Change Management in organizations

1. 1
Change Management
Course Presentation
Managing Change:
The Art of Balancing
by Jeanie D. Duck
Instructor: Dr. Maleki
Presented by: Javad Nasiri
March 2004

2. 2
Topics
Change is intensely personal
Usual approach to change
What goes wrong with organizations?
Organizational Context
What about human feelings?
Managing the dynamic of change
Not all changes are formal ones
References

3. 3
Change is intensely personal
(Communication)
Each individual MUST think, feel, or do
something different.
Change programs fail because of:
Having a mechanistic mental model
Breaking change into small pieces
Managing the pieces

4. 4
Change is intensely personal
(continued)
With change the challenge is to manage the
dynamic not the pieces. Teaching personnel how
to think strategically, recognize patterns, and
anticipate problems and opportunities before they
occur.
From the managerial viewpoint, change is:
Balancing a Mobile

5. 5
Change is intensely personal
(continued)
A solution: Transition Management Team, a group of company
leaders, reporting to the CEO, who commit all their time and
energy to managing the change process.
Managing change for this group means:
Managing the conversation between the people leading
the effort and those who are expected to implement the
new strategies.
Managing the organizational context in which change
can occur
Managing the emotional connections

6. 6
Usual Approach to change
1. Management says “We have to make some changes
around here” (TQM, BPR, Employee Empowerment, …)
2. A task force is formed
3. This force works without communicating anyone else,
trying to meet deadlines, testing a lot of what-ifs
4. The results are delivered
5. Everyone has to do his part
Keeping everyone
informed is a diversion, a
LUXURY we cannot
afford

7. 7
Usual Approach to Change
Lack of communication
(Continued)
This process guarantees failure. High failure rate in BPR, TQM,
Employee Empowerment, ...
Management assumption is, “We haven’t said anything yet. We
haven’t sent any messages.”
Everything managers do or not do, sends a message.
Alarms go off Something is happening
No sings from management or task force
Information vacuum
Gossip forms
Negative mentality is made
towards change

8. 8
Usual Approach to Change
Lack of communication
(Continued)
If there is a single rule of communications for leaders, it is this:
When you are so sick of talking about something that you
can hardly stand it, your message is finally starting to get
through.
It takes time for people to hear, understand and believe the
message especially when they don’t like it. So ask yourself:
Have they heard the message? Do they believe it? Do they know
what it means? Have they interpreted it for themselves, and
have they internalized it?
Communication is complete when the answers are “YES.”

9. 9
What goes wrong with organizations?
Organizational Context
Especially in successful organizations:
Strategic Frames Blinders
Processes Routines
Relationships Shackles
Values Dogmas
People Change Survivors

10. 10
What goes wrong with organizations?
Organizational Context
(Continued)
Change Survivors: Cynical people who’ve learned how to
live through change programs without really changing at all.
They know that change programs are only manager’s fads.
Their reaction is the opposite of commitment.
In this context every change effort will fail.
Managers should change their behavior.
How would we act? How would we attack our problems?
What kind of meetings and conversations would we have?…

11. 11
What goes wrong with organizations?
Organizational Context
(Continued)
One way to prepare the context is empowerment
which is a change itself.
Empowerment doesn’t mean abandonment. Setting
the context for change means understanding what
employees do and don’t know, working with them,
watching their performance, creating an ongoing
dialogue with them.

12. 12
What About Human Feelings?
Change is fundamentally about feelings. It needs people’s
heads and hearts together.
Companies cannot legislate their employees’ feelings, but
companies do rent their behavior.
“Winning Attitudes” do make a difference, and it is important
to market new ideas and approaches within the organization
very carefully.
If you want a customer’s loyalty,
you must have his positive
feelings toward your idea.

13. 13
What About Human Feelings?
(continued)
Denying the validity of emotions or permitting only certain
kinds of emotions has two effects:
The managers cut off from their own emotional lives. They
cut off the ideas, solutions and new perspectives that other
people can contribute.
Allow employees to express negative feelings. But “you can
visit Pity City, but you cannot move there.”
(Example)

14. 14
What About Human Feelings?
Employees Do Not Trust
(continued)
If a company is in trouble, or it is in the middle of a
change effort, lack of trust automatically emerges as a
serious barrier.
Maslow’s Pyramid:
In the new work environments, where companies are
offering to empower employees, self-actualization is
being promoted.
To realize and integrate our
talents, intellect, values, and
physical and emotional needs
At the top of
the Pyramid

15. 15
What About Human Feelings?
Employees Do Not Trust
(continued)
With heightened competition, downsizing, and new
demands from customers, there is virtually no job security.
So managers are sending their employees conflicting
messages. Then trust becomes a critical issue.
At the bottom
of the Pyramid
Feel safe from
danger, harm,
or risk

16. 16
What About Human Feelings?
What should be done?
(Continued)
Trust in the time of change is based on two things:
Predictability
People want to know what to expect. This is why in the
middle of change, trust is eroded when the ground rules
change. Not only is the guaranteed career path gone, but so
is the guarantee of employment.
The more leaders clarify the company’s intentions and
ground rules, the more people will be able to predict and
influence what happens to them-even in the middle of a
constantly shifting situation.

17. 17
What About Human Feelings?
What should be done?
(Continued)
Capability
Managers and employees must identify needed capabilities
and negotiate the roles and responsibilities of those involved
in the process before each will trust the situation.
When each sides understands the needs, capabilities, and
objectives of the other, trust can be built.
The only real security the company has to offer is a chance
for people to work together to create the future and to
achieve their goals.

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Managing the Dynamic of
Change
An organization, like a mobile, is a web of
interconnections.
A change in one area throws a different part off
balance.
Managing these ripple effects is what makes managing
change a dynamic proposition with unexpected
challenges.

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Managing the Dynamic of Change
A solution: Transition Management Team
It’s not:
A new layer of bureaucracy
A permanent job for members
A steering committee (a body that convenes periodically to
guide those who are actually doing the work)
This team:
Oversees the large-scale corporate change effort
Makes sure that all the change initiatives fit together

20. 20
Managing the Dynamic of Change
A solution: Transition Management Team
Is made up of 8 to 12 highly talented leaders who commit
all their time.
Team members and what they are trying to accomplish
must be accepted by the power structure of the
organization
The team leader is actually transition COO. He must be
talented and credible, understand the long term vision of
the company, have a complete knowledge of the business,
and have the confidence of the CEO.

21. 21
Managing the Dynamic of Change
A solution: Transition Management Team
TMT has 8 primary responsibilities:
Establish context for change and provide guidance
Stimulate conversation
Provide appropriate resources
Coordinate and align projects
Ensure congruence of messages, activities, policies, and
behaviors
Provide opportunities for joint creation (Empowerment)
Anticipate, identify, and address people problems
Prepare the critical mass

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Not all changes are formal ones.
We can think about other forms of change that are not
formal, companywide, or very pervasive like BPR, TQM, …
Disruptive Self-Expression
Verbal Jujitsu
Variable-Term Opportunism
Strategic Alliance Building

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References
Managing Change: The Art of Balancing
Jeanie D. Duck, HBR on Change 2000
Why Good companies Go Bad
Donald N. Sull, HBR on Culture and Change 2002
Radical Change, The Quiet Way
Debra E. Meyerson, HBR on Culture and Change
Managing Change in Organizations (Third Edition)
Colin A. Carnall, Pearson Education, 1999