Managing Change

Other Easy Step by Step Guides in the series include:
Telemarketing, Cold Calling & Appointment Making Marketing Successful Selling Stress and Time Management Motivating your Staff Recruiting the Right Staff Better Budgeting for your Business Building a Positive Media Profile Writing Advertising Copy Writing Articles and Newsletters
All the above guides are available direct from: Rowmark Limited Unit 36 Broadmarsh Business & Innovation Centre Harts Farm Way Havant Hampshire PO9 1HS Telephone: 023 9244 9665 Fax: 023 9244 9601 Email: enquiries@rowmark.co.uk Or via our web site www.rowmark.co.uk
Easy Step by Step Guide
Managing Change
Brian B. Brown
Rowmark
First published in 2002 by Rowmark Ltd Unit 36 Broadmarsh Innovation Centre Havant Hampshire PO9 1HS ISBN 0953985601 Brian B. Brown 2002 The right of Brian B. Brown to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1P 9HE. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher. Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution. Note: The material contained in this book is set out in good faith for general guidance and no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying in particular circumstances on statements made in this book.
Typeset by Freelance Publishing Services, Brinscall, Lancs www.freelancepublishingservices.co.uk Printed in Great Britain by RPM Reprographics Ltd, Chichester
EL
Contents
About the author Introduction How to use this guide What this guide covers What you will learn from this guide 1 Why does change have to happen? Re-inventing the organisation Change over time In summary viii 1 2 4 4 5 8 9 12
Understanding the status quo Status quo in a period of change In summary
13 14 17
Drivers for change External pressures PEST analysis Poor performance Internal dissatisfaction In summary
19 20 20 21 23 24
Organisation barriers to change Unclear objectives Cascading objectives A balanced view of objectives Inappropriate structure Poor communications In summary
25 26 29 32 34 38 39 41 42 42 43 43 44 45 47 49 50 54 56 58 59 60 61 62
People barriers to change People perceptions Fear of the unknown Perceived benefits Parochialism Trust Dealing with people perceptions In Summary
Analysing your organisation Characteristics of organisation culture Historical perspectives Control characteristics Communication systems Image People processes Influences of organisation culture In summary
LE
Communicating change effectively Responsibility for effective communications Communication messages Communication processes Who needs to know? Getting the feedback Effective listening Functional or department blocks Getting confirmation In summary
65 68 71 72 74 77 79 81 82 83 85 86 87 89 91 93 93 98 99
Managing change initiatives Impact analysis Level of support Level of involvement In summary
Managing people through change People reactions to change In summary
10 Creating a business plan for change
LEE
About the author

After a first career during which he held senior general management and executive positions in the engineering, manufacturing and financial services industries, in 1987 Brian became a freelance consultant working with large and small organisations, from private to public sectors, to improve organisation performance through strategic change and training. Brian is a business graduate, Chartered Secretary, and member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development. He also is a visiting lecturer at the University of Southampton.
Introduction
Most of us are averse to change we tend to prefer to do things in the way in which we are used to doing them. Unfortunately for us everything around us is changing, sometimes very slowly and sometimes quicker than we would like, sometimes bringing us new experiences we enjoy and at other times those we would prefer to avoid. This is more than ever true for organisations. Recent years have seen the introduction of so many changes to industry and commerce new materials, technology, speed of travel, telecommunications, social perceptions, political re-grouping, globalisation, and international competition that few, if any, organisations can claim not to have been pressured into some form of change. The problem is the conflict that all change embraces. Change may be necessary but our natural aversion to it immediately creates conflicting pressures. Failure to
1
Managing Change
recognise and address these conflicts is the main reason why change initiatives, often positive and beneficial for most of those involved, often do not produce the gains, growth and security anticipated. That is what this book is about helping you to understand the conflicting influences and encouraging the processes that will help you to implement and manage change effectively! Through this book you will find a number of references to our sister publication, the Easy Step by Step Guide, Motivating your Staff for Better Performance. I make no apology for this. Management cannot be segregated into a series of small compartments it is one process that must necessarily contain a number of elements each of which may be too large for a single book, but which are nevertheless very interdependent.
How to use this guide

This guide is written in a clear step by step style to help you to gain the best understanding possible. Some theoretical background is given where relevant to help you to focus on issues that can help you to optimise the performance of your people. However, this should not override the certain knowledge that every organisation is different (and sometimes departments within organisations are different) from each other. Therefore a good approach to your reading might be for you to consider the issues raised in this book and how they might be used beneficially for your organisation, rather than try to apply any technique in exactly the same way as a sample provided. To this end I have included places where you might like to pause in your reading and consider the
2
Introduction
implications for your area of responsibility these places are highlighted with a large question mark as shown below and are usually accompanied by a question you might like to consider. In fact, this is a good time to start how we mean to continue, to get you involved in making change happen:
W hy is the management of change important to you personally right now? Write down your feelings and ideas.
In response to this question you may have written things such as: Im being told by my organisation that things have to change I am going to have to do something about changing the way my area of responsibility works I dont like what is happening around me. I will help you to address all of the change issues, but only you will know how to make it work for you. I recommend that you read through the whole book from beginning to end, to get a feel for change in the working environment, and then revisit the sections that particularly apply to you, to refresh your memory. The grey boxes in each chapter contain tips and signposts to focus your attention on important issues. At the end of each chapter is a useful at-a-glance summary of points covered.
Managing Change
What this guide covers

This guide is primarily concerned with how to manage organisational change in the most effective way for your organisation.
What you will learn from this guide

why change happens how the status quo provides positive and negative influences on change what drives change in your organisation how to recognise and deal with barriers to change how to analyse the culture of your organisation and use its influence to help you manage change how organisations traditionally respond to change at various stages
how to identify the influencers of change and how to get them on your side how to deal with negative reactions to change how to approach a change initiative how to create a business plan for change
1 Why does change have to happen?

Mention to a friend or colleague an imminent change at work and you are likely to get a shrug of the shoulders and a comment like, Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, wasnt it? The thing is, we are getting used to the fact that nothing lasts forever and its just a matter of time before change will affect us again.
The only thing that is certain in the business environment is that things will change!
But why should this have to be the case? You may feel that things in your organisation are working pretty well anyway so if its working why change it? Most of us would probably choose to avoid most changes if we could, so why are they imposed on us?
Managing Change
One way that I can explain this is to use a graph called a sigmoid curve. This is an s-shaped curve that is used to represent any event happening over a period of time so it could represent a persons lifetime, from birth to death; a new product from design through development to production and delivery; or the development of an organisation over time. Organisation development over time could be shown as follows:
Beginning: Vision Planning
Development: Growth Stability Achievement
Transformation: Slowing down becoming outdated
As you see, I have also included the characteristics of the three stages of organisation development:
Phase 1: Beginning
Usually when people work together quite informally (often chaotically!) under a visionary entrepreneur to create something new. Despite the pressures this is often a fun stage for people in the organisation.
6
Why does change have to happen?
Phase 2: Development
Once the organisation is established it becomes necessary to formulate working practices to support the resulting growth and stability. It is during this phase that organisations can become bureaucratic and complacent.
Phase 3: Transformation
Often bureaucracy and complacency hide the fact that the organisations products/services are no longer new and competitive and the organisation is threatened with decline, takeover or closure. What this diagram shows is that the development of the organisation is moving and changing all the time it cannot stand still because all the organisations around it will have their own development patterns which are also changing. Of course, the length of the curve will be different for each organisation, but sooner or later the transformation stage is reached and what happens then? Do we just give up and move on, or is there another way? Where is your organisation? Draw a sigmoid curve and mark where you think your organisation is positioned at the moment. If possible try to put year dates under the three phases.
Fortunately, there is another option and that is to be aware when your organisation is approaching phase 3 and then to begin to develop a new sigmoid curve a new future. In business buzz-words terminology, this is known as re-inventing the organisation.
7
Managing Change
Re-inventing the organisation

Re-inventing the organisation is really the process of: Understanding exactly where the organisation is on its sigmoid curve Keeping ahead of the marketplace in which you operate by developing new ideas and products/ services Choosing the right time to launch new ideas, and the organisation, into a new future.
This can be illustrated by revising the sigmoid curve diagram to show a new launch:
period of new product development
new product launch
From the point of the new launch, the organisation then starts another curve with its inevitable phases of Beginning, Development and Transformation, creating more new ideas etc. for the next launch and the next curve and so on. As you may already be aware, launching a new product or new change initiative may
8
bring some unforeseen chaotic circumstances after all, this is what this stage in the sigmoid curve represents! If you consider that outside your organisation, the others working in your industry are going though similar processes, willingly or unwillingly, you will begin to understand just why everything is continually moving and why you have no choice but to become part of that movement willingly or unwillingly! However, there is one other issue about sigmoid curve development that we have not yet addressed not if change will occur (we now know that it must), but when?
Change over time

