Proactive vs Reactive Change Management

Proactive change management is the method of planning and anticipating potential changes that would impact the potential change. It comprises of recognizing the potential changes and analyzing the outcome of the changes that would impact the company. Today, we’ll discuss proactive vs reactive change management; their definitions, examples and steps involved in the process; key differences between reactive and proactive change management.

Proactive Change Management

The focus of proactive change management is to develop a plan to reduce the negative impacts of the changes and exploiting the available opportunities offered by the change. The objective of proactive change management is preparing for the future changes and adopting the changes in the controlled and strategic methods.

Steps in Proactive Change Management

• Recognizing the potential changes that would impact the company by conducting risk analysis, studying market trends, and gathering feedback
• Analyzing and evaluating the potential impact and consequences of changes on various areas of the company like customer relations, finances, and operations
• Developing a comprehensive plan to deal with the changes by recognizing the course of action, allocating resources, and developing a timeline
• Executing the changes in the controlled and strategic method by communicating the changes to all the stakeholders
• Monitoring and analyzing the process of change and making necessary adjustments based on the feedback from stakeholders

Examples of Proactive Change Management

Anticipating & Planning Changes

The risk analysis helped the company to recognize potential challenges and it may negatively impact the business growth in the future. Based on the risk analysis, the company develops a comprehensive contingency plan to deal with the potential disruption like cyber attacks, natural disasters, and supply chain interruptions.

Recognizing and Planning Changes

A retail company recognizes a growth opportunity for the new product development based on the customer reviews and feedback. The company develops a comprehensive plan to exploit the opportunity by making changes in the business model and the operations.

Reactive Change Management

Reactive change management is the method of managing changes that would come up on the surface in response to an unexpected situation, unplanned event, or unknown problem. It comprises knowing the unknown problem or the unexpected situation, analyzing its impact on the company, and developing a strategic plan to deal with the problem. However, the objective of reactive change management is to reduce the negative impact of unplanned changes and adapt to the new problem smoothly.

Steps in Reactive Change Management

• Recognizing the main cause of the problem or the unexpected event by gathering information, analyzing data, and interviewing people
• Analyzing and evaluating the impact of changes on various areas of the company like customer relations, finance, operations, and others
• Developing and executing the plan to deal with the problem by allocating resources and setting the timeline
• Communicating changes to various stakeholders to make sure they know the impact of changes on roles and responsibilities
• Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the changes and making necessary adjustments to address the problems that are not harmful to the company

Examples of Reactive Change Management

Responding to Unknown Event

A bug or virus has caused a massive crash in the software system of the company. The IT team needs to quickly recognize the main cause of the problem and making replacement of the software system and they help the company to adapt the advance software.

Responding to Unplanned Event

A company experiences a sudden increase in the demand of the particular that would put pressure on its production and distribution channel. The company should amplify its production and distribution processes and system to meet the increasing demand of the customers market.

Proactive vs Reactive Change Management – Key Differences

Let’s discuss the main differences between proactive vs reactive change management; they’re as follows;

Time

The time of the change processes is the main difference between reactive and proactive change management. The proactive change management comprises of planning and predicting the potential changes of the future before their occurrence. However, the reactive change management comprises of responding to the unexpected and unknown event.

Focus

The focus of the proactive change management approach is preparing for the future to ensure the long-term success of the company. The focus of reactive change management is to deal with immediate problems and restore the normal operations of the company.

Control

The proactive change management comprises of recognizing and managing the potential changes to maintain company’s control over the change processes. The reactive change management consists of responding to the unknown events that are beyond the company’s control.

Flexibility

The proactive change management approach is highly flexible and it helps companies to anticipate and prepare for the wide range of potential changes. The reactive change management is not flexible and it focuses on dealing with the immediate problems of the company and not planning for the future.

Cost

The proactive change management approach is highly cost effective and it comprises of anticipating and planning the potential changes in advance to avoid any disruption in the future. The reactive change management is highly expensive and costly and it comprises of dealing with the problems that have already happened.

Conclusion: Proactive vs Reactive Change Management | Reactive vs Proactive Change Management

After an in-depth study of the proactive vs reactive change management; we have realized that proactive and reactive change approaches are completely different. If you are learning about the difference between reactive and proactive change management; then you should keep in mind the abovementioned steps, examples, and key differences.