Organisational Change Management Volume 2

Indicators of Success at Ingredient 1

(Laying the Foundation for New Ways)

. Investing in help early, ie in leading a change initiative, you may need to obtain help simply to determine what kinds of help you need - in the same way you seek opinions before buying some equipment

. General acknowledgment by staff involved that change does have some positive sides

. Minimal "doom and gloom" predictions

. Indications of working towards a successful change, rather than waiting for, or even assisting, the change to become a failure

. The building of self-esteem

. Active contributions by employees to the morale of the organisation

. Staff are less driven by emotive thinking, and more inclined to have a balanced assessment, ie consider the pros and cons

. Assisting and encouraging staff to say "good-bye" to the past (more than symbolic) by finding a way to mark the change, to bury the past and celebrate the start of the new in a concrete way:

- public "wake"

- burning old manuals/legislation

- changing the organisation's logo

- reorganise office layout

- memorabilia room

- make a video of the "past"

- "religious-type" ceremony(ies)

- if moving, only take a couple of objects from the past to the new place

- sell or give the old logo to staff

- keep a scrap book

- keep mementoes of the past (the "good old days")

- signing off

- attitudinal staff survey

- visit all staff for a face-to-face interview

- answer all rumours immediately

- Gant chart identifying the important milestones that will impact on all staff (include management), etc.

Sometimes the transition can be partially achieved by encouraging the staff to take a memento of the past ie a T shirt with "I survived"

The change process works more smoothly if staff accept a piece of the past with them

. Utilising techniques mentioned earlier in Volume and explained fully detail in Volumes 3, 4 & %

- effective and active listening

- critical reflection

- profile of knowledge

- history map

- understanding oneself

- determining artifacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions

- working more attuned to systems and fundamental causes

- discussibility of issues

- climbing out of the muck

- mentoring

- understanding the 5 stages of skill acquisition

- helping to understand the change initiative

- practising relevance

- strategy as conversation

- your behaviour (models 1 and 2)

- 360 degree appraisal

- exposing left-hand column

- five major events of your life, etc

. The involvement of all key decision-makers and stakeholders so that they are aware of the need for the change

. Involving some type of plan and indicating the desired output

. People become more receptive to organisational transitions and new ways of thinking, when there is some ceremonial watershed event to provide a visible acknowledgment of and symbolic rite of the emotional nature of the shift. There are 2 types of watershed events

i) organisational rites of passage, which occur regularly throughout an organisation's life cycle. Shaping and structuring rites of passage is an extremely effective leverage opportunity for a change agent or leader to intervene, ie looking to the future with the following questions

- Where are we going?

- What will happen when we get there?

- What plausible future will occur?

ii) one-off spontaneous events whose timing cannot be predicted and which are not repeatable, ie looking to the future with the following questions

- How well do you understand signals that you send? Does your signal get noticed?

- Is it a signal about seniority, or about coordination? Does it matter to people?

- What symbolic gestures do you have available to you and how can you use them?

- How can you hear "the unspoken voice of the organisation"?

. Obtain independent or outside expert advice ‐ this will add credibility if the push for change is not coming from top management

. Hold strategic workshops ‐ best to use an outside facilitator so that all views are considered

. Hire new key management from outside to introduce different ideas

. Extrapolate the present strategies into the future to demonstrate the dangers ahead if the present strategies are maintained

. Educate key opinion makers in what this guideline means

. Symbolise the new identity ‐ people are more than merely logical beings; they have feelings. They may react positively to events and symbols that convey a message and reinforce the new identity

. Understand the first rule of learning

"...Learners learn best what learners want to know..."

Peter Senge et al, 1999

. With the staff, make separate lists of what was good and bad in the past, and look at ways of adapting these to the present and future, eg