Every organisation will follow its own sigmoid curve, but different organisations will move at different paces for different reasons: the business environment may develop more slowly for some organisations e.g. universities tend to change at a very slow pace because of the desire to maintain historic academic standards organisation structure may prohibit speedy change even if it is desirable e.g. parts of the Civil Service are bound in bureaucratic procedures that make change difficult to implement organisation leaders may not want to change what they see as their baby an organisation may not have the finance or resources to address necessary change
9
Managing Change
resistance to change may be stronger than the factors driving change.
This different pace of change means that I cannot provide you with a schedule of expectation regarding any change process in which you may get involved.
Thinking about your organisation, are there any factors you can think of that will directly influence or indicate a rate or pace of change? Do you think that the pace of change in your working environment is getting slower or faster? What do you think the implications might be for you?
What we can be sure about is that for most organisations the pace of change is increasing exponentially, i.e. the rate of change is moving at an increasing rate. An example of this increasing rate of change can be found in British Airways. A look at the history of the company identifies clear points at which sigmoid curves have developed: 192476 Origination of commercial flying to the point when planning for privatisation of the airline was implemented 197696 Preparations for and movement through privatisation and into a commercial organisation
199699 Operation of the airline in an increasingly competitive market under a new Chief Executive
10
1999?? Change of Chief Executive to address poor operating performance of previous years in an ever increasingly competitive environment. What is clearly shown by these periods of re-invention is the increasing speed at which change is occurring in the airline industry: 192476 = 52 years 197696 = 20 years 199699 = 3 years 1999?? = unknown at the time of writing. So, what we can now say is that not only is change inevitable, for most of us it is moving at an ever increasing rate. This makes it ever more necessary for you to be on the ball when it comes to implementing change in your organisation.
Looking back over the history of your organisation are you able to identify points of change and the rate at which changes have occurred? If so, what are the implications for you in trying to manage future change?
11
Managing Change
In summary
the only thing that is certain in a business environment is that change is inevitable change occurs within an organisations life cycle representing the three phases of Beginning, Development and Transformation the three phases in the life cycle will move at different speeds for different organisations the pace of change globally is generally getting faster it is important to understand your organisations life cycle and to identify the point at which to reinvent.
12
2 Understanding the status quo

You are possibly beginning to realise that re-inventing all or part of your organisation (because a change initiative can be focused on one area or the whole organisation) can be a matter of fine judgement. At what point do you launch a new initiative? This will be a matter of personal judgement dependent on your organisation and its market environment. What is certain is that any change initiative is likely to cause ripples. Why is that? When we looked at sigmoid curves earlier we saw that different stages of development are usually reflected in different types of organisation. In more detail this is shown on the table on page 14. This development of structure in an organisation creates anchors and norms, or points of reference from which decisions can be made. In creating this organisation backbone we also form the pattern of how things are done in the organisation and how the organisation reacts to the events that affect it.
13
Managing Change
This pattern, or paradigm, is called the status quo the character of the organisation, and will almost certainly reflect the type of organisation being developed. However, this structure, and status quo also will tend to change as the operation of the organisation develops.
Stage of Organisation Development: Early: Processes
Informal creative entrepreneurial
Middle:
Formalised departmental functional specialisation
Late:
very formal departmental functional specialistion bureaucratic
Change:
breakdown of formality moving to entrepreneurial
Structure
informal adhocracy matrix
formal adhocracy moving to hierarchy
hierarchical bureaucracy
hierarchy giving way to matrix adhocracy
Status quo in a period of change

Looking again at the movements in changing sigmoid curves will possibly have identified the turmoil that results during a period of change. This is primarily because the existing and new developments represented by our sigmoid curves are moving in opposite directions:
status quo
curve B
curve A
14
Understanding the status quo
Those movements, the old and the new, will each try to embrace the existing status quo , or pattern of operation, of the organisation. At the same time opposing forces (possibly including us individuals because we dont like change) will be endeavouring to: 1 Maintain the existing organisation patterns and direction e.g. Why are we trying to change something that has worked for some time? Create the new direction determined by what is happening to the organisation but which may not be visible to everyone.
So, you have a situation of some uncertainty with two different forces demanding the support of the current structure and status quo of the organisation. In your organisation, which of the two forces existing line of development or new line of development would your status quo be likely to support? Write down the reasons for your answer.
Your answer will depend on the type of organisation you work for but you might like to ponder: would it be different if you worked for Richard Branson? would it be different if you worked for the Inland Revenue?
15
Managing Change
Because the status quo has supported the existing development of your organisation to date, it is likely that it will continue to do so rather than to transfer support to a pattern not yet recognised. This is because the status quo reflects everything and everyone that has contributed to the organisation in the past indeed, it is the organisations history that often makes the status quo so strong. Of course, it is this strength present in the organisation that will play a major factor in providing the resources and skills to successfully bring about that change. On the other hand, it is also this strength that can become a major barrier to your being able to implement change at all! We can imagine the status quo in an organisation as a fortress. We can use its great strength to defend ourselves against opposition and protect our chosen way of life. However, that strength can also make us complacent and inward-looking so that we fail to see, or take part in, what is going on outside. As a result, we may eventually starve ourselves to death! So, how can you use the strength built up in your organisation while being sufficiently aware to avoid a period of starvation? What you need are ways of recognising the pressures attacking the status quo , and an awareness of status quo characteristics that are likely to help, or hinder, your initiatives.
16
Understanding the status quo
In summary
organisation change will evolve around the status quo which will tend to support the existing rather than a new direction this evolution creates conflict between the old and the new, which can be resolved only by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the system and how to use them effectively the status quo represents the strengths in an organisation, but can also produce a complacent blindness that results in self- starvation in a changing world.
17
3 Drivers for change
The need for change can arise as a result of pressures both within and outside the organisation. In fact this need for change, this attack on the status quo , will usually result from one or more of the drivers; external pressures, poor performance, or internal dissatisfaction.
poor performance external pressures
status quo
internal dissatisfaction

19
Managing Change
External pressures
External pressures arise as a result of changes going on in the sector of operation, either because of: changes introduced by competitors such as new products, new packaging, stronger marketing, lower prices, etc. change brought about by political or economic circumstances. Examples of such changes might be legislation, political pressure on public sector organisations, increases in interest rates. changes in marketplace perceptions, such as the perceptions of consumers, consumer pressure groups (e.g. environmental factors), or changing public opinion (e.g. move towards organic produce) technological change that introduces a more efficient way of producing products/services (eg, shopping via the internet), or perhaps changes the way things are done (e.g. communication by email)
Identifying these factors for your organisation can be achieved using what is called PEST analysis.
PEST analysis
One of the ways in which you can determine the external factors influencing your organisation is to carry out a PEST analysis.* You do this by looking at the
*sometimes called STEP analysis by those who feel that PEST is too negative
20
Drivers for change
opportunities and threats facing your organisation using the headings: Political Economic Socio-cultural (i.e. public perception) Technological. What you are aiming to do is to look at the immediate future and try to determine firstly the opportunities available to your organisation, and secondly the threats posed to your organisation in relation to each of the PEST factors.
What are the external issues driving change in your organisation? Write down the opportunities available to you in the immediate future, and the threats posed to your way of operating. List these factors under the PEST headings.
Poor performance
Poor performance often is demonstrated against statistical targets things like: not producing enough financial surplus or failing to control costs within budgets set allowing costs to increase out of control
21
Managing Change
failing to achieve sales/income or output targets increasing customer complaints.
In the British public sector, organisations are increasingly being asked to benchmark themselves against league tables of other organisations working in similar areas of operation (e.g. schools). However, there are other less statistically-based factors that can also give rise to concerns of poor performance. For example, the way in which environmental and community issues are addressed. Judgements of such factors can also be made by benchmarking against other organisations but those organisations may not be in the same sector of operation and judgement often has to be subjective rather than statistically objective.
Did you list any poor performance factors in the analysis you carried out previously? Are there any more factors you can now identify and add to your list of factors driving change for you?
You have probably realised that poor performance factors are usually internal, even though they might be judged or benchmarked against other external organisations. However, they are almost always under your control unlike many PEST factors.
22
Drivers for change
Internal dissatisfaction
Dissatisfaction is an even more internally-focused driving force. It is something we feel internally about the way we are doing things in the organisation. However, this is where the focus stops, because dissatisfaction may be with a current single issue in the organisation or with the development of a number of minor issues over a period of time. It can also refer to people, resources or processes; and the dissatisfaction itself can originate from any or many of the stakeholders in the organisation. As examples, we can have dissatisfaction with: development of pay and conditions operational processes old or new equipment policy changes specific individuals, or groups of employees and many, many more.
List any issues of dissatisfaction you can think of arising anywhere in the organisation. Are they part of a current drive for change? If not, what do you think it would take for them to become drivers for change?
23
Managing Change
Factors of dissatisfaction tend to fester and spread through organisations, gaining momentum as they go. Unless you make a deliberate effort to identify these factors, therefore, it is possible they can creep up unawares until they create a major crisis that literally threatens the good of the organisation
In summary
Change in organisation is usually driven by one or more of the factors: external pressures; poor performance; dissatisfaction a PEST analysis is a good way of identifying the effects of external factors on the opportunities and threats facing the organisation. PEST factors may not be under the control of the organisation poor performance is often an internal issue that can be benchmarked against other external performers, but is usually under the control of the organisation dissatisfaction is created internally by one or more stakeholders, about internal issues. It can cover people, resources or processes. It can also fester and spread through organisations, gaining momentum until it is too late to prevent dramatic and potentially destructive change. If evolutionary change is ignored or overlooked, revolutionary change is likely to occur!
24
4 Organisation barriers to change

