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Soft Skills
Preparing the organisation for change
To quote an anonymous author, "Change is inevitable except from a vending
machine". Most individuals and organisations do not readily embrace change.
Often, they take steps to avoid it. In many cases, individuals expend more energy
resisting change, without realising that it would take lesser energy to just
change. It is human nature to accept status quo and feel uncomfortable about
the unknown state brought on by change. A plethora of research exists on the
topic of change and change management. Thousands of consultants are employed
because of the inevitable and constant need for effective change management
in organisations. And within organisations, effective change agents are desired
commodities.
Leadership Commitment for Change
 As
cited in the previous chapters, leadership commitment for an organisational
activity, including change, is a key ingredient to effectively managing an organisation.
Leaders must be actively engaged and "walk the talk". Leaders should
create or foster a culture, where change, spurned by continuous improvement,
is expected, and desired behaviours are rewarded. Leaders also need to assign
and support effective change agents within an organisation, and hold key members
within the organisation, responsible and accountable for achievement of results
and continuous improvement. Status quo should not be tolerated.
The old adage "manage change or change management" cannot be more
true. Unfortunately, most organisations and people, don't deal with change particularly
well. In addition to leading by example and supporting change within an organisation,
leaders need to help create an environment where the need for change is understood
by everybody. Sometimes, this is communicated in a crisis mode, such as by an
organisation in dire financial straits and about to go out of business. By this
time, it is probably too late to change. And the key stakeholders - employees,
shareholders, communities, and so forth - will hold the leaders accountable
for not having made the necessary changes to keep the organisation viable and
successful.
As will be discussed later in this chapter, leaders need to create or reinforce
a culture that promotes change. Employees will constantly invoke the "WIIFM"
adage —"What's In It For Me?" Leaders, working with their change
agents, need to help the entire organisation understand the need for change
and the impact it will have on all individuals and parts of the organisation.
One way of doing this is by estimating the magnitude for change.
Change agents within an organisation are rare, yet, desired
entities. They must effectively implement changes throughout the organisation,
knowing that they will face resistance from every quarter. Change agents must
serve as extensions of the senior management. The typical attributes, change
agents must posses include an ability to get things done by others, respect
for and by the organisation, and demonstrated history of achieving results and
meeting commitments. Six Sigma Black Belts are taught change management as part
of their overall training and make acceptable change agents in most cases. They
identify new ways of performing old operations and implement these changes in
various parts of an organisation.
Estimating the magnitude for Change
In most organisations, change occurs on a regular basis. However, its magnitude
varies, and in many cases, organisations do not notice the changes that have
taken place. Most large organisations manage change through period reorganisations
or restructuring. Organisations may restructure themselves every 12, 18, 24,
or 36 months. Once they change, the new structure and behaviours settle for
a period of time while everyone gets accustomed to the new structure. This stepwise
approach to change is depicted by the stepping stone line Gradually, the changes
become more and more frequent, larger and more radical, or the organisation
will become less suited for the business environment. However, since the environment
is acknowledged to be changing exponentially, such an approach means the organisation
will always lag behind the ideal situation. The employees are sure to be frustrated
by the tumultuous, periodic changes.
Perhaps an organisation views the useful life of its technological
base as 10 or 15 years, and depreciates and replenishes the technological base
accordingly. Perhaps an organisation invests in a week or two of training each
year, and relies on it to keep employees "up to speed". Perhaps an
organisation relies on the marketing strategy of "milking" mature
products rather than rapid product innovation. All of these viws will lead to
a constant rate of change of 10 to 15 percent every year. This rate of change
is guaranteed to eventually lead to mediocre organisational performance that
ensures that the organisation significantly lags behind the business environment.
If the environment is changing exponentially and organisations are changing
slowly, in a stepwise or gradual fashion, facing future shock is inevitable.
Often, the reality check takes the form of a merger or acquisition. Sometimes,
the future shock takes the form of corporate bankruptcy. In some cases, the
future shock takes the form of radical downsizing to hang on to one or two "core
competencies". And, often, the future shock is marked by a significant
decline in stock price with investors losing confidence in an organisation.
But if an organisation pursues an appropriate strategy, the future shock may
never happen. Change, or expectations for change, can come to an organisation
through many different means. Some examples include:
Customer Expectations
Customers are dynamic and always changing. As individuals, we expect new products
and services to be better and faster than the previous models or versions. We
expect better service and technical support. Our expectations are continually
increasing, as new levels of performance become the norm. Consumers do not expect
product capability and service to decline. To meet these rising expectations,
businesses must continually improve and innovate at a rate, at least, equal
to the increase in customer expectations.
Technological Change
The rate of change in technology continues to accelerate. No longer are there
"high technology" businesses; all businesses are directly affected
by rapid technological change. Customers expect a new personal computer to have
a faster processing speed, more memory, higher resolution, and better software.
These expectations are uniform across almost all product and service industries.
The Internet, has changed the way business and support services are conducted.
And there are certain to be big changes in the consumer use of the Internet
when web TV becomes more widespread. The only thing certain is that there will
be new and currently unavailable technological advances, that will be in widespread
use in five years.
According to the survey of CEOs, conducted by the US Department
of Commerce, the second most critical issue in North America and Europe was
dealing with rapid technological change. This was the most frequently identified
issue in Asia. The issue of technological change included both rapid change
in products as well as underlying systems. The implication is that functional
life cycles have become shorter and shorter. For example, an old 486 computer
with a Windows 3.1 operating system may still perform as well as it did in 1995,
but it surely has been functionally obsolete for years.
Global Competition
The rate of growth of international trade among industrialised economies has
been twice the rate of domestic economic growth for years. The issues that concerns
CEOs today are related to globalisation and global competition. According to
the survey conducted on behalf of the US Department of Commerce, many CEOs felt
that within the next decade, foreign competition would pose a serious threat
to their companies. The reason is that customers have a wide array of product
and services to choose from. Country of origin of a product is less and less
of a concern to customers and is often unknown. In fact, many "foreign"
products have a higher domestic value added content than traditional "domestic"
products. Customers select from the products of the very best global suppliers,
guaranteeing tough, global competition in all major economies.
Never before has it been easier to do business on an international basis. Companies
specialised in dealing with customers, tariff, and shipping issue make the process
of delivering goods and services to another country possible for organisations
of any size. Many marketing plans being put in place today are global in nature.
The ease of doing business internationally has spurned global competition in
virtually every market segment.
Customisation and Niche Players
Customers are demanding more and more customised products and services, forcing
suppliers to produce more customised products that fit a customer's specific
needs. This change in customer requirement is forcing organisations to change
their productive processes to become more flexible and adaptable. There are
many more "niche" markets (and market players) that larger organisations
have trouble adapting to. Economic order quantities are not driven by a formula
in an economics book; production levels are driven by customer demand that can
change quickly.
Implementing Strategic Change. Tools for Transforming an
Organization. Steven H Hoisington and SA Vaneswaran. Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing
Company limited, New Delhi
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