Discipline Structure and Effectiveness: Change Management

Although most organizations use hybrid structures to align their change management disciplines, those who use a centralized model are almost equally satisfied with its effectiveness as those with hybrids. Over one-third of organizations currently decentralize their change management disciplines, and a vast majority of organizations have no plans to change structures in the near future.

Initiatives that are strictly decentralized typically require much more effort to grow and sustain change. When an organization obtains executive support from the start of a change initiative—and maintains it by reporting regularly and communicating clearly about issues that concern an organization’s leaders—the transition is frequently successful. Decision makers should approach change management in a way that considers the whole organization instead of only certain departments or units. Those enterprises decentralizing change management would do well to reconsider this choice.