While various factors are attacking the status quo, acting as drivers for change, parts of the status quo will strongly defend the existing structure. This is done by erecting barriers to any change that may be proposed. Organisation barriers will usually aim to support failings in one or more of the following areas: unclear objectives inappropriate structures poor communications all of which are likely to have become entrenched in the status quo (see the diagram on page 26).
25
Managing Change
unclear objectives
status quo
inappropriate structures
Because we generally like things to stay the way they are, these barriers create a very strong force to maintain the status quo in the organisation. Therefore it is vital to be able to understand how we can identify, improve and use these organisation factors constructively rather than allow them to undermine the change that is necessary if the organisation is to survive.
Unclear objectives
People cannot support change if they do not know what is expected of them, particularly when those expectations encompass new procedures. At an overall organisational level this means knowing what the organisation (the sum of all its resources) expects to achieve over a given time period its objectives. Does your organisation have a set of overall objectives, possibly called its mission and goals? If so, get hold of a copy, or write them down for yourself. Keep them handy because you will need to add to this information as the chapter progresses.
26
poor communications
Organisation barriers to change
Most organisations operate as a collection of smaller, individual departments or sections. To be effective and to take the first step in gaining the commitment of all employees to organisation change it is necessary for every department to have contributed to the original design of the change objectives. That is, you cannot hold people responsible for change plans to which they have not contributed their views and therefore their commitment!
Were your change goals agreed as a result of contributions from all departments and staff? If not, this would be a good point to circulate them to everyone and to ask for some feedback. The first step to getting total commitment to change is to get total contribution to the design of original goals for change!
Organisation change objectives can be couched in different management jargon but invariably add up to the same thing a series of value statements about the organisation, often comprising one or more of the following: vision a long-term visualisation of what the organisation will look like in the future
mission what the organisation expects to achieve in the long term goals/aims specific factors to be achieved in the short term
27
Managing Change
objectives significant, measurable actions necessary to achieve the stated goals values standards of behaviour that should be observed by everyone when actioning objectives. VISION, MISSION, GOALS, AIMS, OBJECTIVES and VALUES are just buzz-words dont get hung up on buzz-words! What is important is that everyone knows what you and the organisation expect from them.
Since every person in an organisation must share in, and contribute to the achievement of the organisations mission and goals, if change is to be effectively implemented, it is important that they are written in language that is memorable, easily understood and concise. This then makes it an easy task for employees at every level to continually remind themselves of the targets and issues for which they are personally responsible. Go back to your organisation goals and read them through again. Would you say that they are memorable, written in straightforward language and short enough for everyone in the organisation to remember? If you are not sure, it might be a good idea to ask several employees to tell you what they think the organisations change goals are. Can you think of ways that the goals can be amended to make them simpler and more memorable? If you can, write down your ideas and keep them until you have read the next section.
28
Some organisations have laborious mission and goals statements, which are forgotten almost as quickly as they are written. The more complex the organisation the more likely it is to have a long value statement though it can be argued that this should not be necessary it is also more likely that few, if any, employees would be able to tell you what they were. Memorable statements often are very short phrases or even single words for example: NO SURPRISES (Holiday Inns) ENTHUSE DEVELOP SUPPORT DELIVER (Training organisation)
Cascading objectives
In a typical organisation there will be a hierarchy of levels through which change initiatives and the organisation goals have to be cascaded:
Executive
Manager
Supervisor
Front line
29
Managing Change
This cascading process should ensure that: the executive team determines what actions it needs to take, at this level, and write individual or collective targets to focus on how executive activities will achieve the required change the managers of each department or section write and agree with staff the departmental targets to be achieved to ensure that the departments activities will contribute directly to the achievement of the required change and the organisations objectives individuals have agreed targets, the achievement of which will help to achieve departmental goals and ultimately those of the organisation.
The aim of this cascading process is to focus every employees performance on activities that will contribute to the overall success of the change process, however remote he or she may be from the centre of operation, the focus of change or from the consumer of the organisations products or services. In many large organisations, and perhaps also in yours, individual goals/objectives are sometimes called by a buzz-title such as: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Key Result Areas (KRAs). Personal objectives aim to improve individual capability and performance, and increase contribution to organisation success!
30
Whatever you call them, personal objectives must focus on areas that add directly to the target changes. Ultimately, your aim will be to improve the capabilities of the people in your team, so enhancing their individual performance, the contribution they make to the team, and the value they add to the organisation as the change is successfully introduced. To be effective, individual change objectives should be: specific clearly identifiable in terms of what you require to be done measurable written so that you will be able to measure performance against them, i.e. what will be done by when and how will we know? achievable set at a level which stretches the individual but which you know can be achieved by the individual (with your support) in order to maintain and encourage the individuals motivation to achieve realistic and agreed by the staff member to whom they apply regularly monitored by you and to a schedule that maintains high performance.
31
Managing Change
If you would like an easy way to remember these characteristics, use the SMART mnemonic: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time focused.
A balanced view of objectives

One of the things you may have thought about in Chapter 3 is that the drivers for change can become intermingled rather than identifiable in the neat sections mentioned. This is possibly true and is a good reason why you should try to create balanced objectives across all the drivers rather than rely on objectives couched only in financial or statistical terms, such as Achieve a 10 per cent increase in sales by the end of the year. This type of goal ignores what the effect might be on customers and staff in the long-term as a result of working towards that 10 per cent achievement. Areas such as customer satisfaction, organisation systems, development of new products or services etc. may not have goals that are absolutely objective. If you are to get the maximum benefits from a change process, it is important that you are able to identify the really vital factors, without which organisation change has little chance of success in the long term.
32
For most change processes the following factors are likely to have the greatest impact (though you may want to add other areas for your organisation!): customer satisfaction the ability to deliver an enhanced level of products/services to current and potential customers during and following the change process organisation development the ability to learn continually from your change experiences so as to add positive advantages as you go along and create ongoing competitive advantage people optimisation the ability to attract, keep and develop the right people to optimise change and continually deliver excellent performance in the future organisation processes the ability and willingness to change and manage the organisations processes and systems to support all other factors to a high level financial ability the ability to achieve financial targets and satisfy the needs of the current business and its investors (if any), and future capital requirements, through and from the change process. When you began to design, or review, your organisation objectives earlier, did you take into account the areas detailed above? If you think that this way of thinking might be helpful to your organisation, would it be useful for you to group your objectives under these headings? Once you have done so, are there any gaps that need to be addressed?
33
Managing Change
If you complete this exercise, you have probably begun the blueprint for successful change in your organisation!* By suggesting this process, I am trying to encourage you to focus on the measures that are likely to be most critical to the organisations future, and to get you to consider all operational measures together rather than concentrate only on financial indicators. This creates a balanced view of what will make your change processes successful because it will almost certainly concentrate your organisations efforts on the really important issues.
Inappropriate structure
Organisations will often spend a great deal of time and money discussing and planning quite complex changes while ignoring one of the most fundamental questions Can our proposed changes work within the framework or structure of the organisation as we know it? If you think about your organisation and its history you will possibly realise that the current structure and operational framework has developed and grown over the years and literally controls how you work today. But everything has moved on and you are possibly planning more, perhaps radical, changes in the future. Can you assume that that same structure you have had until now will happily support the new present and the new future?
* More information and guidelines on designing objectives can be found in our sister book, the Easy Step by Step Guide, Motivating your Staff for Better Performance.
34
Think about the changes that have oc curred during your time with the organisation, and/or the changes being planned. Are there signs of the organisation structure not being able to cope or things having to be done outside the rules to make them work? How do you think your structure could be improved to support current change?
We are used to hierarchical types of structure in our organisations and you are unusual if you do not have layers and levels of authority and responsibility in your organisation. In recent times, down-sizing or rightsizing and empowerment have been presented as changes to traditional organisation structure, but in most cases such initiatives have not been realistically and totally embraced by changing organisations. Despite committing (in words) to empowerment, there remains in many organisations the same type of rod and staff hierarchical chain of command though with perhaps fewer layers. Fashions of this nature may have provided sufficient incentive for some organisations to review their operational frameworks but all too often it has led to little effective structural change. Most organisations are likely to go through different processes before addressing the real problems they face ones that require, by then, radical change. Such processes are likely to include: tightening the bootlaces cutting costs, staff, product ranges, production ranges etc. in order to become more cost-efficient
35
Managing Change
revising the plans, budgets, forecasts and targets in the light of poor performance putting the organisation into a downward operational spiral to reflect the ever-deteriorating situation.
The question that needs to be asked when looking at any organisation structure is, If we were setting up this organisation, department, office, or team today, would we set it up in the way it is now?
Ask yourself that question about your area of responsibility. Does every operation work really smoothly and well? Does it interface with all the other operations in the department and in the whole organisation? Could things work better? How would you design your area if you were setting up a completely new organisation today?
Something that has become apparent in recent years is that patterns of work are changing, partly because of the growth of technology but also because of global competition and changing attitudes. What we can observe is that organisations are beginning to appreciate the need to: identify and develop a professional core of workers, essential to the organisation, who own the organisation knowledge which distinguishes the organisation from its competitors. This core is cosseted and well-paid to ensure loyalty and commitment
36
contract out non-essential work to sub-contractors who can carry out the work cheaper than the companys own staff. In fact, this group may be the companys ex-staff who have set up small businesses to provide specialist services hire in for specific projects part-time and temporary workers, or consultants, who take their skills to more than one employer to meet surges in demand or extended working hours and shift patterns. Some of these workers will operate from home or from local technology centres, rather than from expensive city-centre offices.
Does any of the above ring a bell for you? Are any of these methods being used, or could be beneficially used, in your organisation?
What you need to ensure is that your organisation structure: matches and supports your change initiatives; for example, implementing entrepreneurial change will be made difficult within a bureaucratic and rule-based structure eliminates barriers between departments and functions by involving everyone in a simultaneous change process contains a balanced view of the importance of all the organisation factors that will make change
37
Managing Change
happen and work people, processes, resources and finance. Any structure that is not part of, and programmed to change with, the change initiative being implemented will almost certainly harness the strength of the status quo to prevent the desired change happening!
Poor communications
Whenever I, working as a change consultant, talk with employees about what they see as the problems facing the organisation, they almost always highlight communication as the major problem. Most employees feel that they are not told enough about what is going on and are not trusted to contribute to solving problems. Employers feel that important strategic information, such as intended change initiatives, cannot be divulged to people lower down the organisation. The irony is that, more often than not, people through the whole organisation are aware that something is going on or something needs to happen and are probably talking about it anyway whether they are correct or not in their guesswork.
People who are not told what is happening will tend to make it up anyway! Is this what you want?
It is for all these reasons that, later in this book, I devote a complete chapter to such an important subject.
38
In summary
barriers that the organisation can present to any proposed change usually fall under the headings: unclear objectives inappropriate structure poor communications objectives become clear when they: involve SMART design; involve the contribution of everyone in the organisation; promote shared values through the organisation; cascade effectively down through the organisation; include a balanced perspective. Changing to a new working environment is difficult when continuing to work within an old structure. A new structure should complement change initiatives and reflect the organisations visualisation of its future.
39
5 People barriers to change

