Picture this: you’re a high-level HR executive in a large, successful, high-tech company and you’re at the meeting of the company’s top 150 officers.
The CEO rises to the podium to give his closing address. The company has had a very good year financially, and you expect him to give praise to the managers for a job well done. Instead you listen somewhat in shock as he talks about the need for change and renewal.
He calls upon the senior managers to consider structural changes, smaller, more focused and less bureaucratic business units. He mentions decreasing the many layers of management to bring management closer to the customer.
As he leaves the podium, a noticeable buzz rises in the room. What did he really mean? Was this a call for action or was he just being provocative? Did the CEO have more specific things in mind, or was he just voicing a general concern? What has he been reading lately? Is this an indirect way of calling for downsizing?
The next morning, your phone is ringing off the hook. Everyone wants to know your opinion of the CEO’s speech. One of the calls comes from the CEO himself. “Can you come to my office at 10:00 a.m.? Guess my speech caused quite a stir — more than I’d expected! I need your advice.”
You have 10 minutes to collect your thoughts. What advice are you going to give him? Is this going to be a career-enhancing or a career-destroying moment for you?
Because human resource professionals are becoming more involved with and responsible for organizational development, it is important that they develop change competency. And by that we mean an understanding of process, because in our experience, most change failures are failures of implementation rather than strategy.
In other words, many worthy change initiatives that could make a significant difference to an organization’s success will fail, not because the idea itself was a poor one, but because its execution was flawed or because the organization lacked the discipline to follow through during the implementation phase. Just look around. How many great ideas ranging from Management by Objectives, to Total Quality Management, to Business Process Engineering, to Core Competencies have petered out and been abandoned prematurely?
With good implementation planning, many of these initiatives could have contributed to an organization’s performance.
To find out just what the relative importance is of the various concepts and recommendations of change management experts, the Industrial Relations Centre at Queen’s University analyzed 58 change projects, eight of which were rated as failures, 13 as relatively unsuccessful, 14 as partly successful and 23 as very successful.
But just what is good implementation? Our recent survey was able to estimate the relative importance of several change factors widely discussed by change experts. We used correlational analysis, which measures the strength of the association between the change factor and the degree of success of the project. In other words, the higher the correlation, the more we expect to find that change factor will be present in successful projects (see box page 19.)
Based on the preliminary findings of the research, it is estimated that the most important components of a sound change plan would be: communications for change, a detailed change plan, the active management of resistance, and the development of a strong sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo throughout the organization.
Also important are taking action (first steps), the existence of a skilled change champion and ensuring that the organizational systems are aligned with the change. Other factors seemed to be of less importance, but nonetheless, should not be totally ignored in a sound change project.
While this analysis gives us the bones of a good change plan, HR professionals need more detail — more meat on those bones.
So what do we mean by good communications during a change initiative? For one thing, most employees trust the information they receive from their direct supervisors more than from senior management. That means you should make sure that supervisory levels and middle managers get good information before their direct reports and that they have opportunities to ask questions and get straight answers before passing it on. Communication should be two-way with all employees, whether through face-to-face, print or electronic media.
In fact, the more ways and the more times information about the change initiative is communicated, the better the chances it will be understood and the more likely employees are to buy into the change. Relying on one method of communication, no matter how well done, is less effective than using many methods.
One of the most important findings of the Queen’s survey was that successful change champions took the time to develop a sense of urgency and dissatisfaction with the status quo before trying to move to action. This is crucial.
Too often employees are resistant because they do not see the need for the change; they believe the status quo is working well or at least well enough. What can HR managers do to get past this complacency? For one thing, emphasize the need for senior management to support the change initiative visibly and constantly. Employees will be watching carefully for any signs of waning executive enthusiasm, which they will interpret as a sign they no longer need to pay close attention to the change. A clear rationale for the change is necessary.
Don’t assume people will agree with your thinking, no matter how sound or rational. The reason for the change must be sold. Use comparisons with other organizations, competitive and financial information, customer data, and environmental scanning. Make sure people can see the problems or challenges the organization is facing and make a compelling case for the change as a way to solve them.
