Navigating change : lessons learned from implementing a change management plan to improve team performance

In today's competitive business landscape, Winston Churchill's words, "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often", resonate profoundly. Amidst challenges hampering employee potential, low team performance is critical, casting a shadow over organisational effectiveness, profitability, and success. Effectively addressing this challenge underscores the importance of adept change management. Organisations must navigate this terrain to overcome efficiency barriers and uplift team performance. Strategic alignment is pivotal, as pursuing enhanced performance intersects seamlessly with change management. Engaging employees and leaders in a conducive work environment aligns with adept change management, fostering open communication, skill advancement, and growth. This study dissects a 9-month change management plan to enhance low team performance. It integrates change management, leadership, and organisational learning theories into a multidimensional framework. This analytical approach unveils the connection between strategic planning, effective leadership, and learning in driving change initiative outcomes. It offers insights into foundational implementation by examining core components, objectives, and strategies. An in-depth analysis of plan execution's impact on employee performance provides insights into change management's efficacy. The study highlights implementation challenges and suggests strategies for future initiatives, distilling key lessons and extending practical recommendations. Contextualising the impact of the change management initiative on team performance, this research delves into its dimensions. Stakeholder insights and data construct a coherent narrative-interviews with the change leader and employee feedback illuminate experiences. Thematic and content analysis techniques synthesise data sources, offering a meticulous methodology that enriches our understanding of effective change navigation and performance enhancement. In this study, six key themes emerged, including Leadership Misalignment, Managerial Support and Consistency, and Organizational Culture. These themes were validated through multiple data collection methods, enhancing their reliability and validity. The study found that leadership misalignment and inconsistent managerial support significantly impacted the effectiveness of the change management initiative. Moreover, the existing organisational culture acted as a pervasive barrier to change, highlighting the need for a more holistic, multi-level approach to change management. Challenges such as Organizational Silence, Lack of Full Managerial Support, and Inconsistency in Change Implementation further complicated the change process. Lessons learned encompass the importance of leadership alignment, transparent feedback, and the need for meticulous planning and sustained follow-through. These findings offer practical recommendations for organisations aiming to navigate change effectively