Barriers to change are not only presented by organisations they also arise from the people working in those organisations. People barriers can be divided into two distinct, though inter-related, areas: Individual perceptions The culture that has been built up in the organisation over time.
We can now add these factors to the model shown earlier:

unclear objectives
inappropriate structures
status quo
poor communications
ingrained culture
people perceptions
41
Managing Change
People perceptions
Our ideas and values develop over time to create individual personal filters. Our filter acts as a processor for everything we experience and from which emerges our view of our environment our perceptions. Think about a change that has occurred in your life recently. How did you feel about it? Did you welcome it with open arms, or perhaps grudgingly accept it as inevitable? Or perhaps you are still fighting it either consciously or unconsciously?
Most of us have some hang-ups when there is any suggestion of changes that impact on our comfort zones. These hang-ups tend to group together as described in the following sections.
Fear of the unknown

The implementation of a change initiative is rarely announced with all the detail that people would like it is more often imposed as a sort of fait accompli that will begin at some imminent time. The result is that people start to improvise imagined possibilities to fill the spaces the things they will fear and they will make up plausible possibilities to feed that fear! People will make up the things they are not told about and what they make up becomes reality for them.
42
People barriers to change
Perceived benefits
It is important to address the needs of the individuals in your team who will think, and possibly ask, Whats in it for me? While you may feel that this sounds somewhat selfcentred, in reality it is a very fair question in a working environment that recognises people as an important part of the organisations success. When planning a change initiative it is right that you think about the benefits to individuals and the team as well as to the organisation as a whole. By doing this you will not be surprised by the question and are more likely to achieve the balance that will ensure long-term success.
Parochialism
You need to remember that once people are settled into their jobs, they create patterns and processes for themselves that help them to get the maximum satisfaction from what they do. Any change initiative is likely to threaten this parochial environment, or comfort zone, and may well be seen as something to be fought. After all, it is aimed at destroying all the things that make my working life enjoyable isnt it? Being close to the people in your team and having a well-developed trust relationship with them will help you to understand all the little factors that people build into their jobs. In turn, this understanding may help you to avoid some of the conflicts that can easily arise during change initiatives.
43
Managing Change
Trust
Trust is more about who we are and what we are than it is about how we do things. As you may have realised by now, managing change is not merely a series of mechanical tasks, but also a collection of human interactions. Trust is the highest form of motivation, bringing out the very best in people (Stephen Covey) The development of trust can never be a quick-fix, short-term project it takes patience and it requires the willingness to train and develop people so that their competency can rise to the level of that trust.* Trust in working relationships tends to be built up a little at a time over quite long periods, with each small positive action adding to the depth of trust developed. However, our lifetime experience (our personal filter) suggests that people tend to let us down eventually and we therefore tend to expect and look for the negative activity that will prove our past experience. This is the reason that quite small negative actions are perceived as a betrayal of trust and lead to a much larger loss than we may feel is justified. This also is the problem when implementing change initiatives past experiences that have been perceived as a betrayal of trust create a barrier when trying to get buy-in or cooperation from other people.
* For a more detailed explanation and guidelines for developing trust, please see our sister publication, the Easy Step by Step Guide, Motivating your Staff for Better Performance.
44
Unfortunately this can be equally true even when you were not the person guilty of the betrayal! Some people will use an earlier experience as a defence against changes they are being asked to accept, on the basis that, I was given assurances last time I was involved with change and in the end I was badly let down [or made redundant etc.]. The fact that the event was with another organisation, with different people, some years ago, will not prevent the lack of trust built at that time being projected into the current situation.
Dealing with people perceptions

The way to overcome, or better still avoid, the building of barriers reflecting the in-built perceptions of individuals involved, is to create an environment for change that pre-addresses probable people perceptions. Chapter 9 gives some guidance on dealing with various types of reaction to change. For now, what you need to be aware of is the importance of involving your team in the planning of change from a very early stage.
Think about change in your organisation perhaps something you are planning. When would you want to involve people at the various levels? Are there any people or groups you would avoid telling until the last minute? Why?
45
Managing Change
When working as a consultant helping an organisation to introduce change, I am often advised that, We could not possibly discuss issues at ground-floor level until we are ready to implement the change. When I ask why, there is usually reference to confidentiality or maintaining morale. However, what I find in reality is that people at all levels in these organisations have a pretty good idea what is happening and are openly discussing their fears! Given the opportunity, people in the organisation at all levels can be remarkable in the contribution they make to change.
Unless the change initiative involves issues that would undermine the organisation externally, or give competitors some unfair advantage, I would recommend the involvement of everyone in the organisation at the very earliest opportunity. Get your people to suggest the options available and ways in which they can be dealt with. Then help them to visualise how the organisation will look once the change has taken place. In doing so, you will start to build a very different organisation by changing the culture that permeates your organisation currently.
46
In summary
people in organisations will erect barriers to proposed change according to their perceptions these perceptions will probably be based on past experiences and fall under the headings of: fear of the unknown; perceived benefits; parochialism; trust these perceptions and barriers can best be addressed by involving people at all levels in the change process from the very earliest point possible.
47
6 Analysing your organisation

So far this book has examined why change is necessary, what drives change and the barriers likely to be erected against change in an organisation. I have also made reference to personal filters and the way in which they make us the way we are. All of these factors add up to the fact that implementing change in an organisation is likely to be quite a formidable task. If you imagine how difficult it would be to try to change a persons complete perspective, then you also will see that it can be extremely difficult to change a whole departmental or organisational culture. Some organisations have found that it can take up to fifteen years to change direction and that a minor hiccup can easily push the initiative back to the beginning! This is because people in the organisation may prefer things the way they are, or the way they recently were, to the uncertainty that change presents to them. It is not unusual to hear people referring to
49
Managing Change
how things were much better in the old days before change was introduced, even when the change occurred some years before! So, how can you determine the best way to approach change in your organisation? Clearly, you need to have a pretty good idea of the collected personal values, current and past, that create the paradigm or character of your status quo the organisation culture that dictates the way you do things in the organisation.
Do you think there is any difference between status quo and organisation culture? Write down what you think those differences might be.
Characteristics of organisation culture

