An effective ‘change manager’ is a person who can demonstrate, repeat, correct, encourage, cajole, motivate, and has great powers of persuasion. He/she is less of a boss and more of a negotiator. Great change managers have a lot of markers to call in. Markers come from favors done and confidence earned in the past. They have built a reservoir of trust and tap into it to entice their people to embrace change. Change managers have to come from within the organization, a stranger has no markers to call in, except just a little `honeymoon capital'.
The best time to introduce change is in a period of growth. Decline causes anxiety and makes people more resistant to change.