November 2007

Managing Change
Coming to grips
with the ramifications of change

The global competitive forces that are overwhelming all organizations have altered the concept of change in the workplace. Rather than deal with large and monumental changes as a singular event, these forces are demanding that organizations continually change. Rather than an anomaly, change is now the normal state for an organization.

In the past decade or so, the concept of change management was introduced as a way for organizations to minimize the damage caused by change while maximizing the healing process. Its concepts both reassured employees that change would bring a better future and took steps to assist an organization to survive change. By creating a sense of urgency within the organization, employees were compelled to begrudgingly accept the changes.

This is important for leaders to understand because no organization can survive a continuous series of emergencies as a way to bring about change. The impact of one “emergency” after another is diminished so that when a real crisis does occur, the organization will fail to adequately react to it. Secondly, continuous emergencies will only burnout the managers, leaders and employees continually responding to them. The reality is continuous change is here to stay and leaders must learn how to embrace it and use it to their advantage. This requires redefining what change means to the organization as well as the risks associated with it.

The past model for most organizations to react to change resulted from internal stagnation within the organization. This often led to specific points of pain that forced senior executives to make a decision to change. Resulting in organizations that were mostly unprepared for the forces of change and began to slowly implement strategies to hopefully survive the conflicts, clashes and failures associated with it. The organization would survive the crisis and either abandon the change or have it come to fruition. However, as changes happen more quickly and increase in frequency, the initiation of the process of change is both more difficult and expensive.

As smart leaders understand the increasing velocity and dynamics of change, they are learning to embrace the concept of a constantly changing organization where change is no longer considered a threat, but part of the job.

New ways of thinking

New ideas and concepts are often not accepted within most organizations because they challenge existing strategies that might have made the organization successful. Rather than be farsighted and recognize that strategies will be transformed in the future, many within the organization are myopic, threatened by future changes and their ramifications. In addition, many leaders fear potential personal criticism and attacks, and therefore are intimidated into silence.

As organizations embrace the concept of an always-changing environment, new ways of thinking help it to grow, evolve and adapt to change. New ideas are welcomed and examined for their value to the organization. Through brainstorming, ideas and concepts are expanded, building upon one another until new organizational concepts are developed, tested and ultimately implemented.

Rather than dismiss new ideas outright, organizations and leaders are more willing to pilot and test them to see if there are valid. Even if the tests fail, leaders dissect them and learn from the mistakes. Through a series of continual tests, new ideas are encouraged rather than discouraged. Innovation is welcomed and the organization slowly evolves with the implementation of new ideas and concepts. It is a steady and incremental process, but it is also less stressful on the organization as one idea after another is implemented.

New opportunities

Throughout the process of introducing and testing new ideas and concepts, leaders are able to identify new opportunities for the organization. Some will be minor, while others will provide exceptional opportunities for growth. However, all will provide the organization with the means to adapt to change, increase efficiency and productivity, and potentially expand overall market share and dominance.

Evolution in response to change