In answer to the above question you may have identified that status quo often refers to organisation characteristics, whereas Culture may be more to do with personal behaviour. To some degree this is true, but over a period of time behaviour tends to become absorbed into rules and processes, thereby closely binding the two together; certainly here I am considering them to be virtually inseparable. I should mention here also that the word culture used here does not directly refer to ethnic cultures, though it is of course possible that a diversity of ethnic cultures in the workplace could be part of
50
Analysing your organisation
your organisation culture. In fact, culture in its widest sense influences our daily working lives. There is an aspiration that the ever-faster drive towards internationalisation will create, or at least eventually lead to, common culture characteristics worldwide. Already there are a number of products and services that are becoming common to world markets, e.g. Coca Cola looks the same wherever in the world you may come across it. One of the important aspects to consider, however, is not what these global products are, or where they are found physically, but what they mean to the people in each culture, e.g. dining at McDonalds may be viewed as a status symbol in Moscow but as a cheap convenience meal in New York. Hence the product may be similar, but the culture is different! Culture can be represented at three different levels: national or regional attitudes shared by ethnic groups corporate or organisational attitudes expressed within a specific organisation professional attitudes shared by people within certain functions and ethical orientations yet in organisational terms, each of the levels is interdependent.
A change initiative may embrace one or all of these levels, making it more or less complex to manage. In this book, I am concentrating on change within an organisation, though the guidelines provided can easily be extended to incorporate the other levels.
51
Managing Change
However, as with all management processes, the simpler you can make them, the easier it will be to achieve success.
Try to keep things simple simple steps are easier to manage and quicker to become successful.
Organisation culture is a complex mix of characteristics, the essence of which is not what is visible on the surface it is the shared ways groups of people understand and interpret their world, both inside and outside the organisation. It has been suggested that culture exists in layers and that to understand it you have to unpeel it layer by layer. The outer layer contains the products of culture (symbols such as uniforms, offices, advertising and brands) that can be changed quite easily. Layers representing values and norms are contained deeper down and are more difficult to identify and change. What is taken for granted in an organisation unquestioned reality (the way we individually perceive work and the organisation generally) is the core of the organisations culture and its status quo. As such it is the deepest layer and usually the most difficult to change as a result.
52
Think about your organisation. What are the elements and characteristics that contribute to your organisation culture the ways things are done? Divide a sheet of paper into two columns and write the official version perhaps the way the organisation likes to see itself in the left-hand column. Once you have done that write in the righthand column what really happens in the organisation the reality.
You are now beginning to understand the real status quo in your organisation!
When analysing organisation culture, I find it easier to look for characteristics under a number of headings that I expect to find in most organisations: historical perspectives processes and values that come from the passage of time control characteristics the ownership, power structure, leadership and management style that dominate the organisation communication systems formal and informal ways in which information is passed to gain the understanding and cooperation of everyone involved image the face presented externally to influence the perceptions of the outside world
53
Managing Change
people systems the way in which people are attracted, recruited, monitored, developed and rewarded.
These elements are dealt with individually in the following sections.
Historical perspectives
Over a period of time organisations develop and grow. This was illustrated by the sigmoid curve in Chapter 1. As development takes place, ways of doing things are created and become established as part of the nature of the operation. Often, these factors become set in concrete even though their foundation may have been tentative to start with and/or they are no longer the best factors for the changing organisation. An example that arose as I was writing this book is the way in which National Health Service (NHS) doctors are allowed to spend several hours each week developing a private practice outside the NHS. These, often senior specialists, are employed as full-time practitioners in the NHS at a time when patient waiting lists are lengthy, yet follow a procedure agreed in the 1940s when the health service was in its infancy and waiting lists were unknown. The process has been handed down and continued over the generations despite major changes in the organisation and its needs!
54
Go back to your organisation culture list. Are there identifiable factors that are part of the historic development of your organisation? Are they still pertinent now, or are they relevant to any change initiative you have in mind? What can you do about them?
Please note that the word historic is not intended to imply only actions in the long-distant past; it should also encompass process changes that may have taken place more recently (e.g. a redundancy programme, or a merger/takeover etc.) which has had a direct influence on the way the organisation works. One way of addressing historic factors is to ask yourself the question, If I was setting up the organisation today, would I do things in the same way? If the answer is No then you have an historic factor that needs to be addressed to help your organisation to be successful in the future. When you look at factors in this way you are aiming to re-engineer the process or factor (to use a management buzz-word) to make it more appropriate to the current operation, perhaps taking into account the availability of technology and systems that were unavailable when the organisation started. Historic factors can also include behaviour that has become part of the fabric of the organisation even though it is based on very tentative foundations. For example, imagine an organisation where, based on previous promotions, managers believed that membership to a particular golf club would help them to
55
Managing Change
secure future promotion. Or an organisation where managers believed that they were expected to wear suits, shirts and ties of a particular appearance. Both of these cases were from real organisations in the past and real for the people involved but were based on incorrectly perceived experiences.
Are there behavioural factors in your organisation that you want to keep because they are good, or change because they are inappropriate? Identifying those factors on your culture list now will help you to understand issues that may help or hinder future change initiatives.
One of the most common historical factors I come across in organisations is promotion based on some sort of pecking order rather than on ability and performance. Was this in your list? Is it a procedure that is likely to help you be successful in the future? Is it something you need to change? How can you change it? These are fundamental questions that will need to be answered when implementing your change project.
Control characteristics
The way that the organisation is controlled and managed will have a substantial effect on its success. One of the issues that I often encounter when training managers is the apparent unwillingness of young people, starting their first job, to embrace the menial
56
tasks that we had to do when we started work. This conflict arises for two reasons: education in the UK has changed from a rote dependency to learning based on self-managed, teacher-facilitated projects. Young people today are therefore more independent in defining their role and implementing appropriate activities. Perhaps as a result of the above, the process of management has changed from a very autocratic role applied up to the 1970s, to the more democratic role appropriate today.
Unfortunately, and probably because of historic anchoring, some organisations have failed to recognise the need to change and I still find dominant, and sometimes covert autocracy in place in many organisations. What these organisations have failed to grasp is that autocratic management does not provide the support, development and motivation of employees that makes significant contributions to the organisations success.*
Employees who are not motivated are unlikely to support change.
* For a more detailed explanation and guidelines for motivating people, please see our sister publication, the Easy Step by Step guide, Motivating your Staff for Better Performance.
57
Managing Change
Communication systems
Change, and indeed good management, cannot take place without effective communication channels. Channels of communication within organisations often reflect the way the organisation has developed historically, owner fads or preferences (particularly where technological innovations are concerned), and management style. They also reflect the trust, or lack of it, between the hierarchical layers in the organisation. Thus, I regularly come across organisations who communicate impersonally by written memo (and now increasingly by intranet or email) and wonder why managing people is such hard work. How do you get to know your people if you dont talk to them? Poor communication is almost always a characteristic of poor, and often autocratic, managers it usually creates more problems than it solves, bringing with it increased stress on all parties.
Did you list any communication factors in your organisation culture list? How good are communication systems in your organisation? Do you need to do something about them?
Poor communication is ranked as the greatest problem in most organisations. In Chapter 7, guidance will be provided to help you to make your communications more effective. The time spent on
58
achieving better communications will reap ever-increasing benefits.
Image
Irrespective of what is happening inside the organisation, there is usually a perceived need to present the best picture to people outside. Organisations therefore try to manipulate perceptions by external displays to meet perceived expectations and create confidence in the organisations products and/or services. For example, banks often have stone edifices and solid oak front doors to help us feel that our money is safe with them. Advertising is a good way of letting the world know about organisation values as well as products or services and you can observe daily the different images displayed by organisations trying to attract the attention of different groups of people. Other image factors can be observed from the annual report and accounts published by major companies, and sometimes by the type of vehicles used by directors or the way that commercial vehicles are painted. Organisation logos are again intended to present an image we can respect and remember. Image is probably the first culture factor to be recognised as reflecting historic influences and usually the first to be updated to keep abreast of market developments. This is usually promoted and achieved by marketing/advertising/public relations teams. The major influence here is of course the importance of how we are projected to people outside
59
Managing Change
the organisation, many of whom will be the people we rely on for our business and income!
People processes
Organisations cannot survive without people and in a world of increasing opportunities and shrinking skillbases the way in which people are attracted, recruited, monitored, developed and rewarded has become an important factor of organisation success.* However, in some organisations the shadows of the past are still an integral part of these issues, reflected in: the use of long outdated job descriptions poorly conducted recruitment interviews that fail to establish meaningful rapport or benchmarks the subsequent ignoring of individual experience and personal skills that were significant in the selection process but afterwards not fully utilised operational rules that have more to do with where the organisation has come from than where it is going lack of appropriate personal development opportunities linked to organisation growth and development
* For a more detailed explanation and guidelines for implementing effective performance management, please see our sister publications, the Easy Step by Step guides, Motivating your Staff for Better Performance and Recruiting the Right Staff.
60
performance monitoring that has little to do with the achievement of optimum performance
reward and incentive systems that reflect mundane as much as exceptional performance and do little to motivate the recipients.
Influences of organisation culture

As discussed in Chapter 3, change can be driven by a number of factors. However, once the need for change becomes apparent it is not unusual for an organisation to take a least done, soonest mended approach. This is characterised by addressing the problem by some form of incremental tinkering usually incorporating the tightening of control procedures and closer monitoring. When this fails to bring the organisation back into line, management may then assume that the existing strategy is inappropriate and set about developing a revised strategy. It is only when the new strategy fails that thought is given to the fact that perhaps it is the entire paradigm, or status quo , or culture of the organisation that is preventing it from moving forward. Of course, by this point a great deal of time has been lost and the problems of the organisation have probably deepened, perhaps irretrievably.
61
Managing Change
You may well be reading this book because of some imminent change process in your organisation. Do any of the above stages ring a bell for you? Is this a good time to revisit your organisation culture notes and try to determine the factors that will support change and flexibility, and those that might stand in the way of any change happening? What is likely to be the outcome of proceeding without this analysis and knowledge?
Different organisations will need different solutions at different times in their development. The trick is to know where you are now and which philosophy will create the situation you are aiming for.
In summary
organisation culture is created from a number of characteristics over a long period of time
changing an organisation culture is a long-term policy and may involve changing one or more of the factors that make up the overall culture. These factors will probably fall under the following headings: historical perspectives; control characteristics; communication systems;
62
external image; people processes time can be wasted by making minor incremental changes when more radical organisation change may be necessary to drive the organisation forward.
63
7 Communicating change effectively

