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"It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, is it the one most adaptable to change."

— Charles Darwin

What Is Change Management?

Butterflies in cocoons emerging

Change management is a systematic and disciplined approach to helping employees navigate change in an organization. It specifically addresses the impact of process, systems and organizational change on people – their emotional response, personal processing and the journey each person or group takes on its way from awareness to understanding to adoption to ownership.

From a business perspective, effective change management helps quicken the speed of adoption, increase buy-in and use of a new solution, reduce downtime or productivity loss during transition and improve how well individuals perform and sustain performance following the implementation of a major (or not so major) initiative.

Who Are We?

S&R Associates is a change management consultancy with deep expertise in the apparel and retail industries. We apply quantitative and qualitative methodologies to help companies realize the intended benefits of their change initiatives, especially as they relate to process, systems and organizational updates in the following areas:

  • Advanced research and development
  • Design and commercialization
  • Merchandising, buying and planning
  • Sourcing and production
  • Logistics and distribution
  • Store operations
  • Quality assurance

 

S&R stands for stretch and recovery – a fabric metaphor that personifies our approach to change management:

  • Grounded in real-life change and response situations
  • Provide practical solutions to the very real emotional and behavioral challenges change presents
  • Recognize that change causes us to stretch beyond our “normal” limits
  • Help teams respond effectively before tearing or breaking
  • Support teams to recover quickly and move forward as they settle into a new norm

It’s More Than Just Having Coffee

It’s More Than Just Having Coffee

 

Graphic More Than CoffeeAn important distinction between project management and change management* is that change management requires a keen sense of what’s going on in the organization – what people are experiencing and feeling that will affect how receptive they are to learn about and adopt a proposed process, systems or organizational change.

As a result, it’s important to have built vehicles to sense “vibrations” in your company before you embark on any major change initiatives. Conversation over coffee can be one such vehicle.

Beyond sensing, however, is a whole range of additional programs that are needed to ensure the successful movement of an organization from awareness to understanding to adoption to ownership.

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