19 Dec Effective Organisational Change Management

Transitions are not always welcome, but they are necessary and inevitable at times. In a world that is constantly changing, organizations have no choice but to stay abreast with the latest developments.

An Economist Intelligence Unit report titled ‘Global firms in 2020: The next decade of change for organizations and workers’, globalization, technology, environmental issues, and global financial crisis were seen as top factors that will have the biggest impact – positive or negative – on an organization in 2020.

This means that companies will have to undergo an organizational change and make a few tough calls to recalibrate their business processes and workplace culture.

As per global research and advisory company Gartner, a company, on average, has implemented five organizational changes in the last three years alone. However, half of those change initiatives have failed. To address the challenges to the change initiatives, a company must have an effective organizational change management plan to successfully navigate through the transition.

Here are some steps to facilitate effective organizational change management: 

• Tell the ‘why’: Management should communicate triggers behind the organizational change upfront – be it a potential crisis or a big opportunity. This creates a ‘sense of urgency’ that helps in gaining the cooperation of the workforce.

• Build a dream team: Management should put together resources with proven leadership and management skills. This team should be given substantial authority to lead the change, with a clear goal for the future along with actionable steps.

• Communication: Once the vision for the future has been outlined, leaders should extensively communicate with employees to instill values of change. This communication should clearly explain how employees and current business processes will benefit from the change initiative.

• Remove barriers: Employees should be empowered to support the change initiative. Concerns of those resisting change should be addressed in a formal way.

• Short-term wins: Change takes time but the leaders must define short-term goals that highlight improvements and enable early wins. Those who achieved these goals should be acknowledged so that the change initiative continues within the workforce.

• Sustain and normalize: The final challenge is to sustain momentum until changes embedded fully in the organization’s culture. Early wins can be used as a foundational stone for bigger goals and more ambitious projects. HR and management can support these gains further by recruiting, promoting, and nurturing employees who seem promising.

Organizational change is seldom welcome. However, true leaders take the leap and make the transition easier.