Under normal circumstances, when someone communicates with us, we usually retain around: 30 per cent of what we read 50 per cent of what we hear 70 per cent of what we both see and hear.
Therefore, one of the greatest problems you face when trying to communicate the message of change through your organisation is how to effectively communicate ideas outwardly while also receiving, hearing and responding to inward messages. Poor communication is undoubtedly a significant barrier to change as well as a high stress factor because of the frustrations it almost always engenders.
65
Managing Change
To make communication effective it is important that you: take care in determining the content of the message (what you actually want to say) design the message to address the abilities of the receiver so that it will be completely understood by the person(s) to whom it is addressed choose the method in which the message can most effectively be passed to those you want to receive it (verbally, in writing, email, etc.) give the receiver sufficient time to analyse and understand the message expect and demand feedback.
Of course, once the receiver has decoded and understood the message, and enters the feedback process, he or she then becomes the communicator, undertaking a similar process to that of the original communicator. At each of the communication interfaces mentioned above there is potential for communication breakdown if the content, coding and method are not completed effectively. That is, each of the interfaces is a communication barrier! Another issue in the communication process is your purpose in communicating the message in the first place. Many people think that communication is the art of transferring knowledge and information to chosen groups or individuals, but in the change management arena you need to ask yourself whether your real intention is to promote some sort of activity.
66
Communicating change effectively
What do you think? When you communicate your change plans will your intention be to just pass information to your team or will you expect some action to be taken as a result of passing that information?
I would argue that ALL business communication is aimed at promoting change. The purpose of any business communication is really about persuading other people to do something and thereby implementing the start of some movement and change. Under these circumstances, communication becomes a way of getting things done. Communications barriers then become the abilities, values and attitudes of the people in the communication channels who have the opportunity to support the change by their actions, or to prevent communications becoming effective by inappropriate action, or lack of action.
Think about your recent communications with your staff. Was your intention to just pass information to them or did you expect some action to be taken as a result of passing that information?
From this viewpoint you can probably appreciate that much of the communication in which you are involved, and certainly that concerning change initiatives, is
67
Managing Change
about making things happen through encouraging shared values rather than about merely sharing information. In these circumstances, the abilities of others to share your values, influenced by their personal filters and coloured by individual and corporate cultures, are likely to create a number of barriers that might prevent your communication being effective.
Responsibility for effective communication

Shared values are not always present between people, e.g. subordinates do not always agree with what they are told to do and this can cause communication breakdown, and therefore a blockage preventing the desired action from happening. Accordingly, the communication process is one that cannot be left to chance in the hope that, having delivered a message, the action you intended will be taken.
If you are trying to make something happen you have a vested interest in making sure that any communication has been implemented effectively. You cannot leave anything to chance.
If you think about the opportunities for misunderstanding and/or inaction at each of the communication interfaces mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, it is surprising that things actually get done at all, or get done properly.
68
So, if you therefore accept that the purpose of communication in your business life is usually to make something happen, you must accept that as the communicator you have the responsibility to ensure that any communication process in which you are involved has been effective at all levels. You cannot assume accurate understanding and/or effective action from anyone else in the chain. To ASSUME makes an ASS of U and ME
Implementing actions in a change process creates an implicit responsibility to ensure that: the message is well thought out and considered before transmission the message is properly worded to suit the culture and intelligence levels of all recipients it is delivered in the most effective way confirmation is received that the required action has been undertaken effectively. Going back to those recent communications in which you were involved, did you get confirmation that your message was completely understood? Did you check to see that any required action was effectively completed? Or did you later find out that your expectations had only been met in part, or perhaps not at all?
69
Managing Change
It is only when you obtain this positive confirmation that you can be sure that you have achieved a position of shared values with the receiver at least as far as this particular issue is concerned! When managing change it is vital that you: think seriously about your message so that you get it right first time understand how it will be interpreted by the receiver(s) choose the best method for getting your message across most of the time this will be face-to-face so that you get complete understanding and agreement involve everyone likely to be part of delivering the outcome you want listen carefully to any feedback offered make sure that there are no functional or departmental blocks that prevent the spread of your communication or effective completion of the activity you want get confirmation that the action you intend has actually been completed successfully. Communication is the vital link between changing organisation processes and human behaviour around the organisation. Communicating well will reward you tenfold!
70
Communication messages
Choosing the best words for your messages sounds easy, after all we are used to using words every day. But are the words you use always understood? Have a look through recent memos, copy letters, etc. and think about how effective the messages were. Did you get calls to ask what you meant? Think about recent conversations with people close to you did they understand you first time or did they need to ask for more information?
The problem with words is that they can easily be used, interpreted and perceived in different ways by different people. Phrases like, As soon as possible may mean NOW to you, but by the end of the week (or month) or even when I have time by someone else. You therefore need to know, and check, that what you mean in your communication is what the other person(s) understand you to mean! A good way to achieve this, especially when you are looking for action, is to use the SMART process introduced in Chapter 4. make sure the message is Specific enough in detail to leave no misunderstandings
let the recipient(s) know how you will Measure success, e.g. I expect to receive a written report ensure that the action is Achievable by the
71
Managing Change
recipient(s), i.e. that there is the capability to complete it ensure that everything you expect is Realistic in terms of actions, people and competencies let people know the Time by which you expect the action to be completed, e.g. I expect to receive the report by midday on Friday.
Follow this pattern and you will find that your communications become smoother and any extra time taken in meeting this pattern will be more than made up with time saved on re-working and clarification.
Communication processes
There are a number of ways in which we can communicate, both verbally and non-verbally. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and it therefore is important that you choose your communication process to ensure the effective delivery of your message. The main methods of communication in an organisation are:
Letters/memos etc
good for giving information that needs to be thought through, for complex instructions and legal documents. Poor for getting feedback of understanding from the recipient
Email
good for quick communications over dispersed distance. Should not be used to transmit personal
72
information and again can be poor for getting feedback of understanding from the recipient (from the point of view that you are unable to see reaction and body language)
Formal presentation (including video presentation)

good as a means of reaching a large number of people in one go. Provided that opportunity is given for questions and discussion (not possible with videos) it is possible to get some feedback. However, the large audience inevitably means that it is impossible to judge reactions and commitment and in this environment it is easy for discontents to spread a negative message! Also, group audiences can be prone to posing and gestures from a few individuals that have no base in reality and are rarely meaningful in the long term.
Telephone conversations
good for speed of message delivery and it is possible to get some feedback from voice tone; there is also the opportunity to confirm commitment and understanding by questioning the recipient. However, some people have the ability to project over the telephone an attitude that they may not feel in reality (e.g. telephone sales personnel are trained to project a positive image, however negative they may feel in reality).
Face-to-face communications
difficult to arrange for a large number of individuals, particularly if they are dispersed throughout a number of widely spread locations. Where this is possible, however, it presents the opportunity to:
73
Managing Change
transfer and discuss the message judge from the reaction of the recipient(s) how the message is received perceive the level of understanding in the recipient(s) encourage questions and discussion to deal with any misunderstanding before any action is started reinforce the SMART characteristics in the message.
In a change initiative, therefore, the face-to-face delivery of important communications is the method that is most likely to get the initiative off to a good and positive start, and secure early successes.
How do the communication processes in your organisation look now? Would they meet the criteria given above or do they provide opportunities for communication barriers to grow?
What do you need to do to make your communications more effective write yourself a reminder to put changes into practice in the next few days!
Who needs to know?

The decision about who to communicate what to must remain with you but a hands close to chest attitude would be the first downfall of your change initiative.
74
As outlined in Chapter 4, and particularly when change has become a revolutionary need rather than evolutionary, almost every employee and many external contacts will be aware of growing pressures and problems in the organisation. This is where rumours begin to grow and where parochial self-interested individuals can begin to spread unwanted, and probably untrue, information. Clearly there may be some information (e.g. financial results) that you may not want to publish openly. However, this is a very limited amount of data, and the exclusion of this should not prevent your involving most stakeholders in the search for the ideal change solution. What do I mean by stakeholders? These are all the people who have an interest in the future viability and success of the organisation and could (depending on the organisation and the situation) include: employees shareholders financial supporters central office executives suppliers customers distributors.
You may well want to provide different levels of information, and perhaps different slants on your message, to different stakeholders but including them in the communication chain will help get a broad commitment to your change initiative.
75
Managing Change
In doing so, however, you need to be aware that this openness may give rise to questions for which you should be well-prepared in order that you can answer genuinely without digging yourself into holes. A question that most executives and managers fear at such times is that concerning levels of redundancy. The approach to this that I used successfully was to be perfectly honest and say, I dont know what the outcome will be at this time but in talking to you all now I am hoping that you will give me your ideas on how you would see the organisation implementing the necessary change. What I can promise is that we will try to minimise any negative actions and we would like to involve your ideas in any decisions taken. It is important at times like this to avoid making promises that you may not be able to keep, and to maintain your right to make the necessary decisions though where possible with the help of the stakeholders in question. In the above example a small group of employees provided feedback from operations levels about changes in operational processes that improved productivity and saved some jobs. They also put forward a work scheduling scheme to limit the redundancies to those people willing to take early retirement. Both of the ideas were new and had not been identified by management. Remember:
What people dont know, they will make up!
76
Getting the feedback

