Organizational Effectiveness: Preparing Your Workforce For Change
Organizational Effectiveness: Preparing Your Workforce For Change
Organizational Effectiveness: Preparing Your Workforce For Change
RIGHT VIEWPOINT™
Right Management survey of 117 senior human resource professionals across North America conducted between 2/16/09-3/19/09
Change Management that works
It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, companies that understand the inextricable
connection between preparing employees to accept change and effective
implementation of new initiatives are likely to see their efforts succeed. With careful
planning and the support of top leaders, organizations can help their workforces
adapt to change—and the business retain its competitive edge.
Why do change management strategies tend to fail? For one thing, there’s the
matter of human nature: Most people have a hard time dealing with change.
But, more than that, they lack specific behavior traits needed to adapt easily to
difficult changing circumstances. Consider the results of an assessment instrument
used by Right Management. It evaluates an individual’s ability to effectively deal
with change by analyzing a number of key traits—such factors as an ability to
remain calm even in stressful situations and to reach mutually beneficial outcomes
during a time of change. See sidebar “Assessing Change Readiness.”
In addition, there are important organizational reasons for these failures. Many
companies don’t understand the importance of change management nor do they
regard it as a core competency for leaders. As a result, they fail to provide adequate
development, thereby crippling a manager’s ability to lead during times of change.
When companies do provide development, they tend to rely on isolated workshops
lacking a real organizational or business context, with little follow-up and few
practical lessons that are likely to stick.
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Assessing Change Readiness
Adaptability 38%
Influence 31%
Perseverence 22%
The implication for organizations is that nearly half of all employees will
struggle with being open to change—which is being tested to extreme
measures with the economic uncertainty we are currently facing—creating
multiple barriers to impede the success of the change initiative.
The good news is that 48% of respondents fall into the Strength category for
Building Relationships. Collaboration, team work and collegiality are critical to
achieving goals. Identifying individuals that know how to interact appropriately
with others and build and maintain interpersonal relationships will be an
important part of ensuring success in your change initiative. This is particularly
essential for those who need to lead changes in their organizations.
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A STRATEGY FOR EFFECTIVE CHANGE
Putting in place a successful change management strategy is not an easy
undertaking. It requires putting in place an integrated planning process, including
steps to take before, during and after the change. While what you do to prepare
beforehand is critical, the actions you take while implementing the change and
afterwards are also very important. Following this multi-step process can put you
on a path to realizing the benefits your organization needs to achieve through the
change initiatives it is undertaking.
Before
1. Understand previous change initiatives.
To create an effective plan, you need to know what happened during earlier change
initiatives. That means working with leaders and employees to learn what worked,
what didn’t and what gaps need to be filled.
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During and After
6. Provide adequate support and development for line managers to lead
employees through the change.
That may take the form of group or one-on-one interactions, depending on the
circumstances. In some cases, it’s helpful to bring managers together, because the
process of dealing with change can be an isolating experience. At the same time,
managers should hold individual meetings with each team member.
8. Measure success.
Define success at the outset and the metrics to be used to assess whether you’ve
achieved your goals and objectives. For example, in some cases, you may need to
measure a manager’s ability to have an effective conversation with an employee
about change. Under those circumstances, it might be appropriate to ask his or her
direct reports to do a 360° evaluation of their interactions. On the other hand, if
success is defined as how the organization as a whole manages change, then you
might ask employees to fill out opinion surveys before and after the change initiative.
RECOMMENDATIONS
An effective change management process can’t be an afterthought. Indeed, it
requires a comprehensive effort involving all levels of the organization, driven by
top management. But companies have no choice. Change is a constant. In order
to succeed and thrive in today’s rapid-paced and tumultuous market, organizations
need an agile workforce that can effectively respond to, adapt to and perform
under these conditions. Develop a plan with measurable goals. Identify and develop
effective change management behaviors within the workforce. Carefully implement
a process that includes leadership support, development, effective communication
and success measures. By following these steps, your organization’s workforce
will have the agility needed to meet the high demands of the change initiative,
performing at the levels you need to ensure the company remains competitive and
achieves its strategic goals—even in today’s tough economy.
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About the Author
CASE STUDY Dr. Deborah Schroeder-Saulnier is Senior
Vice President for Right Management’s
Global Solutions Team with responsibility
for overseeing the firm’s Organizational
Effectiveness and Employee Engagement