Business Change Management: Jargon In Business Change Management

One of the potential problems of any profession is the development of language. Some language can be helpful. As an example, acronyms ( if used judiciously ) are akind of language that will provide ahelpful shorthand for otherwise unwieldy phrases. However, often jargon can be extremely counter-productive is a given term has more than one meaning within the same field. This is an issue that exists in the area of business change management. 

The irony is the term "change management" itself is the piece of language which is causing the problem. This is term which has multiple, often tangential, definitions applied to it. Here is an example of a kosher definition of change management. Change management is the study of the way to make change occur in an organization. This is intended as a proactive definition of change management with a focus on creating change. It appears anearly obvious definition. Yet, this does not represent the generally accepted view of what "change management" means in the field.

The prevailing definition among business change management executives for the term "change management" is the definition that IT pros give to "change management." This largely entails handling changes to software projects, product releases, and requested changes to software or systems. Regardless of the prevailing angle per the term, the IT definition of "change management" by no means covers the complete scope of what occurs underneath the banner of "change management."

Business change management may include a component of IT change management because so many business changes entail changes to software and systems. However, there are still change management tasks to be accomplished that fall beyond the remit of IT. When change is occurring there are processes and job descriptions that need to be changed, HR adjustments made to reflect new skills or responsibilities, or training to be prepared. These jobs all fall beneath the term "change management." As such, it's best to make certain everyone is on the same page when it comes to the term "change management".

For more information, please see our website: Business Change Management