One of the most difficult processes for a manager to undertake is to listen to, and perceive, feedback from the recipient(s) of your communications. A number of reasons are given for what is really a skill absent through a lack of training: I dont have time to listen they should just do what I tell them Im the manager I have to carry the can in the end
However, many managers subconsciously lack the courage to listen to subordinates.
It takes a very brave and courageous manager to listen to the views of those around. Most managers dont have the guts!
This sounds rather hard, doesnt it?
When you have your next conversation (or think back to a very recent one), try to be aware of what your brain is doing for the entire time.
77
Managing Change
What most people find is that having given their message, any response is immediately met by the brains need to be thinking up a counter answer while the feedback is being given. In other words you are more likely to be thinking up what you will say next than you are openly listening to what is being said! This is the normal response mechanism in western commercial society. Basically, the reason for this reaction is that, as managers, we believe that it is our duty to tell people what to do and we do not expect our subordinates to question our instructions. Therefore we do not make provision for something we do not expect and do not really want we want our instructions to be acted upon without question! Now, by opening ourselves to receiving feedback we are in reality saying, Perhaps you have something to contribute something I, as an important manager, may not have thought of. To many managers this is a frightening thought, that a subordinate may have ideas that could be as good as or better than ours! It may lead to an ultimate situation where a manager could have to change his or her mind and say, Yes, I think you have a good point that we should incorporate into what we are trying to do. This takes a lot of courage, to admit a possible weakness to a subordinate and many managers see this as losing face. They therefore avoid listening so that they do not have to hear a perhaps better solution than the one they propose!
78
This is now honesty time! Think about your own reactions to suggestions and feedback from subordinates. Do you (perhaps subconsciously) protect your base against all-comers, or do you openly listen to all the feedback given to you? Do you need to change anything? If you do, make a note to re-check your attitude every couple of weeks from now on so that you avoid going back to your norm.
What you may have realised is that listening to subordinates ideas is much easier when it starts early in the change initiative at the beginning it is easier for most managers to ask for ideas than it is once they have made some decisions. Here then is an exceptionally good reason for involving everyone you can from the beginning when you dont have to be too brave about changing your mind and perhaps losing face! An important part of good communication is listening well. It may sound silly, because we think we do it all the time, but we now need to consider how we can listen effectively.
Effective listening
Although in our normal lives we are not used to actually listening to what people say to us (and it is worth remembering this when relaying messages to your subordinates they will be employing the same listening processes as you do) all it takes is a little concentration to get it right.
79
Managing Change
Effective listening involves the following: concentrating on what is being said keeping an open mind indicating you are listening by encouraging the speaker to continue BUT NOT BY INTERRUPTING WITH YOUR OWN COMMENTS asking questions to clarify what the speaker means occasionally summarising what has been said and asking the speaker for confirmation checking what the speaker expects from you and only finally, contributing your thoughts/ideas based on what you have heard NOT ON WHAT YOU HAD PREVIOUSLY DECIDED.
If you are not sure whether you are a good listener, you might find the following exercise useful.
Identify a trusted colleague or partner with whom you have regular conversations. Ask them, during future conversations, to stop at some random point during their communication and request you to repeat exactly the last ten or so words they have said and the context of them in their communication. After a few tries you will have a good idea just how good you are at listening.
80
However, you will still need to constantly practice the skill to avoid the very, very easy option of returning to your listening norm. When you do communicate with good listening skills, one of the things you will notice is how motivated subordinates become and how much easier it is to get commitment and successful implementation from them.
Functional or departmental blocks

The hierarchical structure of many organisations remains in place despite down-sizing and re-engineering initiatives, leaving still the strict functional-department base of operation. In turn this hierarchical structure reinforces an organisation where functions are separated from each other, often with their own culture and rules that may make organisation-wide change initiatives and buy-in difficult to implement. This is another situation where the early involvement of everyone is vitally important both to gain the entire breadth of input and feedback and to continually communicate plans and progress. A good way to achieve buy-in across the functional boundaries is to organise a Change Management Group made up of representatives from all functions. Support this with an organisation-wide weekly or monthly circular or newsletter to let everyone know what is happening, i.e. try to avoid functional departments publishing their own individual communications.
81
Managing Change
Getting confirmation
The final part of the communications chain is to ensure that you get confirmation that tasks and plans are proceeding as expected. This is part of managing people through change, a subject dealt with further in Chapter 9, which should also become part of your performance management system. Performance management is about: ensuring that your people know what is expected of them ensuring that they have the right tools and skills to carry out their expected tasks continually supervising and motivating your team meeting at agreed intervals to discuss how performance can be improved providing your total support and loyalty to your people.
Does your organisations performance management (or appraisal) system contain ALL these elements?*
* If you need any help with performance management our sister publication, the Easy Step by Step guide, Motivating your Staff for Better Performance provides excellent guidelines for success.
82
In summary
in most organisations communication processes are rarely effective good communication skills are absolutely vital for a successful change initiative since business communications are almost always aimed at making something happen, you have a vested interest in them being successful. It is therefore your responsibility to make sure that all communications are complete and effective change communications will only be effective if they involve all stakeholders, and preferably from a very early stage in the change initiative. People not involved will usually make up their own version of what they think is going on good communications will not only support a successful change project, they are also likely to motivate everyone involved and ensure their buy-in and commitment.
83
& Managing change initiatives

In Chapter 7 we have seen how important it is to involve everyone possible and at an early stage in the change project. Change initiatives will invariably generate reactions from people at all levels in the organisation and it is important to recognise that there may be key people who can have a major influence on your ability to effectively implement a change process. At the time of writing this book there were two good examples of adverse influence in the English public sector: The poor performance of British Railways where the blocking of adequate investment had resulted in dire consequences The delay in the launching of the new Air Traffic Control system due to poor technological support.
85
Managing Change
In both instances, support necessary for the successful completion of the change project had been blocked with disastrous results!
Think about a change initiative in which you are involved or hoping to be involved. Identify and list the key people for the project, i.e. people in key positions and likely to use their power and influence to impact on your project, positively or negatively.
Impact analysis
Depending on the size of your organisation you may have found this exercise to be more or less challenging. A way of approaching it is to look at the organisation management chart and identify all the key people surrounding you and your project and highlighting these individuals in some way. But this is not enough detail on which to create a meaningful strategy. You also need to identify the impact that each one might wield for or against your project. Go back to your list of key players and try to add some measure of impact perhaps using a straightforward High/Medium/Low categorisation. By the way, in your originals list, did you include key players outside your organisation? These could include unions, bankers, customers or other stakeholders!
86
Managing change initiatives
You are now beginning to develop an increasingly detailed perspective of your key influencers and I recommend that you collate this, and the levels of support and involvement discussed below, in a table such as the one on page 88 which shows the people and their impact on a sample project. A further test of their impact is to try to judge how supportive they are to the proposed project. To some extent this may be subjective initially but will provide a reasonable base from which to determine what support strategy to adopt. What you are trying to do here is to determine which individuals you can rely on for support, and at what level; and which individuals might try to delay or block your project for whatever reason. In doing this, you should be realistic in recognising that times and people change, sometimes very quickly, so check your views and findings continuously so that you always know where you are! Be realistic (or perhaps pessimistic) in your initial assessment and then regularly try to determine whether the situation for each individual has improved or deteriorated. A suggested support scale is provided but you may wish to design your own criteria according to the project you are managing.
Level of support
The level of support you can expect from key people is vital to achieving effective implementation of a change initiative. The support scale used in the table is as follows: +4 Willing to use position, name and reputation
87
Managing Change
+3 +2 +1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4
promoting the project Willing to take part in and support all change processes Willing to support the project within own functional area In favour but provides no active support Neutral Against the change but unlikely to be actively negative Erects barriers against change within own functional area only Openly disagrees with change but does not proactively fight against it Willing to use position, name and reputation against the project.
Impact analysis for a project to change customer record software:

Name/Position Org level Board Board Board Board Board Board Mgt Snr Mgt Mgt Snr Mgt Mgt Impact Support Level of level involvement 0 0 -2 +1 0 +4 +1 +1 +4 -2 0 +1 +4 Nil C C E E B E C A C A E E
Chairman Chief Executive Financial Director Operations Director HR Director Sales Director Operations Manager Sales Manager Customer Services Mgr Senior Accountant IT Manager Union Key Customer(s)
Low High Med Low Med High Low High High Low High Low High
88
What is important is that you can identify the influences you need to address in bringing about effective change.
Going back to your list of key influencers: are you able to add some indication of the level of support you could expect from each individual, according to the scale on pages 8688? What does it tell you about how easy or difficult your change management job is likely to be?
Level of involvement
The final measurement I have used in the table tries to reflect the level of involvement you could expect from each key influencer. I have approached this by defining the stages relevant to managing a sample change programme changing customer records software and then identifying the different levels of involvement (AE) you might require:
A Development of criteria and objectives Design stages Testing of existing products Purchasing decisions Review meetings Communication updates Pilot / dual running Implementation Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y B Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y C D E
Y Y
Y Y Y 89
Managing Change
Applying these criteria to the sample project in the table, you can see that I have identified three people who will need special attention if successful implementation of the change project is to be achieved: Chief Executive who is likely to have a high impact on decisions, but is neutral in providing support Sales Manager, another high impact individual for a project in his/her functional area yet displays only a passing support
IT Manager who needs to be involved in every stage of the project yet appears to be neutral in his/her support. In all these cases it would be necessary to implement specific actions meetings, discussions, communications, etc. to increase the level of support from these individuals. Failing to do this would risk the change initiative being stopped, or failing, because of negative or neutral reactions from key people. However, one thing needs to be borne in mind when dealing with key influencers what they say is not necessarily what they do, and minds can be changed! The way to manage these possibilities is to maintain regular contact with all key influencers, making sure they are always aware of what is happening and keeping them in touch with all developments.
90
In summary
implementing and managing successful change initiatives requires an understanding of key individuals who can impact on important decisions key players can include individuals outside the organisation
information relevant to understanding how to deal with such individuals involves identifying the impact they can have, the support they are likely to give, and the level of involvement required these criteria may be different for different projects and criteria can be designed to assess the key players in your organisation failure to identify and address any negativity from key players can result in change initiatives failing purely because of lack of commitment.
91
9 Managing people through change

As already mentioned in earlier chapters, any change initiative can generate resistance and barriers from almost any level in the organisation. To some extent resistance is often based on personal (perhaps selfish) and perhaps inappropriate perceptions. Whatever the underlying reasons, unless change is properly and effectively managed, people will set up barriers which will be difficult to demolish.
People reactions to change

