The Right Change!

The change management process. Why do some initiatives succeed and others fail?

Over the last decade organisations have invested huge sums of money and vast amounts of time and energy in change initiatives. These have included Total Quality Management and Business Process Re-engineering. The de-layering and downsizing movement of the nineties produced corporate anorexia in some organisations that was painful to live through. Its benefit was to highlight the fact that you need people to deliver and sustain meaningful change.

The speed with which the marketplace continues to evolve is one of the many factors driving the need for change. This evolution has been influenced by huge strides in technology, and the move to a truly global economy which this has permitted. The normal ebb and flow of local economies can also be a powerful change agent.

Sadly as many as three quarters of these early change initiatives failed. More often than not failure was self inflicted by the approach organisations took to introducing and driving through their change programmes. Cultural change within organisations is the catalyst that makes operational change work. When culture and change meet head on, culture will usually win.

'Traditional' Change Management

Senior management devise and announce a change programme to a workforce that 'knew' that "something was going on".

The change goal is often long term and the mind set that "once we've got there we'll be OK".

Often inadequate examination of "what we currently do".

The change goal becomes the solution. Steps to reaching it and potential obstacles are not fully considered, as the people who must deliver it are not yet involved.

The change goal is presented as a "fait accompli".

Peoples reactions

Why do we need this change? We're OK the way we are. We don't have the skills to do this. What will happen to me? What if we fail? Why do they really want to do this? Keep your head down and it will go away.

All this almost certainly results in worry, low morale, confusion and the ultimate failure of the programme through lack of belief, understanding and most importantly, involvement.

A process that works

Senior management see the need for change and understand why change is necessary. They set parameters within which the change must be achieved, but are not prescriptive about the change solution.

The needs, reasons and parameters are communicated clearly to the direct reports of the senior team. Clarity is established at this level. This process is repeated via e.g functional teams to everyone who will be involved in the change.

Teams establish where they are now, both operationally and behaviourally. What needs to change at both levels for us to move forward? Where do we want to be? What are the quick wins along the way that will tell us we're getting there?

Individual team outputs are aligned to form the "new big picture" of the organisation in the future. This aligning process often involves a different set of behavioual requirements from the participants. Old loyalties are secondary to the need to complete the "new big picture".

By encouraging this involvement and delegating responsibility downward to shape the change programme, organisations find that the change becomes continuous. This is because people have developed greater awareness and a different mind set; they actually want to continually improve.