Management of Change
(If it ain’t Broke. Still Fix it)

The dinosaurs died out.
Mammals did not.
They embraced change and survived.

This article is about managing change in an organization. You could be the active participant for change or be at the receiving end or merely want to get a better understanding of the process. Whichever you are, this article will I hope provide a good understanding of the basics and serve as an introduction to the change process.

To begin with we need to understand what is change. Change could mean, “making or becoming different”, “to make or become different”, “substitution for one by another” or “different from the previous state”. The emphasis is on making something different.

Figure No. 1: The change process
[Adapted from the works of Kurt Lewin and Neil Russel-Jones]

Change management then is the process of moving from the current known steady state to the “vision” of the future or new state and involves a degree of transition, which may result in “pain” for some or more commonly for all as shown in the Figure No. 1. It entails “unfreezing” from the past going through a transformation and “refreezing into a new state”. However change should be seen as a continuous cycle of unfreezing, transition, and again refreezing back to unfreezing.

What Drives Change?

To begin with what does not drive change is the attitude:

“ let sleeping dogs lie’
“ If it ain’t broke , don’t fix it”
“ from the frying pan into the fire”, or
“ you can’t teach old dogs new tricks”.

Such attitudes would not drive change. The important factor is to reflect and ask the question “ It is working now but is it doing sufficiently well and will it do so in the future’? These attitudes will need to be reconsidered. Change has many causes. To go back into prehistoric times particularly during the ice age, man discovered how to use caves, build fires, and use skins. Similarly, in modern times an organization changes because of new competition, price changes, consumer demands, change in technology or due to new laws and practices.

There are several factors that are both internal and external that force change on an organization as illustrated in Figure No. 2.

Figure No. 2: Factors that force change

[Source: Neil Russel Jones, Managing Change]

Making It Happen

Making change happen involves moving an organization’s people and culture in line with the organization’s structure, processes, strategy and systems. Change management needs to deliver long lasting benefit to the organization.

Understanding the organization
The first element of an organization that needs to be understood is its culture. The term “culture” refers to a specific civilization, society or group and it’s distinguishing characteristics. Similarly, the term “organizational culture” refers to a system of shared meanings including language, dress, and patterns of behaviour, value system, feelings and attitudes. Culture needs to be understood and analyzed to enable change programmes to be successful.
Change management is about positioning the process in the right place to maximize successful implementation. It is about understanding the organization for successful implementation of the change programme.

Organizational readiness to change needs to be understood. Neil Russel-Jones a consultant has categorized organizations into four categories. Organizations with a dynamic management and are in unstable environment can be changed. Change is a way of life in these organizations. He terms them as proactive organizations. The second category is organizations, which change only when they have to. Change programmes here are not well executed. He terms such organizations as reactive organizations. In organizations which change to keep up with the market but are behind leaders change is difficult to implement but not impossible. These organizations are called average organizations. He terms the fourth category of organizations as static organizations. These organizations are rigid and have a hierarchical style of management and in trouble when suddenly the rules of the game change. Change here is very difficult to implement.

Understanding People

Successful change management requires commitment. It is about taking the people along. Unless the people in an organization at all levels, from the senior management to the other employees are committed to the change process it will fail. People tend to resist change that does not make sense to them. Factors such as loss of status, or security lead to resistance to change. People react differently to change depending on their persona, circumstances and understanding of the process. Those opposed to change obviously need attention but even those in favour of change will be affected and need to be managed properly. People have psychological resistance to change because they seek to avoid uncertainty. Past ways of doing things are well known and predictable and the unwillingness to give up familiar tasks or relationships may cause resistance.

According to Don Harvey and Donald R Brown there are several reasons as to why people resist change. And these are:

• People are happy and feel comfortable in doing things as they have in the past “the comfort zone”. They fear disruption of the routine.
• When change causes people to feel pressured, they may interpret change as a loss of individual security. There may be loss associated with change. A loss of prior “comfort zone”. They fear loss of existing benefits.
• Any change that causes people to lose face will be resisted. Changes that threaten to lower the status or prestige of the individual or group will be resisted. A change may befit the whole organization but reduce the status of people and will be resisted. People fear the threat to position power and security, threat of redistribution of power and threat to disturbing social networks.

Conditions for change

Many experts have put forward views on the conditions necessary for change. Rosabeth Moss Kantor, a professor at Harvard has stated her ten commandments.

1. Analyze the organization and it’s need for change
2. Create a shared vision and common direction
3. Separate from the past
4. Create a sense of urgency
5. Support a strong leadership role
6. Line up political support
7. Develop an implementation plan
8. Develop enabling structures
9. Communicate and involve people
10. Reinforce and institutionalize change

To summarize what is said above are: To look at what you have. Obtain buy-in at all levels. Plan the change and put in place a structure for implementing it and finally to make people in an organization live and breathe change.

It is necessary to ensure that there is someone leading the change. This leader needs to have that authority to make change happen. There is a need to put in place the people and to concentrate on those who resist change and to make the change happen in a way that people feel as comfortable as possible.

Lessening Resistance

• Shared vision: A clear statement as to where the organization is headed has to be understood by all. It gives direction and makes people know that change is for the better.
  
  
• Participation in change programmes: It is important that individuals involved are allowed to share in the decision-making process rather than being forced. Involving people in matters that concern them has the probability of reducing resistance to change. It is necessary to ensure that anyone with a “stake” in the programme has “bought in”. Stakeholders can be employees, shareholders, government or suppliers.
  
  
• Strong Leadership: A strong leadership at the highest level must sponsor the change programme. The individual must be dedicated to one goal i.e. success of the change programme. Other than formal leadership “informal leaders” support is also necessary.
  
  
• Communication: Creating a climate where everyone involved in the change programme feels free and not threatened to communicate with others can minimize resistance. Change managers have to be clear about who should be told? When should they be told? What should they be told? Where should the message be conveyed? And who should control the communication process? Poor communication could result in wrong messages going out and misunderstandings occur leading to resistance and failure of the change programme.

Figure No. 3: Moving the Organization and People
[Source: Neil Russe- Jones, Managing Change]

The challenge according to Neil Russel-Jones is to move the organization and people down the scale slowly increasing acceptance of the change programme. Gaining acceptance goes through a process of starting with those that accept change and finally the laggards also accept change or leave.

[Source: Neil Russel Jones, Managing Change]

Change management needs to embrace the organization and the people. A change management programme that embraces only the system and structure of the organization will fail. It will take the organization but not the people. Likewise a change programme that embraces only the people will also fail. It will take only the people and not the organization. For a change programme to be successful it has to be all encompassing with a systems approach taking both the people and the organization.

Conclusion

Organizations today face a major challenge in managing change effectively. When organizations fail to change the cost of complacency is often high. Successful implementation of change is not easy. To make change happen is difficult. The further you go the more difficult it becomes. Barriers always exist. These barriers need to be negated, got around or climbed. The most serious challenge is to understand the organization and the people.

Reference:

1. Neil Russel Jones, Managing Change
   
2. John P. Kotter, Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail
3. Don Harvey and Donald R. Brown, An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development, Sixth Edition.
4. Dr. Richard Philips, Change Management, from the Handbook, Vol. 1 Elaine Biech and John E Jones, Eds. Amherst, MA: HRD Press, 1996