Change agents are usually hired as consultants for business change projects. This can be possible when there are staffing problems, change project failures, or simply because management wants an expert to handle the project. This can be a productive decision and improve the odds of success. Change agents, however, are not subject matter experts, despite all their expertise. Because they are hired by many corporations, it’s quite hard for a change agent to be an expert in every single detail of every business that they work for. For a business change to be successful, they often require a subject matter expert.
The role of the change agent is to handle the components of the process in which they have expertise. This may involve coming up with new procedures for evaluation, developing new modes of communication to keep everyone well informed, or keeping the internal staffing on task with the change process. Their other primary role is to make sure that the subject matter experts are brought on board for input where it is necessary.
Subject matter experts are usually not qualified enough to deal with business change because they’re not experts on change. They are not in the position or capacity to develop the business change proposal. Sometimes, technical experts can be cranky and they are often excluded from the entire change process. This is wrong, in more ways than one. They should be brought in to vet any technical aspects of the proposal. They will be aware of what the competition is doing, relevant patents, and the technology in use by the business. This puts them in the position of being able, when a technical choice needs to be made, of identifying the choice that has the highest probability of success.
A useful idea to keep in mind when a business change is at hand is that business is about business. For a successful business change, someone with a high level of expertise is needed. This someone is the subject matter expert, and not the change agent.
For more information, please see our website: Business Change
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