People facing a change situation are likely to resist the new initiative until they can think through what it will mean to them. One way of reducing this lead-in time and achieving an earlier acceptance is to explain the change in detail and the way things will look in the future. That is, communicate the changes early and fully to enable employees to visualise themselves in the new situation and to intuitively test what it will feel like.
93
Managing Change
Resistance to change cannot be ignored if it is to be implemented effectively change must be owned by all those affected by it. Generally, people will go through a six-stage process when faced with change:
Encounter
receiving and taking on board a personal impression of proposed change and how it affects him/her.
Emotion
responding initially to change according to past experience, personal values, thoughts, and feelings; and the perceived impact (correct or incorrect) that the change will have.
Testing
reviewing the knowledge available and looking at ways in which he or she may be able to cope with the change. This stage is likely to include a review of the available options such as: leaving the organisation trying to modify the change in some way modifying own reaction and behaviour waiting to see what happens next.
Retreat
accepting change as inevitable but ceasing to cooperate with the process of change. Please note that
94
Managing people through change
this stage can come before the Testing stage detailed above.
Recovery
cooperation with communication processes aimed at the possible development of new concepts that would enable him/her to accept and adapt to change.
Integration
agreement with and acceptance of agreed change factors indicating an individual now comfortable with the new situation. Reactions to change will, of course, depend on the mind-set of particular individuals. Positive individuals tend to: confront the change explore the change and its implications fully try to understand the effect it will have on them visualise the new situation so as to identify and solve related problems constructively experiment with the potential offered, by visualising the opportunities presented.
At the other end of the scale, negative individuals will tend to: distort the change, applying non-existent attributes and adverse negative consequences to generate support for their position
95
Managing Change
try to bargain and/or negotiate their position to gain extra advantages in exchange for cooperation create non-moveable criteria in an attempt to depress communications and prevent the change initiative gaining buy-in from others.
Such negative reactions will often include one or more of the following:
Opportunism
seeking to organise events around their own interests irrespective of the effect they might have on the change initiative itself.
Empire building
taking advantage of any confusion or lack of knowledge to increase their status or department size/number of reports etc.
Misinformation/propaganda
putting out deliberately misleading or incorrect information to try to discredit the change initiative
Process wrecking
failing to take part in the change process by withdrawing support (e.g. working to rule); or failing to share useful important knowledge/information (e.g. how to work equipment transferred into someone elses care). These reactions will fall within a scale of individual behaviour:
96
Managing people through change
commitment cooperation support acceptance indifference apathy protest slow-downs
sabotage. Moving people up this scale is done using the processes already covered in this book: communication motivation performance management.
As with all management processes, get things right at the beginning and the whole thing gets easier and more successful sooner. There will be many opportunities, which I have explored through this book, for the building of barriers that can destroy any change initiative you may have in your organisation. However, a successful change project will be the jewel in your organisations crown, and therefore well worth
97
Managing Change
fighting for. What you need is a plan!
In summary
one of the most important, and most difficult, aspects of change is managing people through it individuals will have personal reactions to the idea of change, ranging from positive reactions from acceptance and commitment down to negative reactions as low as sabotage managing people through these layers requires: good communications motivational management performance monitoring.
98
Creating a business plan for change

Planning for change follows much the pattern of any business planning process though with additional elements and substantially more preparation. Your planning process is likely to follow many, or all, of the following elements:
Determine your objectives

Knowing where you want to go, objectively, is the beginning of any change initiative. This is the time to review your organisation mission and goals and/ or to determine new ones for the future. Details of developing meaningful objectives are contained in Chapter 4 of this book. Clear objectives then enable you to move to the next process.
99
Managing Change
Involve your people

Because you must have buy-in from everyone involved in the change process you need to involve everyone concerned at the earliest stage. This is therefore a good time to decide the extent of people involvement. The first stage of involvement is to let everyone know your proposed objectives and seek confirmation that they are agreed by everyone and that you havent missed anything.
Set up a good communication process

How are you going to continually communicate change issues through the organisation? This cannot be left to chance and needs to be planned as part of the initiative. Sort out the communication processes and let everyone know what regular communications to expect. Note that this stage may involve some financial expenditure so remember to allow for it in financial budgets.
Set up interdepartmental groups

One of the things that kills change initiatives in organisations is the parochialism presented by hierarchical and/or functional barriers. It is vital that your initiative avoids this problem by ensuring buy-in from all departments/functions, whether or not they are part of the actual change process.
100
Understand your organisation culture

Allowing the organisation culture, or status quo , to go unquestioned will sooner or later present you with a major barrier. Carry out a culture analysis so that you can determine the status quo strengths you want to use in your favour, and the weaknesses you need to eliminate (if possible) from the beginning. Again, involve people in this analysis so that they can see the strengths and weaknesses the organisation has and can be aware of the problems that may surface at any time through the change initiative.
Identify people barriers

Like organisation culture, the barriers that may be raised by people can be significant in preventing a smooth change transition. Identify, possibly through your Performance Management process, the attitudes of individuals through the organisation. Then create individual plans for improvement and regularly monitor each person to ensure that improvement is happening. At the same time, practice good communications and motivate all your people at every opportunity.
Identify key influencers

Carry out an impact analysis (as explained in Chapter 8) to determine those key people who can make or break your change initiative.
101
Managing Change
Once you have that information (which can change as time progresses), ensure that you plan to raise the profile of your project with all those with the power to stop your initiative in some way. By the way, if you are intending to produce a written plan for publication, you may want to exclude this analysis for general reading (because it will start by being highly subjective). Regularly review your analysis and increase/decrease communications with key players as required to get and keep their support.
People requirements
Most change initiatives involve often quite substantial people issues. These may range from redundancies to the search for new, specialised individuals. There will probably also be the matter of training and retraining many of the people through the organisation. Part of your plan must be to identify all the people issues and to list the actions necessary, by yourself and perhaps your personnel department, to ensure a successful change outcome. Remember to include relevant values in the financial budgets.
Inventory requirements
Your change project may involve new equipment, technology, or the buying in of new processes. These requirements need to be fully detailed and financial values included in budgets. It may also be useful to carry out a cost-benefit analysis to ensure that the cost of implementing new equipment will be outweighed by the value coming to the organisation.
102
Cost-benefit analysis can be a straightforward matching of financial and non-financial gains against each of the proposed inventory items and a comparison of the values of cost against benefits.
Financial requirements
How much is this change project going to cost? Be sure that you wont get buy-in from your finance department without a pretty good answer to this question. The best way to approach this area is to produce a budget for perhaps three years starting with the year in which the project starts, remembering to include the financial actuals for the last available year. This should show the benefits that will accrue to the organisation over the medium term of change.*
Time-scales
The whole change plan should have clear time scales attached to each part and each action remember SMART objectives and knowing exactly when to expect each task and stage completed! Transcribe this information into a planning chart for publication to everyone around the organisation so that they know what is expected and when things will happen. Try to make sure they happen! Please note that, for your particular change project, there may be additional sections for inclusion in the
* For more information on creating effective budgets, please see our sister publication, the Easy Step by Step guide, Better Budgeting for your Organisation.
103
Managing Change
business change plan, e.g. some form of additional marketing may be involved. Where this is the case: include all issues and all aspects in the plan make sure you have the people and the competencies to carry out all parts of the plan allow for all expenditures in your budgets.
It is very embarrassing to have to admit part-waythrough the change process that you forgot to include something that may be very expensive to provide. In these circumstances, you would not be the first to founder as a result of unanticipated finances being denied!
May I wish you every success in your search for successful change to support a successful organisation!
104

Managing Change

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Managing Change

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Other Easy Step by Step Guides in the series include:

Easy Step by Step Guide

Understanding the status quo Status quo in a period of change In summary

Managing people through change People reactions to change In summary

10 Creating a business plan for change

About the author

How to use this guide

What this guide covers

What you will learn from this guide

1 Why does change have to happen?

Beginning: Vision Planning

Development: Growth Stability Achievement

Transformation: Slowing down becoming outdated

Why does change have to happen?

Re-inventing the organisation

period of new product development

new product launch

Why does change have to happen?

Change over time

resistance to change may be stronger than the factors driving change.

Why does change have to happen?

2 Understanding the status quo

informal adhocracy matrix

formal adhocracy moving to hierarchy

hierarchy giving way to matrix adhocracy

Status quo in a period of change

Understanding the status quo

Understanding the status quo

3 Drivers for change

poor performance external pressures

Drivers for change

failing to achieve sales/income or output targets increasing customer complaints.

Drivers for change

4 Organisation barriers to change

Organisation barriers to change

Organisation barriers to change

Organisation barriers to change

A balanced view of objectives

Organisation barriers to change

Organisation barriers to change

Organisation barriers to change

Organisation barriers to change

5 People barriers to change

We can now add these factors to the model shown earlier:

Fear of the unknown

People barriers to change

People barriers to change

Dealing with people perceptions

People barriers to change

6 Analysing your organisation

Characteristics of organisation culture

Analysing your organisation

Analysing your organisation

These elements are dealt with individually in the following sections.

Analysing your organisation

Analysing your organisation

Employees who are not motivated are unlikely to support change.

Analysing your organisation

achieving better communications will reap ever-increasing benefits.

Analysing your organisation

Influences of organisation culture

Analysing your organisation

7 Communicating change effectively

Creating a business plan for change