Coping with Change

... as many clients have recognised we simply have to get better at dealing with it to the point where it becomes "the way we work".

Change resembles a journey with rest stops but no end point, the contents of our personal and organisational baggage will determine how well we travel.

As we work with clients locally and abroad we often encounter frustration and confusion, especially so in the early stages of a change program. The downsizing and delayering processes of this decade have, in some cases, resulted in corporate anorexia and a feeling of "How can we cope, what can we do next?". Others feel that stripping down to the core business competencies of an organisation has not gone far enough. They question the continuing need for icons of virility like IT and legal departments when these can be effectively outsourced.

We see a link between these emotions and the familiar model of unconscious/conscious incompetence/competence. Individual and organisational frustrations in the early stages of a change initiative result from knowing that what they currently do and are familiar with has to change to realise the new vision - but how?

They are struggling in the least satisfactory area that surrounds the transition from conscious incompetence to conscious competence. Our role is to help them achieve the latter stage and supply the process tools which will allow them to deal with ongoing change themselves. We do this by providing a risk free environment where people can focus less on "the task" and more on the advantages of moving from a command and control structure to team working in the context of genuine empowerment and continuous improvement.

The skills for handling change need practice and refinement . Aristotle (not a client of ours) recognised this when he said "What we have to learn we learn by doing". A more recent observer of the human and organisational condition Wyn Llewellyn, Training and Development Manager, ICI, is well aware of the importance of these process issues and found ..."the time and opportunity to connect your process skills to our process changes" the most valuable part of a recent Dryll workshop. It is the awareness and use of these process skills which will make our change journey both smoother and more successful.