“Degree of participation” is a concept under change management that is utilised to understand the extent of stakeholder participation in professional change management activities and these stakeholders are usually low, middle and top management employees. This concept basically covers the question of how involved you want other people to be in your mission to implement a specific change. Now of course, I’m not practicing on People & Performance Management professionally, so I don’t have a real-life professional case study to demonstrate this. However, let me walk you through this concept basis a personal change that I would want to bring into my life.
Personal Change: Make a career shift from Risk Consulting to Performance Consulting
To gauge the Degree of Participation you’re looking for, you will need to answer these 3 essential questions:
Question 1: How much do you want other people in your life to be involved with this change
— Personally, for me this could be my partner, my parents and close family. In some circumstances, I would also like to include my close friends with creating this change. The first step would be to understand how each of them plays a role in helping me manage this change that I want to implement in my life.
Maybe they could help me stay motivated.
Maybe they could keep me accountable to my goals.
Maybe some of them have network references that could help me achieve this change.
— Next, you can decide to what extent you want these people to continue playing a role in your change.
Are they going to be an active part of my journey?
Are they going to help me with their specific role and that is where I want their contribute to end?
Question 2: Who is going to introduce this change and manage it to execution
— For all personal decisions, there’s no doubt that this person is going to be you. You are the only person who can introduce the change you need and ensure that it is executed. However, on a professional front, you can decide whom to delegate the task of introducing and managing change. This person can take the ropes from your hands and be the face of the change being implemented. Even for personal change, if somebody has the ability to manage this change for you or supplementary activities related to making the change easier for you, go ahead!
In our current scenario, I am going to be the person responsible for creating this change and I am going to handle the execution process. For that, I’m going to need to come to terms which the actions I need to take and fill in any gaps in my current position.
Question 3: What will be the pace at which change shall be executed
— This is your timeline to achieve your goals. 6 months. 1 year. 3 years. 5 years. 10 years. Decide on the timeline and pace at which you’re going to achieve certain milestones. Make a decision on whether this change needs to come in at a rapid rate or whether you have the liberty to go slower. Go, get them goals!
Ultimately, these are the three ways in which “degree of participation” helps you with managing change; personal or professional. It helps with:
- Understanding the level of involvement you want from other people
- Setting the roles and responsibilities for people in charge of handling the change-management process
- Realizing the pace at which you want the change to happen.
I’m hoping this helps you with the process of making personal changes in your life. For any questions that you’d like me to think about, drop them in the comments below. Until next time!
– Productively Yours
