What is open-source change management?

Change management within the office environment has traditionally been a process driven by top-down edicts and implemented via cascading goals. Ordinarily, management establishes what needs to be changed, develops a solution and then seeks feedback after the fact on its efficacy. But is such an approach actually effective?

Mike Carden, Co-founder of Joyous, believes it’s an outmoded approach which both overlooks real issues and impedes staff uptake.  

“One of the frequent problems with top-down change in the workplace is that employees tend to feel that they don’t have a voice in the process,” says Carden. “It’s not an agile process, so it runs behind the real-time needs of the office and leaves employees feeling left out.”  

This is a challenge that has become especially evident for companies around the world over the past 6 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Change has been thrust on companies and employees alike, both by external factors and by default as the world adjusts to the so-called “new normal.”

“Being redeployed from the office to the home environment is chaotic enough,” says Carden. “On top of that, you’ve had plenty of businesses introducing additional changes in the wake of what was already a highly disruptive shift.”

Carden suggests that a better path lies ahead with open-source change management. Essentially, it’s a form of crowd-sourcing feedback from employees directly both before and during the change management process. Using a conversational and open approach, management are able to gather more effective feedback around problematic areas in the workplace – who has responded and how the issue can be effectively tackled in a timely fashion. 

It’s not an idea that’s developed in isolation – Carden points to initiatives such as holocratic workplace structures, for example – but rather one that he sees as a natural extension of the push for greater transparency in management and the result of the increased emphasis on rapid feedback in the office environment.

“It’s an upward visibility approach, helping give employees a voice in the process,” says Carden. “Employees are able to see the concerns of others, and in turn staff are better able to hold leadership accountable to implementing real change around real concerns. It provides a sense of ownership, and helps create better employee investment and uptake in the change management process.”

Leadership within the business still has an important role to in making the decisions around which feedback to adopt, and how to best address the issues, notes Carden. But importantly, this approach enables issues to be highlighted that may have gone entirely overlooked otherwise.

“Obviously you still have considerations like cost vs impact, and the broader considerations that come with any new initiative,” says Carden. “But this crowd-sourced approach enables the gathering of more complete feedback data, and enables steps to be taken to address serious issues in real time.”

Looking ahead, Carden suspects that the practice will continue to gain momentum. Given the still-ongoing nature of the pandemic and the still-uncertain nature of work into 2021 and beyond, it’s likely that businesses are going to need increased insights into the day-to-day challenges facing employees.

“There’s definitely going to be increased interest,” says Carden. “If you’ve got the right tech in place and you’re helping foster a culture of open feedback, it’s going to have a really positive impact on the way businesses adapt to change into the future.”  

Involving staff in the change management process can be difficult if you don’t have clear lines of communication with all your team. Employee feedback tools are often built around the needs of people who sit in an office, in front of a computer. Unfortunately, that can leave large parts of your workforce ignored. Download the Invisible Employees EBook for a practical guide on how to make the process more inclusive.