"And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new."
Nicolo Machiavelli c.1505 (translation: W. K. Marriott).
It can be extremely difficult to introduce change in organisations. Generally the challenge is found internally - human behaviour.
If we ignore the impact of a change through a project on the people, than the risk of project failure is multiplied greatly. We do not only focus on the Iron Triangle ( Quality, Time and Cost). People and workforce should always be considered as the project stakeholders.
What are the benefits of managing change?
Management of change can provide a sound framework on how to deal with people. Benefits can be as follows:
- Reduced probability of project failure,
- Motivational to achieving the objectives through continuous communication,
- Reducing negativity,
- Acknowledgement of concerns of staff having positive impact on efficacy and performance,
- Time if change implementation can be reduced,
- Increased employee performance,
- Costs of change can be reduced,
- Opportunities for further development ,
- Provides support to staff of managing things new way,
- Help to plan efficient communication strategies with staff,
- Minimises resistance to change,
- Improves cooperation,
- Reduced stress and anxiety.
The process of change management
Kurt Lewin propose two approaches for change management.
The Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze Model
This model is made out of 3 stages:
Unfreezing - finding a way for staff to let go of old ways,
Changing - implement a structural process of change in the system, structures and behaviours through adopting deliverables of a project,
Freezing - embedding the new way so that it becomes a standard operational procedure.
Force Field Analysis
This model requires the status quo to be upset - either by adding conditions favourable to the change or reducing resisting forces.
Whenever the Driving forces are stronger than Restraining Forces the status quo will change in a positive way. We need to strengthen the Driving forces and make the change attractive to people.
We must also understand people's values to determine how they react to change.
The Force Field Analysis will require:
Defining the change we want to see as the outcome of the project,
Identify and Describe the Driving forces and record on diagram,
Identify Restraining Forces and record on diagram,
Evaluate the Driving and Restraining Forces. We might rate each force !- week 5- strong,
Review the forces,
Create strategy and tactics to strengthen the Driving forces, waken the restraining forces,
Prioritise action steps.
Eight Step Model
John Kotter describes a helpful model for understanding and managing change.
Each stage addresses a principle suggested by Kotter relating to people's response and approach to change in which people see, feel and then change.
Increase urgency - inspire to move, make objectives relevant.
Build the guiding team - get the right people in place with the correct commitment, skills and competencies,
Get the vision correct - get the team to establish simple vision, focus on emotions.
Communicate the vision - involve as many people as possible, make communications simple,
Empower action - remove obstacles, enable feedback, get support from leaders
Create short-term wins - set aims that are easy to achieve in manageable chunks and finish one stage before starting a new one,
Don't let up - create consistency and persistence with ongoing process reporting, highlight achieved and future milestones
Make change stick - reinforce a value of success through promotion, new leaders
Why firms fail?
More and more organisations is pushed to reduce costs, improve quality of products and services, locate new opportunities for growth and increase productivity. But many fail. Why? Let's explore...
1. We do not establish urgency
We have to establish a high degree of urgency between managers and employees. Initiatives after initiatives sink in the sea due to lack of urgency and criticality. People ignore lessons and shift the business in backward direction. We need to create sufficient urgency at the beginning of a change. Without it, people won't give the extra effort.
2. We do not create active coalition
Major change in the organisation is not possible, unless the head does not support it. The top management needs to pull together as a team. People do not always buy-in at first. Lack of top management commitment creates barriers to changing behaviour. Employees resist the initiatives. People turn quality efforts as to be seen as more bureaucracy instead of customer satisfaction.
3. Underestimate the power of vision
Nothing is more important than a sensible vision. Vision can produce useful change and inspire actions. Without a good vision none of the efforts and project will add up in a meaningful way.
4. Under-communicating the vision
Most employees must be willing to help for change to be successful. But people will not make sacrifices unless they see potential benefits to themselves. Holding only few meetings or sending few memos, not engaging line managers and being inconsistent will only being more resentment. Communication comes in both words and deeds. But, behaviour is the most powerful thing.
5. Allowing obstacles to block the new vision
Sometimes the blocker is the organisational structure. Most of all the supervisors who resist to adapt to new normal. Line managers often will make decisions inconsistent with the change and transformation.
6. Failing to create short term wins
Real transformation takes time. We need to create short term wins to celebrate. Without short term wins, too many employees give up. In successful companies managers always try to find clear performance indicators. Commitment for creating short term wins allows to keep up the urgency in a positive way. Some money savings short goals or reduced inventory benefits will go along way.
7. Declaring Victory too soon
Any suggestion that the job on a log term project is mostly done might be a big mistake. Until changes sink down in the culture which for entire company can take 3 to 10 years new approaches are fragile. When we declare victory too early and dismiss the resources change might become to disappear. The new approaches need to be accepted by the employees. There needs to be a clear sign of progress to say that we have won.
8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture
This can be done by creating better performance through customer and productivity oriented behaviour, more and better leadership, more effective management. We must prioritise leadership in our succession.
Summary
Evidence shows that most organisations can be significantly improved at an acceptable cost but often the history has not prepared us for transformational challenges. But, some organisations have discovered on how to make new strategies, acquisitions, reengineering, quality programs and restructure work well for them. They have minimised the change mistakes listed above and stayed competitive on the market, often market leaders.
People often try to avoid and skip the steps. If we jump immediately to trying to avoid step 5 we will run into a waves of resistance. We also need to keep the sequence. Finish step one completely and move to the next one.
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