Managing the March Toward Change

My firm works with national and international corporations to assist in identifying the need for change, establishing its direction, and managing the difficult work involved in instituting cultural change processes and keeping change aspects aligned within the total organization*. Initial advice to clients is to step back from the day-to-day demands of the organization's operations and to take a serious look at what will be required of the march toward change. Our experience has taught us that if change processes are viewed in terms of marching toward a set of desired goals, then specific pathways can be established, timelines for the journey set, and measurements kept relating to cost and its change effectiveness.

Every modern corporation is currently working on various forms of organizational change. Most of these will be dramatic changes that result in reforming the companies. There are five basic precepts of change that we've described for our clients' benefit in providing guidance as their organizations are reformed. We advise that their management teams review and assess these precepts at the beginning of the process and use them to guide all efforts of the march through to process completion.

One: Understand the Direction - We spend up-front time with our clients in determining what the change demands actually mean. Most companies have daily challenges to their current operations - in the form of complaints by customers or through evidence that market placement is not optimal. There is the temptation to institute changes as these demands are felt. However, the concerted approach is superior because it allows the company's managers to understand what the changes mean when taken as a whole and viewed from the standpoint of the organization's complexity and its relationship to its market environment. An important first step in instituting effective change is to take both the long view and the short view of change - that is, scan the operating environment and compare the data gathered to the short-term specifics of the organization. It is only when the two are juxtaposed that the organization and its cultural meaning for the future will come into focus.

Two: Find the Forward Path - If changes are attempted before the full impact of the direction is understood, tangential and unproductive paths are frequently the result. Our work is focused on assisting clients in discovering what stands out as the big steps necessary to set the organization on a different and more productive path for the future. The best decisions for change are made by analyzing the value of each change potential in order to look at change in the amalgamate - that is, how things can best be instituted to allow all the moving parts to act in concert - the best decisions for change are made. Corporate change valuation is assessed at this stage in order to carefully define the benefits and cautions of each change opportunity and to select the pathways best aligned for forward movement. The forward path must be the one that embraces the very best advantages and opportunities for the organization when all possibilities are scrutinized together.

Three: Select the Best Actions - Once the strategic directions for the organization have been established, good attention must be paid to selection of the best actions for implementing the plan. It is critical at this point to take the time to select appropriate tactical approaches that will be able to fulfill the organizational mission. If the company's tactics are aligned specifically with mission and if these tactics resonate with those who will carry them out, the chances of instituting successful changes are greatly enhanced. Actions must be sought that will be integral to the overall functioning of the organization and that will bring greater organizational solidity as the change process develops. Tactics that hold good potential for being executed well also have high potential for contributing to a successful change completion.

Four: Select the Best Actors - Planning for effective change requires that a premier team of actors will be available to carry out the designated actions. This is perhaps the most over-looked factor of change processes. Companies often make the assumption that change will easily be possible once a good plan has been developed. For years, my firm's professionals have been following corporations' repeated failure to implement change processes. Form these experiences there is good evidence that trying to overlay a new plan onto an employee workforce simply will not work. Rather, to implement a new plan for change requires that there be a sound practice of employee cultural orientation and development, and that these include processes of assessing employees for their strengths and abilities to contribute to the change opportunities. Once the employee force has been re-formed, with the best complement of good actors selected for appropriate placement within the company, change institution can proceed as planned.

Five: Select the Best Metrics - The last step that must be taken before a concerted change effort is undertaken is to select the metrics that will be embedded with the process to track the changes and to measure progress. Reliable processes for measurement and analysis will be needed to determine if changes are following prescribed courses and achieving desired outcomes. For our clients we suggest selection of highly effective metrics such as Earned Value Management Systems and Critical Path Management to assure change achievement. Once these processes are established, the data that are generated will be critical to assessing the change processes and making revisions where necessary to keep the change moving down the preferred path.

These five precepts require sound action by the organization's leaders and its members before the change process, itself, is instituted. Considering the analogy of a march toward change, a leader will need to take seriously the organization's need for marching together to engage in change efforts. In addition, before the hand is raised to signal the start of the march, each of the five digits - representing the five precepts of change - must be ticked off as having been fully engaged. If you are considering change in your organization, and you can say that all five stages have been accomplished, by all means, signal the start of the march. Dramatic changes will then be realized by the time you reach your destination.

*See Dr. Blair's book, ALL THE MOVING PARTS: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Managing-the-March-Toward-Change&id=1054718