Another key consideration is the active management of resistance. While the survey showed that it is not important how many resisters or bystanders you start out with, it did show that it is important to manage resistance.
This means doing your homework to reveal why employees may be resisting the change. Without knowing this information, communications efforts may well fall on deaf ears. You should inform people what will change and what will stay the same after the initiative. They should know what skills they will need to develop, whether there are changes in tasks or job security, and what will need to be done differently.
People helping to make the change successful or who take leadership roles should be recognized and rewarded, while persistent resisters should be confronted directly. While it is tempting to transfer, fire or otherwise coerce people into “getting with the program,” this method of managing resistance can backfire seriously. Coercion is only effective after other methods of persuasion have failed, usually near the end of the change project.
While many change gurus put a strong emphasis on creating a change vision, we found that a detailed change plan, or change strategy was even more important. That means that you should make time for planning the change in detail, disseminating it throughout the organization and making sure it contains targets, milestones, clear measures of success and opportunities for all relevant parts of the organization to plan their own contributions to the change initiative. This is often the Achilles heel of a change project.
Only after all of this preparation is the organization ready to move to first steps or into action. This may mean trials or pilot projects, investigating other organizations that have successfully implemented a similar change, and setting goals at all levels for the initiative. Leaders should remember to keep reporting about progress, celebrating milestones, aligning systems and policies with the change, and making changes to the plan as necessary.
One last thing. A skilled change champion is an asset to any change initiative. As a matter of fact, the more of them there are at multiple levels, the better. A skilled person who promotes the change at every opportunity is a persuasive communicator with the ability to influence people at all levels of the organization.
It is also a person with a clear and vivid vision of what the change will do for the organization and with the patience and persistence to see it through to the end. It is even better if the champions are backed up and supported by an executive sponsor, by a skilled steering committee and by implementation teams to do some of the detailed work. Champions should be involved in these committees and teams to keep the level of communication and co-ordination high throughout the project.
Carol Beatty is the director of the Industrial Relations Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. She can be reached at (613) 533-6000 ext. 77087 or [email protected].
The CEO rises to the podium to give his closing address. The company has had a very good year financially, and you expect him to give praise to the managers for a job well done. Instead you listen somewhat in shock as he talks about the need for change and renewal.
He calls upon the senior managers to consider structural changes, smaller, more focused and less bureaucratic business units. He mentions decreasing the many layers of management to bring management closer to the customer.
As he leaves the podium, a noticeable buzz rises in the room. What did he really mean? Was this a call for action or was he just being provocative? Did the CEO have more specific things in mind, or was he just voicing a general concern? What has he been reading lately? Is this an indirect way of calling for downsizing?
The next morning, your phone is ringing off the hook. Everyone wants to know your opinion of the CEO’s speech. One of the calls comes from the CEO himself. “Can you come to my office at 10:00 a.m.? Guess my speech caused quite a stir — more than I’d expected! I need your advice.”
You have 10 minutes to collect your thoughts. What advice are you going to give him? Is this going to be a career-enhancing or a career-destroying moment for you?
Because human resource professionals are becoming more involved with and responsible for organizational development, it is important that they develop change competency. And by that we mean an understanding of process, because in our experience, most change failures are failures of implementation rather than strategy.
In other words, many worthy change initiatives that could make a significant difference to an organization’s success will fail, not because the idea itself was a poor one, but because its execution was flawed or because the organization lacked the discipline to follow through during the implementation phase. Just look around. How many great ideas ranging from Management by Objectives, to Total Quality Management, to Business Process Engineering, to Core Competencies have petered out and been abandoned prematurely?
With good implementation planning, many of these initiatives could have contributed to an organization’s performance.
To find out just what the relative importance is of the various concepts and recommendations of change management experts, the Industrial Relations Centre at Queen’s University analyzed 58 change projects, eight of which were rated as failures, 13 as relatively unsuccessful, 14 as partly successful and 23 as very successful.
