OVERVIEW

Strategic change initiatives often fail because they were not grounded in the business: change objectives were not clearly linked to key business goals; evaluation of the change, if done at all, was not focused on the key drivers of change; and feedback about the progress of implementation was too sparse to support making midcourse corrections and improve deployment. Bottom-line OD changes this situation. Integrating evaluation into change management raises the bar on making strategic change happen: A clear line-of-sight is drawn from the key business goal to the initiative objectives; effective evaluation is built around the initiative objectives; and signposts are set up to provide leaders and change practitioners with timely intelligence on which to make meaningful midcourse corrections during deployment.

The strategic change valuation process is at the heart of bottom-line OD. This five-phase process follows widely accepted change management principles and practices, but with an added kicker: evaluation. With bottom-line OD, evaluation is not some bolt-on accessory or to be placed behind a glass door and used only during emergencies. Evaluation is as much a part of the change process as any other aspect of change management: sponsorship, engagement, or communications. These other aspects of change management are improved when evaluation is added into the mix. Sponsorship grows stronger as tangible monetary benefits of the initiative become apparent. Employees become much more engaged in the change process because they see the tangible fruits of the labors. Communication messages have more impact when these messages herald the realization...