Change Management is an emotional process

Tata Motors brings back designations:-

Hum angrezon ke zamaane ke jailor hain, probably one of the most famous dialogue in cult movie ' Sholey' always reminds me of the fact that how difficult is to change the behavior or belief of any individual at unit level or culture as a whole for any organization. This change process is though critical for any of the organization across globe and for that only lot of literature, expert advise and practical solutions have been proposed or recommended but still 100% success is not visible or found, particularly Indian Culture is most difficult nut to crack and on lighter mode , I always say, even after taking so many incarnations in India, Almighty God couldn't change Indian mindset.

Purpose of above quote is not to undermine ourselves as an Indian but to realize the uniqueness of our culture and to reinforce the utmost importance of solid homework/ground work, due care and structured approach that is warranted in any this kind of change which completely tries to do away or revamp entire structure in the organization as happened in the case of Tata Motors.

As an outsider, putting observation on the entire exercise is though not right but returning back to the old system of hierarchy/designations in such a short period of time really impel me to infer few conclusions which is at times interwoven with my own experience of successful transitions . Entire episode of Tata Motors is a matter of great debate for entire corporate world across the globe since , Tata group really represents or regarded as the image of entrepreneurial spirit of whole India after global expansion and acquisitions and has been pioneering in so many benchmark practices in human resource area.

Of late, this group has been passing through difficult phase of restructuring,realignment , values reinforcement or emphasis of cultural legacy or lineage for major changes in top management and leadership with performance issues in Tata Motors .

Beginning of Flat organization in Tata Motors was construed as an effort to make this organization a world class organization with agility, innovation, competitiveness, fast decision making, empowerment at all levels as a salient features and it was believed, Tata will regain its lost market in the Auto Sector. Certainly, intent was well crafted but probably few things were not taken in to consideration-

1. Time- When entire Tata group was/are passing through the phases of enormous changes across leadership styles, vision, strategy, structure, leadership level , entry/exit of so many top leaders creating sense of fear, ambiguity & uncertainty in the minds of people, is really time was ripe for this kind of decision.
2. Risk analysis- I believe before taking such initiatives it was not analyzed that any debacle on this front will really dent the grand image of Tata Group already passing through difficult phase.
3. Lack of understanding of Indian Culture- The biggest mistake in the whole episode stems from ignoring the fact that we Indians are most power seeker, attracted to glamorous titles/designations and show off kind person and this has become a kind of our DNA, so complete do away with hierarchy will vanish Mojo or charm for the organization.
4. Buy-in or emotional hand holding is lacked- Definitely this would have been taken in to consideration but failure in such a short period implies that somewhere it was not properly measured/tracked or created with simple but powerful alignment towards the business need with emotional connect since employees of Tata group have great feeling about it so if at all they could have been involved in entire process with right blend of mind and heart they would have made it successful.
5. Further, in any change process that is successful, entire efforts of leaders have been touching emotional constructs of the human being, most easily visible in political scenario but in corporate most of the time in the name of business logic or necessity this is neglected causing most of endeavors turning in to mishap for the organization.