Getting Better At Doing Organisational Change

After having worked on a role play about organisational change with over 100 members of The CEO Institute, there seems to be some common lessons about tackling change.

Yes, there may be something about the way the role play was set up that manifested these responses but from my observations, the issues raised were very similar to those I have encountered in ‘real organizations’.

Here are some tips about making a major change in your organization effective and sustainable.

1. Start with the end in mind
   
   Articulate what you want to achieve very clearly. Make sure these goals are SMART:
   
   
   • Specific
     
   • Measurable
     
   • Action oriented
     
   • Realistic or relevant
     
   • Timed
   
   
2. Tell everyone in the business about these goals
   
   Discuss these goals with your senior team, middle managers and staff. Get their feedback about what will work and why, and what won’t work and why. Thus you will surface pros and cons that you hadn’t thought of early in the process. You will also learn, amongst other things, who is for the change, who is against it and the general mood of the business.
   
   This data will be very valuable in redefining your goals, your plan and your understanding of the business issues.
   
   
3. Start with the big picture and then get into the detail
   
   Set your change program up clearly, like a project, defining deliverables, steps, responsibilities, resources and timelines. During the course of the project, your needs may vary, the external environment will change again and new information, that you don’t have now, will be revealed. So be flexible too.
   
   
4. Manage the people and yourself...not just the money
   
   Most of us feel more comfortable dealing with financials and that's why we do it. But the most difficult aspects of managing change effectively are dealing with the people issues and addressing our own feelings about the change.
   
   As the most senior people in the organization, we have to take responsibility for these changes. There are two aspects to this. Firstly, we are admitting that what we did is no longer adequate or accurate. We have to deal with our feelings of loss and grief over what we did or didn’t do and should or shouldn’t have said etc. Secondly we have to take responsibility for the change we are introducing. With the excitement of something new there is also the anxiety. Is this right? Have I considered all the facts? What happens if I get this wrong?
   
   To deal with the external changes, learn from other’s experience. Talk to colleagues about their change projects, what worked and didn’t work for them. Go to lectures, do courses, read books, articles and business magazines. Get the right organisational consultant to help you and your staff to work through the change effectively.
   
   To deal with the internal changes and pressures that you are experiencing ask for emotional support from your family. Let them know what’s happening, how it makes you feel and what support you would like from them.
   
   
5. Talk about what is happening with your people
   
   Tell your people what you are thinking of doing - why, how, with who and when. Tell them how you are feeling about successes and failures. Keep your people informed all the way. This is how you build relationships. They will trust you more, understand where you are coming from and be more likely to forgive your mistakes.
   
   
6. Ask for and listen to people’s (staff and clients) feedback about the changes
   
   Your people and your clients know what is going on at the shop floor better than any one else. Ask them questions and listen to their responses no matter how much you disagree with them or how difficult it maybe to listen. Their opinion is what counts and needs to be managed.
   
   Ask them what they think is working and why? What isn’t working and why? What would have to change to improve the situation? You don’t have to take up their suggestions but they will appreciate being asked and listened to. And they will have valuable insights or ideas that you just might use.
   
   Be grateful that they are telling you now, while you can do something to ameliorate the situation.
   
   
7. Don’t forget to stop to think
   
   We are all so busy doing, that we don’t make any space to think and to reflect. Without thinking we can’t learn. Some of the things we might think about are: what is happening and why, what can be different and how, the validity of what someone said to you, the relationship between different and seemingly independent events in the organization, a dilemma or how things would be different if...

All the best!!

Renata Schnall, Essential Consulting Pty Ltd; Malvern, Victoria; Ph: (03) 9822 1774; Email: rschnall@netspace.net.au; Essential Consulting are organisation change specialists.
First published: 28 February 2001.
Last updated: 5 October 2005.