Change is here to stay. Managing change follows logically. It is no longer a rare event occurring that needs to be managed rather it qualifies as a function by itself. No wonder over 50% of companies today have some kind of change management functions.
They say change is constant which can only mean that it is constantly present. In relative terms change is variable. The pace of it is getting faster and faster. For e.g. each year technology is making us adopt new ways, give up the old. Business models are getting disrupted with new inventions. Organizations are reinventing themselves. To do this we need people who can manage the change agenda. What are the top three competencies that change management folks require. Read on....
Consider this....We communicated so hard, we sent mailers, we sent reminders, we put up posters and we did road shows for our diversity program but there has been very lukewarm response from the managers?
Managing the communication effectively is a key capability in change management. Understanding which sources resistance can come from and who are the opponents who are the fence sitters and who are the "friends" of change is important. Change champions should be from bucket 3 and should attempt to put in more than just an effort to convert the fence sitters to rally behind the change.
Sample yet another familiar situation...By the time we went to the teams with news about the policy changes there was a lukewarm response as they already seemed to know through the news papers and grape vine.
Keeping employees informed as and when change is effected is very important element of building trust. Openness, honesty and transparency are elements that reinforce trust building. The noted management guru Chris Argyris had emphasized the role of trust in high levels of performance of employees. So building trust is the second capability required by the members of the change management function. Trust is broken when they fail to keep stakeholders in the loop, when false promises are made verbally and refusal to put them in writing, when misguided decisions are upheld and when changes anticipated are not communicated.
Nurturing collaboration is the third capability dimension that is important. Today almost all change programs involve inter disciplinary efforts and team work. In such situation a collaborative environment is essential for success. Collaboration fosters successful team outcomes and rates high among the team building success factors.
So when you consider the change management function do look at how you can build up a team who can operationalize these three capabilities viz; creating an environment of collaboration, building trust in the change process and finally communicating effectively, unambiguously and with the right intent. Remember Intent Content Gap blog post posted earlier.
They say change is constant which can only mean that it is constantly present. In relative terms change is variable. The pace of it is getting faster and faster. For e.g. each year technology is making us adopt new ways, give up the old. Business models are getting disrupted with new inventions. Organizations are reinventing themselves. To do this we need people who can manage the change agenda. What are the top three competencies that change management folks require. Read on....
Consider this....We communicated so hard, we sent mailers, we sent reminders, we put up posters and we did road shows for our diversity program but there has been very lukewarm response from the managers?
Managing the communication effectively is a key capability in change management. Understanding which sources resistance can come from and who are the opponents who are the fence sitters and who are the "friends" of change is important. Change champions should be from bucket 3 and should attempt to put in more than just an effort to convert the fence sitters to rally behind the change.
Sample yet another familiar situation...By the time we went to the teams with news about the policy changes there was a lukewarm response as they already seemed to know through the news papers and grape vine.
Keeping employees informed as and when change is effected is very important element of building trust. Openness, honesty and transparency are elements that reinforce trust building. The noted management guru Chris Argyris had emphasized the role of trust in high levels of performance of employees. So building trust is the second capability required by the members of the change management function. Trust is broken when they fail to keep stakeholders in the loop, when false promises are made verbally and refusal to put them in writing, when misguided decisions are upheld and when changes anticipated are not communicated.
Nurturing collaboration is the third capability dimension that is important. Today almost all change programs involve inter disciplinary efforts and team work. In such situation a collaborative environment is essential for success. Collaboration fosters successful team outcomes and rates high among the team building success factors.
So when you consider the change management function do look at how you can build up a team who can operationalize these three capabilities viz; creating an environment of collaboration, building trust in the change process and finally communicating effectively, unambiguously and with the right intent. Remember Intent Content Gap blog post posted earlier.
No comments:
Post a Comment