But just what is good implementation? Our recent survey was able to estimate the relative importance of several change factors widely discussed by change experts. We used correlational analysis, which measures the strength of the association between the change factor and the degree of success of the project. In other words, the higher the correlation, the more we expect to find that change factor will be present in successful projects (see box page 19.)
Based on the preliminary findings of the research, it is estimated that the most important components of a sound change plan would be: communications for change, a detailed change plan, the active management of resistance, and the development of a strong sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo throughout the organization.
Also important are taking action (first steps), the existence of a skilled change champion and ensuring that the organizational systems are aligned with the change. Other factors seemed to be of less importance, but nonetheless, should not be totally ignored in a sound change project.
While this analysis gives us the bones of a good change plan, HR professionals need more detail — more meat on those bones.
So what do we mean by good communications during a change initiative? For one thing, most employees trust the information they receive from their direct supervisors more than from senior management. That means you should make sure that supervisory levels and middle managers get good information before their direct reports and that they have opportunities to ask questions and get straight answers before passing it on. Communication should be two-way with all employees, whether through face-to-face, print or electronic media.
In fact, the more ways and the more times information about the change initiative is communicated, the better the chances it will be understood and the more likely employees are to buy into the change. Relying on one method of communication, no matter how well done, is less effective than using many methods.
One of the most important findings of the Queen’s survey was that successful change champions took the time to develop a sense of urgency and dissatisfaction with the status quo before trying to move to action. This is crucial.
Too often employees are resistant because they do not see the need for the change; they believe the status quo is working well or at least well enough. What can HR managers do to get past this complacency? For one thing, emphasize the need for senior management to support the change initiative visibly and constantly. Employees will be watching carefully for any signs of waning executive enthusiasm, which they will interpret as a sign they no longer need to pay close attention to the change. A clear rationale for the change is necessary.
Don’t assume people will agree with your thinking, no matter how sound or rational. The reason for the change must be sold. Use comparisons with other organizations, competitive and financial information, customer data, and environmental scanning. Make sure people can see the problems or challenges the organization is facing and make a compelling case for the change as a way to solve them.
Another key consideration is the active management of resistance. While the survey showed that it is not important how many resisters or bystanders you start out with, it did show that it is important to manage resistance.
This means doing your homework to reveal why employees may be resisting the change. Without knowing this information, communications efforts may well fall on deaf ears. You should inform people what will change and what will stay the same after the initiative. They should know what skills they will need to develop, whether there are changes in tasks or job security, and what will need to be done differently.
People helping to make the change successful or who take leadership roles should be recognized and rewarded, while persistent resisters should be confronted directly. While it is tempting to transfer, fire or otherwise coerce people into “getting with the program,” this method of managing resistance can backfire seriously. Coercion is only effective after other methods of persuasion have failed, usually near the end of the change project.
While many change gurus put a strong emphasis on creating a change vision, we found that a detailed change plan, or change strategy was even more important. That means that you should make time for planning the change in detail, disseminating it throughout the organization and making sure it contains targets, milestones, clear measures of success and opportunities for all relevant parts of the organization to plan their own contributions to the change initiative. This is often the Achilles heel of a change project.
Only after all of this preparation is the organization ready to move to first steps or into action. This may mean trials or pilot projects, investigating other organizations that have successfully implemented a similar change, and setting goals at all levels for the initiative. Leaders should remember to keep reporting about progress, celebrating milestones, aligning systems and policies with the change, and making changes to the plan as necessary.
One last thing. A skilled change champion is an asset to any change initiative. As a matter of fact, the more of them there are at multiple levels, the better. A skilled person who promotes the change at every opportunity is a persuasive communicator with the ability to influence people at all levels of the organization.
It is also a person with a clear and vivid vision of what the change will do for the organization and with the patience and persistence to see it through to the end. It is even better if the champions are backed up and supported by an executive sponsor, by a skilled steering committee and by implementation teams to do some of the detailed work. Champions should be involved in these committees and teams to keep the level of communication and co-ordination high throughout the project.
Carol Beatty is the director of the Industrial Relations Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. She can be reached at (613) 533-6000 ext. 77087 or [email protected].
