Organizational change

But the million dollar question is how can the workforce be encouraged to support change initiatives?

During September's Middle East HR Summit in Dubai I had the opportunity to conduct a workshop on Engaging Employees in Change. During my workshop I provided information on why successful change initiatives take the workforce's attitudes, beliefs and desires into account.

Before starting any change program it's important to understand what drives your staff so that you can engage their talents and abilities to move the change process forward.

Organizations that are not prepared to change risk being overtaken or even driven out of business by their competitors in today's global environment. The needed changes may be small incremental steps or an organization may need enormous strides in order to stay in business but all changes, big and small, require courage and commitment!

Whatever changes your company faces, there are 6 basic fundamentals that you need to be aware of before attempting any change initiative:

1. Management & employees have different views of change

2. Change efforts are going to upset the status quo

3. Change increases employees' anxiety & stress levels

4. There will always be resistance to change

5. Successful change efforts are driven by continual communications

6. The time/resources needed to secure change is usually underestimated

So what do these 6 fundamentals mean to you? Let's start by looking at the different views management and employees have regarding the workplace. Once you understand that each party has different concerns then you can start to bridge the gap between them. Successfully bridging the gap will help ensure any changes introduced will have a positive and lasting affect on your company's future!

If you think of these differences as two sides of a coin it will be easier to understand - the management team and staff may have different views but they are connected as summarized in the following table:



This diagram is an attempt to show that each 'side of the coin' looks at things differently and for the organizational change drivers to make progress you'll need to show employees why the changes are necessary and point out how the changes will have a positive effect on them.

By showing the proposed changes can increase the company's stability, growth and future it becomes easier to show the direct impact on employees. Stability and growth affect things that employees are concerned about; job security, training and development opportunities and better working conditions.

Now let's look at the next issue - dealing with the status quo of the company. Again, the role of HR professionals (and others involved with the change efforts) must anticipate, identify and address 'people problems' because change is always intensely personal. Unfortunately, it's easy to underestimate the internal conflict and soul-searching that goes hand-in-hand with breaking away from the status quo.

One of the best tools for changing the status quo involves rewarding the type of behavior you're trying to promote because it will have an enormous impact on the workforce's behavior! Recognition of those that are supporting the change efforts also has a positive influence on the success of the change initiative.
Of course during any change process the employee's are going to experience anxiety and stress.

One effective way of reducing this anxiety is to get the employee to 'buy-in' to the change effort. This means the management team must reach out and connect with their workforce if they expect the change efforts to be successful.

And how does this connection take place? First, employees must understand why the change is taking place and then they should be offered the opportunity to contribute their ideas and suggestions regarding the anticipated changes. Gathering input from the workforce at the very beginning gives the employees a chance to contribute, be involved and eventually take ownership in the change process.

This will help motivate the workforce and relieve their stress because they have joined forces with the management team in designing the company's new future! It also encourages the employees to contribute with both their heads and their hearts.

When gauging your workforce's acceptance of change it is more important to watch what they do instead of concentrating on what they say because their actions always provide accurate feedback on what they really feel and believe. Remember, change is personal and when it affects a person's job, duties or responsibilities, their natural reaction will be to resist the change every step of the way. To bring resistors onboard requires building up the trust between the employees and the management team.

Demonstrating leadership commitment is one essential way of building that trust. Commitment must be demonstrated in both words and deeds because it takes a significant amount of time for everyone to hear, understand and believe in the change message.

Communicate, communicate, communicate - that is another way to build trust and commitment. By continual explaining what is going on and why will help capture the hearts and minds of the workforce! And that message needs to focus on why the change is necessary and what the change will eventually mean to the company.

Openness is also required - sometimes there is an urge to hide some of the facts from the employees, especially if it involves bad news, such as layoffs or sacrifices the employees may need to make. Remember, you can never hide information from people because when they are kept in the dark the rumors will start and most of the time the rumors will be worse than anything that is actually taking place!

The sixth crucial rule to remember is that successful change takes time - lots of time! Unfortunately, research clearly shows that too many change initiatives only achieve partial success because the management team underestimates the amount of time and resources it will take to change the organization. It's not enough for the executive team to create a future vision - they must also ensure the resources are in place to achieve the goal.

Since change initiatives require a steady pace over a long period of time its better to use a small systematic approach and introduce incremental changes instead of trying to change everything in the organization at the same time.

This approach results in positive accomplishments that can be shared and used to build ongoing support and commitment of the workers. This is an extremely important tool for ensuring the change process continues moving forward because nothing builds employee motivation faster than having small frequent success that are often referred to as quick-wins.

Successful change programs require setting goals for the workforce, motivating the people to reach the goals and then providing them with the resources they need to achieve those goals.

For more information on Change the following books should be reviewed:

• Corporate Culture & Performance by John Kotter


• The Four Levers of Corporate Change by Peter Brill & Richard Worth


• Rethinking the Corporation: The Architecture of Change by Robert Tomasko


• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies and Building Your Company's Vision by James Collins & Jerry Porras


• Harvard Business School Review book, Change


• Harvard Business School Review book, Culture & Change

Finally, I'd like to close with two of my favorite quotes on Change:

• Only the wisest and the stupidest of men never change... Confucius


• To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often... Winston Churchill