What Models of Change Management are Required to Respond to Modernisation: Pathways to positive change in an era of transformation
As the COVID reality has relaxed a little and we have started to have the benefit of coming together at different corrections events, such as ICPA, Europris and CTA to share views and engage in face-to-face dialogue. This has been welcomed and better yet embraced. We have heard about the case for modernization, which we would argue has largely been accepted and jurisdictions are moving forward to action this. There has been a shift in focus and the ways in which the sector now talks about modernization has evolved (Europris 2022). Our presentations at these recent conferences go beyond the strategic conversation and capture these vivid themes:
Business Change- the drivers for maturity and change
Meeting Needs– centring users at the heart of design and delivery
Engagement- methods and approaches for meeting user and business needs
Security- the need for secure systems and sensitive data handling without paralysing progression
Many of our colleagues are highlighting the view that correctional modernisation is ripe with successful implementation of projects and initiatives. These positive representations embolden us to pursue change even more aggressively. The reality is a little more subtle. We all know the statistics around benefit realisation of driving change, generally they are fraught with risk and under realised results, Gartner Research states only one third of change initiatives succeed. Can we expect better outcomes and change behaviours in the correctional space?
Corrections is a unique sector with a distinctive culture. One that perhaps needs an enhanced change management approach. Branham wrote in the Indiana Law Review that,
There are some correctional leaders, though not nearly enough, who have publicly espoused the need for, and the feasibility of, what has been aptly termed “culture busting” in prisons. But in the end, the question is not whether culture busting, in the sense of a transformation in prisons and the people working and living within them, can be realized; the question, the one on which this Article focuses, is how the transformation can be effectuated.
We will look to build on the notion of “how transformation can be effectuated” by advancing the development of a corrections change management playbook. But what type of change management strategies does our penal landscape need?
Too often jurisdictions focus their change management on the tail end of transformation. That is, change management processes are repeatedly defined as communication products and the training of a digital solution for the end user. While important, and forms part of a change management strategy, this misses the mark to some degree. Change could be initiated when we start down the path of modernization, before we begin the opportunity identification and in advance of envisioning a digital solution, and by the way maybe a digital solution is not even required.
Corrections is operational by nature, and we have a challenge of making space to transform. Transformation shaped by ethical guardrails to ensure harm is reduced, humans flourish and dignity is upheld. A solid change management approach can help us situate our change, provide the opportunity to engage broadly and educate all our beneficiaries why we must go down the path of transformation. Not everyone has access to the same thinking, trends and some do not even have the desire to change. Change management gives us the opportunity to be inclusive and cultivate a diversity of input. Putting in place the foundation of success for our journey toward modernization. A model of change to cultivate these aims requires exploration, informed decision making and coproduction.
This initial step of our change approach is critical to developing trusting relationships and sets the stage of change with purposeful leadership that embraces the correctional eco-system. The result is we create trusted partnerships in change, begins the process of de-risking transformation and sets ourselves up for success.
This blog is aiming to test the waters as to whether our community shares the perspective that the corrections sector needs to embrace a nuanced approach to change. Can research and evidence-based approaches be extended to change management? Can we develop a change program unique to corrections that will empower transformative leaders looking to take steps to manage the risk that are inherent in a modernization effort?
Please do contact us to open engage in our dialogue:
Authors
Simon Bonk
