Stephen Covey wisely advises to begin any initiative with the end in mind. This is especially true for organizational change. A leader must consider the impact of change in order to anticipate the amount of effort required to make the change. Does the change impact some or all of the following (among others)?
- Change in work context— will the change require that people join a different work group, report to a different manager, work with a different group of peers, change their work space, etc?
- Change in work content— will the change require that people perform different tasks and activities, use different knowledge, skill, and ability to perform the work, etc?
- Change in technical system - will the change require that people use different tools (of any sort), apply different techniques or methods, or execute different processes, etc.?
- Personal factors — compensation, rewards, progression, title (status, power), control of domain, etc.
Sometimes organizational changes are in fact minor, e.g. personal adjustment to some new routine or policy. These will still require some attention and effort, but not nearly to the same degree as deeper changes. Any time anticipated organization change materially impacts work context or content (or both), the technical system people use to accomplish work, and other personal factors listed above, then the change is significant and will require more effort to make it successful. When preparing for change, the effective leader must think ahead to judge the effort relative to these impacts. To do any less is irresponsible.