    Social mediums such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Yammer may be used as Knowledge Networks to share information related to change within the organization, as opposed to receiving information through more formal and traditional training methods.

• • Assess Progress Regularly and Effectively

    Social media tools provide for an active means to measure progress. The tools help to conveniently gather immediate feedback on the level of understanding and acceptance of the change initiative within the organization.

Social media should not be your only avenue for promoting change management, but it can be one of the most effective. The key is to give employees a voice in change management and to show the company’s active participation in overcoming any challenges faced in the new change. It is time to face it, change is inevitable and although it will probably result in a net gain over time, it will create problems for you and your colleagues in the short term. But, by embracing the change, you can be in a better position to mitigate any of the harmful side effects, which only magnify the positive results.