TL;DR: The Types of Change
Not all change is the same.
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The Types of Change
We are going to use the definitions outlined in a previous TL;DR and from the main article in this TL;DR; so if there are any unfamiliar terms you can check these to find them.
Here we encounter another difficulty; there is no unified or agreed upon definitions of the type of change, or at least one that I have been able to find.
Harvard Business School outlines two types of change: Adaptive and Transformational [3] however these terms are not exclusively used or universally adopted. Indeed using Adaptive and Technical with a different definition for Adaptive [4].
This is a pattern in change management nomenclature that annoyingly repeats itself; so we will define our own change terms with straightforward meanings.
The way in which we have created our types of change is to create as flexible a system as possible to reflect the: scope, impact/speed, and business functions affected by the change.
The scope of the change.
Minor: This class of change will typically impact a small section of the business.
Moderate: This type of change will typically impact multiple parts of the business.
Major: This type of change will most likely impact all parts of the business.
The impact and speed of the change.
Gradual: This type of change is characterised by minor and ongoing modifications implemented incrementally over time. A very slow and low impact process which sees, business functions gradually change.
Evolutionary: This type of change is characterised by significant yet gradual changes to existing processes and infrastructures implemented as the business continues to develop. Whilst the speed of this type of change may be slow, it can be quick, and often has a significant impact on the businesses way of operating.
Revolutionary: This type of change involves a fundamental and often radical transformation affecting the way in which a business operates; typically adding new capabilities to businesses or redefining ways of working. The speed of this change is usually rapid as businesses try to capitalise on the identified opportunity and is likely to be disruptive.
Reactive: This type of change occurs in response to external forces or unforeseen events. It is always unplanned, requires quick and decisive action from the business, and is highly disruptive.
The parts of the business that are affected by the change
Cultural: The transformation in the values and behaviours or a business. This type of change targets the essence of the company aiming to realign the culture of the business to new objectives or values.
Technological: The transformation of a business’ technology solutions to improve the business’ operating practices. This type of change targets both internally developed technological solutions and external providers of solutions.
Operational: The transformation of a business’ standard business practices such as workflows or processes to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.
Strategic: The transformation of a business’ overarching strategy, goals, or objectives. This type of change is intended to effect the direction of a business to unlock new opportunities.
Structural: The transformation of a business’ operational structure; often through the creation, removal, or alteration, of business functions or practices.
The definitions for each have been crafted so they enable the easy formulation of definitions for the subsequent combinations, and make the objective of the change clear.
These definitions can be applied to both “Change Journeys” or “Change Strategies”. This is especially useful in the case of multiple “Change Strategies” in a “Change Journey” where we can highlight the type of change each “Change Strategy” is looking to enact.
For example we can define a “Change Strategy” where a business is wanting to capitalise on the opportunities provided by Large Language Models inside a wider “Change Journey” as follows:
Change Goal:
Make the business the best in the industry for advanced AI & Technology solutions.
Change Journey:
Improve the business’ technological credentials, abilities, and utilisation.
Change Type: Major Evolutionary Operational Change
This change journey will impact all aspects of the business as we look to evolve the business’ way of operating to ensure that we are able to show to clients that we are at the cutting edge of the industry. This will result in every utilised process being improved with relevant technological solutions as the business develops.
Change Strategy
Build an LLM development function in the business
Change Type: Minor Revolutionary Structural Change
This change strategy reframes the data team as the AI & Data team, changing their scope to not only provide data services to the business; but also be the business’ pioneers in the AI space which will require a minor restructuring of the team.
Change Actions
Rename the data team to Data & AI Team
Head of Data => Head of AI & Data
Hire 5 LLM focused engineers/scientists
As a general rule of thumb: the more severe, or the greater the impact of, the type of change, it will take longer and be more difficult to accomplish.
GTFYT
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Your Change Management Guide
Fair warning this is a long post with a lot of information within. The term Change Management scares many people when they hear it, and the length of this article may be intimidating; but once you are familiar with it you realise that done right, it shouldn’t be intimidating at all.