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Originally Published
in "The Review" (February, 2001)
Small acorns grow into big oak trees - this is
the theory at the heart of modern change management.
Vipul Bhatti reports :
Every voter in the US Presidential elections wanted
change, and both key candidates promised to deliver
it. What Clinton has done, what Bush hopes to
do and what Gore could have done is what Herbert
Haag has achieved at PartnerRe and what Max Taylor's
successor must do at Loyd's: manage change. Many
leaders make their mark because of what they transform.
But the results are affected by how such transformations
are handled.
The concept of 'change management' has become
increasingly popular among corporates over the
last ten years. The IT revolution is forcing them
to increase their operational pace and achieve
long -term prosperity. According to Dennis Hoppe,
president of New York-based Change Management
Implementation, the technology revolution has
had "a tremendous impact". Consequently,
the need to react faster to change has increased
significantly over the last 40 years. Scoring
a goal in one game is not enough. Maintaining
success is about how to play and win the next
game-quickly.
Large companies often experience resistance when
attempting to reform "the old ways",
says Hoppe. Newly created companies do not have
to contend with building bridges between established
and new philosophies. "Starting from scratch
in today's market is an absolute advantage. Old
ideas must be undone and more forward thinking
people need to be brought to the forefront,"
comments Hoppe. He believes smaller companies
adapt faster, suffer fewer drawbacks and push
through new ideas faster because they have fewer,
more receptive, committees and a more informal
structure.
Most companies have much less time to adapt than
ever before. Sozen Leimon, an associate partner
at Accenture in London (formerly known as Andersen
Consulting), believes cost reduction, production
and customer services are key change drivers.
She says: "Customers have more knowledge,
more information, and there are more service providers.
There's no rest period for companies. They have
to think of the next product, the next service.
Pressure from shareholders is also increasing."
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WATERSHED
US organisational theorist, Frederick Taylor
presented the notion of change in organisations
to help make businesses more efficient in the early
20th century. He believed workers were cogs in a
machine and his philosophy aimed to eliminate as
much human error as possible. But this was in the
old world.
Dori Digenti, president of Learning Mastery, an
education and consulting firm in Massachusetts,
argues that the works of theorists such as Mary
Parker Pollet and Ed Schein heralded a philosophical
watershed. They believed in thinking about organisations
where people were the focus of change. Follet and
Schein asked how businesses could become more 'human',
productive and foster respect for workers. This
is a big challenge in a world that relies heavily
on technology to communicate and carry out the most
routine tasks.
Digenti feels change is poorly understood, despite
the wealth of academic work that exists. "It's
like looking through a window and seeing a cool
forest on the other side, a glade fountain where
you can relax and reflect, but not being able to
find the door that leads to that space," she
says. Most people see what real change can do. But
their organisations have not developed the will
or resources to move in a new direction.
Schein talked about the need to address 'learning
anxiety' in the process of change. To reach the
proverbial forest companies must give employees
time to learn new behaviours without instilling
fear of appearing incompetent. Digenti says strong
leaders -an often overlooked but crucial part of
change management- can manage such vulnerability
sensitively.
Golf is a good example says Richard DiGeorgio, president
of Pennsylvania-based change management consultancy,
Richard DiGeorgio & Associates. With the right
instructor most people can learn how to play, and
the learning process itself may lead to success.
He adds that achievements can happen with motivation.
The father of champion golfer Tiger Woods raised
his son's aspirations to be better. Now Woods just
keeps winning.
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MORALE BOOSTER
The process of change can improve the business environment,
even in well-run organisations. "There are
many toxic workplaces out there, where people feel
constrained, demotivated and hopeless every morning,"
says Digenti. She believes leaders can avoid unwanted
and potentially unpleasant change by creating forums
where employees can discuss their concerns freely.
She questions whether leaders really listen to their
teams. Digenti says: "It takes a lot of training
and openness to hear what others are saying. Leaders
often fear appearing indecisive." Claiming
to be aware of change and being able to implement
it are two very different things. Understanding
change management and being able to act on it is
what separates success from failure.
This is why companies need to strike a balance between
strategic thinkers and operational managers. Leimon
says: "Leadership is accountable for operations.
It needs to have a clear focus of core business
and value generators. Simultaneously, strategic
thinkers should be aware of the importance of the
external environment and look into how it's changing."
George Binney and Colin Williams, authors of Leaning
into the Future, agree. They say: "There is
always a price to pay for riding roughshod over
people. Compliance can be demanded, but commitment
cannot. People will give grudgingly what they have
to, not all that they can ...The price for this
is usually paid in the long-term."
But Hoppe warns that change is not an option. It
is a necessity. "You must boost competitiveness
and motivate change, or you'll fail. The window
of opportunity gets shorter and shorter, rapid response
and a proactive management structure are critical...
Great decisions aren't about waiting."
But not all goals are attainable. Setting and achieving
them is a catch 22 situation. He says: "In
this global e-commerce economy we often have to
make trial and error decisions, but the initial
goal can't be fanciful. It must be realistic."
Trying to reach too far will often prevent successful
changes from materialising. Conversely, failure
to aim high enough may not achieve the desired result.
According to Digenti, small bites first work best.
"Work up a series of small successes before
going after large change. The biggest source of
corporate cynicism is the large change process,
where promises are made and not kept." No organisation
should begin a new process without having a very
detailed implementation plan, or a budget to cover
the initial change phases and maintain the new culture.
"Small is beautiful. You need a track record
of successes to build trust," comments Digenti.
TAKING THE LEAP
It is not easy to implement new ideas, and companies
should accept that failure can be an expensive part
of risk taking. They also need to acknowledge that
management sometimes gets it wrong. "You have
to look and think outside the box," says Leimon.
"Change management is expensive, but going
for change is better than less investment."
DiGeorgio uses the 'boiled frog syndrome' to explain
why companies should not fear change, and why they
should think their plans through thoroughly. He
explains: "Put a frog in tepid water. If you
slowly turn up the heat the frog will remain in
the pot. If you start out with boiling water and
then drop the frog in it will jump out."
The moral of the story
is : If change is introduced gradually, frogs will
die because they become too weak to alter. But the
pain of the heat will force them to act. Funnily
enough, this usually applies to humans too.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT GUIDE
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Establish
a sense of urgency -examine market and competitive
realities and identify and discuss crises,
potential crises or major opportunities. |
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Form a powerful guiding
coalition -assemble a group with enough power
to lead the change effort and encourage the
group to work together. |
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Create a vision to help
the change effort and develop strategies for
achieving it. |
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Empower others to act
on the vision -get rid of the obstacles to
change: change systems or structures that
seriously undermine the vision; and encourage
risk taking and non-traditional ideas, activities,
and actions. |
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Plan for and create short-term
wins -plan for viable performance improvements,
create those improvements and recognise and
reward employees involved in them. |
SOURCE: LEANING INTO THE FUTURE, BY GEORGE BINNEY
AND COLIN WILLIAMS (NICHOLAS BREALEY PUBLISHING,
1995)
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We believe in continuously enhancing
our strategic intent through the D-cube model
Direction–Discovery–Destiny |
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We believe that for getting success,
you require right Direction. |
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Discovering innovative solutions. |
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After getting right direction and After discovering
innovative solution. |
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leave upon the Destiny. |
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