Changing
Your Organization for the Better
Stephen J. Thomas – Author of
“Successfully Managing Change in Organizations:
A Users Guide”
Part 1 of 5: The Elements of the Change Process
Introduction
“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
of those who have done well under the old conditions,
and lukewarm defenders in those who will do well under
the new.”
Machiavelli clearly understood the difficulties associated
with change when he made this statement in “The
Prince” almost 500 years ago. Truthfully, change
is probably the most difficult thing for us to accomplish
as part of our jobs. Yet it is something that is a critical
component of success in today’s ever-changing work
environment.
The business landscape is littered with companies that
failed to recognize that change was needed or if they
recognized it they failed to act. The common denominator
for all of these firms is that they are out of business,
going out of business or at the minimum not performing
at the level that those in the organization would like
to see.
But there is hope. Change can be successfully accomplished
and companies that would like to improve can do so. They
can move from their current level of performance to a
new level that provides vast improvement in the areas
where there currently is dissatisfaction. The question
is how?
For many of us, our collective experience in the world
of change is one of marginal success. Goals are developed
and when later reviewed indicate that our efforts fell
far short of what we had hoped to achieve when they were
initially assembled.
The question that needs to be asked and answered is why?
Why do these change processes, initiated by well intentioned
highly intelligent people fail to achieve the desired
results? This question is what I am going to attempt to
answer for you in the balance of this part of the article
and the four parts that will follow.
The Three Characteristics of a Successful Change Initiative
How do you get people who have done well under the old
order of things to embrace something new and different?
How do you get those who believe that a change is needed
but are concerned about the ultimate outcome to initiate
the effort? The answer to these questions is not an easy
one. However there are three essential elements needed
to get an organization to embrace, actively support and
make a change effort a success. If any of these elements
are missing from the equation, problems will occur. These
are:
Dissatisfaction with the Current State
It is easy to create a high degree of dissatisfaction
when a company is on its way out of business. Everyone
has seen or read about companies who have been in this
position and have turned themselves around — going
from being on the verge of closing their doors to one
of being a leader in their industry. In these cases it
is easy to get people to recognize their dissatisfaction
and want to make the necessary change for the better.
What about companies that are marginally profitable or
even successful? How do you get them to recognize the
need for change in the form of continuous improvement?
The answer is that you need to create a mismatch between
the current “as-is” state of the business
and what everyone collectively sees as their “to-be”
state. If this is done correctly then dissatisfaction
with the current state of affairs will be the result.
For example, suppose that you work in a plant that is
relatively new and not operating at full capacity. The
equipment runs reliably and when it doesn’t there
is time to shut down to affect repair. Additionally, the
maintenance organization is well trained to make rapid
repair and restore the equipment to service. Now further
suppose that as time goes on two things happen. The demand
for your product increases so that the equipment is now
running around the clock, there is no allowance for downtime,
and the equipment is getting older and the reliability
is dropping. Obviously this is not an enviable position
to be in and danger is looming on the horizon.
You know that a process needs to be put into place that
addresses equipment failure before it happens —
a preventive and predictive maintenance effort. However
this is a major change and will make those who are the
great “rapid repairers” very uncomfortable.
The praise that they got from Production for quick repair
and return to service will no loner exist because in the
new order of things, equipment won’t fail. Your
problem is how do you create dissatisfaction with the
current state of affairs so that people will want to move
to the new state of equipment reliability. There are eight
key elements to successfully making this transition. They
are:
These elements are key, but there is one overriding component
that needs to be addressed in more detail. This is the
vision of what the change will look like. This is the
clear picture of the future that will inspire those who
have done well under the old conditions and energize those
who are luke-warm to the new.
Next
Month
Part 2:
The Vision of the Future or How Do We Know Where We Are
Going So We Will Know When We Have Arrived
