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Managing Change

Written by: Geoff Flemming

Article Overview: Managing Change is all about organisational development. Change itself is simple - people adapting to change can be complex and frought with frustration.

Managing Change

If there is one thing that is constant these days in life and that is change - and the ever increasing rate of change! Just when you perfect a process, establish yourself in a new market, or you get your job down to a fine art, suddenly the market shifts or there is a need to restructure.

Particularly when you have a well established team and then suddenly someone decides to leave!!
Does this sound familiar? Indeed for leaders and managers in the fast paced business world these days change is about the only thing you can count on. However in order to get ahead in business and indeed in life you must learn to deal with and make the most of change.

Resistance to change - part of being human!

Good managers will manage the structural aspects of change. Leaders on the other hand will focus on the people aspects. Great leaders are great coaches - and coaching is always required when helping people manage change.

So why is it that sometimes change fails? Mark Sanborn, a leadership speaker and author explains that the structural aspects of change are usually not where challenges arise. Sanborn says there are a number of common reasons why organisational change fails:

• False starts - When change is hastily implemented and with insufficient commitment. This is an absolute leadership credibility killer.
• Making Change an Option - When leadership commits to a change then it no longer becomes an option. Whenever people have the option not to change, they won't!
• Focus only on Results - Organisations tend to fail miserably when they downplay or overlook the human pain of change. The lack of sensitivity to people's feelings will not only cause change to fail but will destroy trust, morale and loyalty in the process.
• Not involving those who will implement the change - Resentment arises when change is announced with little or no notice or planning. Those involved need to be part of the plan and all of the implementation. This step requires good coaching from the leader.
• Delegation to Outsiders - Whilst coaches and advisors often add ideas, inspiration and accountability, they are not the leaders! Those inside the organisation must accept responsibility for change - and the tough decisions that arise from change!
• Rewards and recognition don't change - If rewards still reflect the old ways then nothing will change. Rewards and recognition should be consistent with new behaviour as a result of a new direction.
• Leaders don't Walk the Talk - For change to occur there must be 100% buy-in. Change will falter when the leadership does not demonstrate the same commitment they expect from others.
• No Follow Through - The best planning is worthless unless implemented, measured, monitored and carried out. Responsibility must be clearly defined for ensuring that plans for change are timely, comprehensive and ensures involvement from all team members.
Managing change always requires a plan. The expression "When everything is important then nothing is important!" applies in the process of managing change, particularly with coaching and helping people through change. Managing change is fraught with frustration, distractions and 'smoke screens'.

The keys to success through leadership in managing change are clarity of vision, decisive actions, complete involvement and plenty of 'time outs' to review and reward progress.

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Article Tags: Business Coaching, Crucial Conversations, high performance teams, leadership training, managing change, motivation



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Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
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