|
 Darwin
did it
Small
acorns grow into big oaktrees - this is the theory at
the heart of modern change management.
Vipul Bhatti reports
Every
voter in the US Presidential elections wanted change,
and both key candidates promised to deliver it. What
Clinton has done, what Bush hopes to do and what Gore
could have done is what Herbert Haag has achieved at
PartnerRe and what Max Taylor's successor must do at
Loyd's: manage change. Many leaders make their mark
because of what they transform. But the results are
affected by how such transformations are handled.
The concept of 'change
management' has become increasingly popular among corporates
over the last ten years. The IT revolution is forcing
them to increase their operational pace and achieve
long -term prosperity. According to Dennis Hoppe, president
of New York-based Change Management Implementation, Inc., the technology
revolution has had "a tremendous impact". Consequently,
the need to react faster to change has increased significantly
over the last 40 years. Scoring a goal in one game is
not enough. Maintaining success is about how to play
and win the next game-quickly.
Large companies often experience resistance when attempting
to reform "the old ways", says Hoppe. Newly created
companies do not have to contend with building bridges
between established and new philosophies. "Starting
from scratch in today's market is an absolute advantage.
Old ideas must be undone and more forward thinking people
need to be brought to the forefront," comments Hoppe.
He believes smaller companies adapt faster, suffer fewer
drawbacks and push through new ideas faster because
they have fewer, more receptive, committees and a more
informal structure.
Most companies have much
less time to adapt than ever before. Sozen Leimon, an
associate partner at Accenture in London (formerly known
as Andersen Consulting), believes cost reduction, production
and customer services are key change drivers. She says:
"Customers have more knowledge, more information, and
there are more service providers. There's no rest period
for companies. They have to think of the next product,
the next service. Pressure from shareholders is also
increasing."
WATERSHED
US organisational theorist, Frederick Taylor
presented the notion of change in organisations to help
make businesses more efficient in the early 20th century.
He believed workers were cogs in a machine and his philosophy
aimed to eliminate as much human error as possible.
But this was in the old world.
Dori Digenti, president
of Learning Mastery, an education and consulting firm
in Massachusetts, argues that the works of theorists
such as Mary Parker Pollet and Ed Schein heralded a
philosophical watershed. They believed in thinking about
organisations where people were the focus of change.
Follet and Schein asked how businesses could become
more 'human', productive and foster respect for workers.
This is a big challenge in a world that relies heavily
on technology to communicate and carry out the most
routine tasks.
Digenti feels change
is poorly understood, despite the wealth of academic
work that exists. "It's like looking through a window
and seeing a cool forest on the other side, a glade
fountain where you can relax and reflect, but not being
able to find the door that leads to that space," she
says. Most people see what real change can do. But their
organisations have not developed the will or resources
to move in a new direction.
Schein talked about the
need to address 'learning anxiety' in the process of
change. To reach the proverbial forest companies must
give employees time to learn new behaviours without
instilling fear of appearing incompetent. Digenti says
strong leaders -an often overlooked but crucial part
of change management- can manage such vulnerability
sensitively.
Golf is a good example
says Richard DiGeorgio, president of Pennsylvania-based
change management consultancy, Richard DiGeorgio & Associates.
With the right instructor most people can learn how
to play, and the learning process itself may lead to
success. He adds that achievements can happen with motivation.
The father of champion golfer Tiger Woods raised his
son's aspirations to be better. Now Woods just keeps
winning.
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MORALE
BOOSTER
The process of change can improve the business environment,
even in well-run organisations. "There are many toxic workplaces
out there, where people feel constrained, demotivated and
hopeless every morning," says Digenti. She believes leaders
can avoid unwanted and potentially unpleasant change by creating
forums where employees can discuss their concerns freely.
She questions whether leaders
really listen to their teams. Digenti says: "It takes a lot
of training and openness to hear what others are saying. Leaders
often fear appearing indecisive." Claiming to be aware of
change and being able to implement it are two very different
things. Understanding change management and being able to
act on it is what separates success from failure.
This is why companies need
to strike a balance between strategic thinkers and operational
managers. Leimon says: "Leadership is accountable for operations.
It needs to have a clear focus of core business and value
generators. Simultaneously, strategic thinkers should be aware
of the importance of the external environment and look into
how it's changing."
Starting
from scratch in today's market is
an absolute advantage. Old ideas must be undone
and forward thinking people need to be brought to the
forefront to succeed.
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DENNIS
HOPPE |
George
Binney and Colin Williams, authors of Leaning into the
Future, agree. They say: "There is always a price to pay
for riding roughshod over people. Compliance can be demanded,
but commitment cannot. People will give grudgingly what they
have to, not all that they can ...The price for this is usually
paid in the long-term."
But Hoppe warns that change
is not an option. It is a necessity. "You must boost competitiveness
and motivate change, or you'll fail. The window of opportunity
gets shorter and shorter, rapid response and a proactive management
structure are critical... Great decisions aren't about waiting."
But not all goals are attainable.
Setting and achieving them is a catch 22 situation. He says:
"In this global e-commerce economy we often have to make trial
and error decisions, but the initial goal can't be fanciful.
It must be realistic." Trying to reach too far will often
prevent successful changes from materialising. Conversely,
failure to aim high enough may not achieve the desired result.
According to Digenti, small
bites first work best. "Work up a series of small successes
before going after large change. The biggest source of corporate
cynicism is the large change process, where promises are made
and not kept." No organisation should begin a new process
without having a very detailed implementation plan, or a budget
to cover the initial change phases and maintain the new culture.
"Small is beautiful. You need a track record of successes
to build trust," comments Digenti.
TAKING
THE LEAP
It is not easy to implement new ideas, and companies should
accept that failure can be an expensive part of risk taking.
They also need to acknowledge that management sometimes gets
it wrong. "You have to look and think outside the box," says
Leimon. "Change management is expensive, but going for change
is better than less investment." DiGeorgio
uses the 'boiled frog syndrome' to explain why companies should
not fear change, and why they should think their plans through
thoroughly. He explains: "Put a frog in tepid water. If you
slowly turn up the heat the frog will remain in the pot. If
you start out with boiling water and then drop the frog in
it will jump out." The moral of the story is: if change is
introduced gradually, frogs will die because they become too
weak to alter. But the pain of the heat will force them to
act. Funnily enough, this usually applies to humans too.
| CHANGE
MANAGEMENT GUIDE |
| 1. |
Establish
a sense of urgency -examine market and competitive
realities and identify and discuss crises, potential
crises or major opportunities. |
| 2. |
Form
a powerful guiding coalition -assemble a group with
enough power to lead the change effort and encourage
the group to work together. |
| 3. |
Create
a vision to help the change effort and develop strategies
for achieving it. |
| 4. |
Empower
others to act on the vision -get rid of the obstacles
to change: change systems or structures that seriously
undermine the vision; and encourage risk taking
and non-traditional ideas, activities, and actions. |
| 5. |
Plan
for and create short-term wins -plan for viable
performance improvements, create those improvements
and recognise and reward employees involved in them. |
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SOURCE:
LEANING INTO THE FUTURE, BY GEORGE BINNEY
AND COLIN WILLIAMS (NICHOLAS BREALEY PUBLISHING,
1995) |
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