Leading Change – 12 steps to get your organization from here to there.

Gail Holmberg has to deliver more than a working system when she deploys a new initiative. "It’s not a success for the company if that’s all that happens," says Holmberg, CIO at Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. in Chicago. Workers have to actually use the new product to improve how they do their day-to-day jobs.

Sounds simple, but IT executives know that managing change is a challenge. Staffers are usually quite comfortable with the status quo and often initially see change as more disruptive than helpful.

"Even when change is very positive, it’s a challenging thing for people to go from how they do things today to what they’ll be doing tomorrow," says Mary C. Finlay, deputy CIO at Partners HealthCare System Inc. in Boston.

Such challenges shouldn’t stop any organization from going ahead with changes, however. Change can be successfully managed, and the following steps can help you move your business and your people to where they need to be.

News Story by Mary K. Pratt

Full Story: http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/story/0,10801,98782,00.html?source=NLT_PM&nid=98782