The Changing Face of Change Management

The booming economy, ever Increasing outsourcing business, high density of Intellectual capital, challenging global competition,.......What does all this reflect? What is that which is common to all of these? One cannot escape these questions haunting them continuously.

In the past CEOs in large organizations had a simple goal for themselves and their organizations: “stability”. Shareholders wanted little more than predictable earnings growth. Because the competition was a less spelled word. Many markets were undeveloped, leaders could deliver on those expectations with only low-risk modifications to the strategic plan. Prices were not fluctuating, attritions were almost next to NIL; corporate life was stress-free, enjoyable, and memorable.

In almost all companies, from giants on down — heightened global competition has concentrated management’s collective mind on something that, in the past, it happily avoided: “change”.

In today’s corporate world the most frequently used jargon in organizations are change management. "Change or you will be changed. This is so true in case ever-changing business scenario"

Many CEOs know this and worry about it. When asked what keeps them up at night, often say they are concerned about how the employees will react, how they can get their team to work together, and how they will be able to lead their people. They also worry about retaining their company’s unique values and sense of identity and about creating a culture of commitment and ownership. Leadership teams that fail to plan for the human side of change often find themselves wondering why their best-laid plans have gone awry.

There is no solution that is ready-made kind available that can fit every company, but there is a set of practices, tools, and techniques that can be adapted to a variety of situations. It is predominantly a tailor-made fit that is used while adopting change.

If you are or if you want to be a fast-growing company better understand the dynamics of change so as to equip the management with the right change tools. Of course, it is highly imperative to have a change specialist to facilitate the change in the organization.

Why Is change management so difficult? Can't it be smooth as any other Initiative? This is the question that every top management would love to ask.

Why there is change? Why can't we run the business, the way it is now? This is the question every employee would love to ask the employer.

Certainly, change is something which employers, as well as employees, don’t want to get in.

But eventually, both get into it as they have no choice. Why do people resist change?. How does management overcome this issue successfully? -- would be something every organization would like to hear about.

What causes Change resistance, what are unsuccessful change management, 12 step approach to successful change management .........to be continued in part 2 and part 3

Written by - Chella Pandian

Pls, note that this article is the 1st part of the complete article that was published in ELITE, IIMB newsletter in 2008. 2nd and 3rd parts will follow in the LinkedIn posts.