Managing Change- 4 key lessons

Managing Change in changing business scenarios

What if I said that within a few weeks of my joining as a Leader, I was welcomed by black flags by Work Councils in Germany?

What if I told you that as part of organizational imperatives, I had to disband an entire Business Services Function of 4000+ people?

Curious to know more? OK, let me share some details with you.

Situation 1

We were to transition work from Europe into India. The day I landed in Germany, I was welcomed with black flags and all sorts of protests by the Work Councils. It was a unique situation for me as this incident happened within the first few weeks of having joined the organization. The decision to set up a Centre in India had led to the protests. The Indian colleagues were being looked at very differently and were not welcome.

The Works Council had taken an informed decision to speak only in the German language. Obviously, the communication process suffered greatly. One needs to demonstrate strong empathy, patience, and the ability to put oneself in their shoes to internalize the situation.

Situation 2

As part of a global decision, we were to wind up an entire Business Services Function of 4000+ people. The Function had been performing well for a decade. The organization was coming to terms with a takeover and it was the decision of the new CEO to split the company into two different Business Lines. The decision to split the company into two distinct Business Lines coupled with disbanding a Function had a far-reaching impact on the Shared Services Centre that I was leading.

One fine day I was told that all my managers and my peers will be leaving the organization and that the announcement would be out in the next 10 days. This information came as a rude shock to me.

Meanwhile, the grapevine was active. The news had percolated from the HQ and a lot of unfiltered information was flowing through various channels leading to all kinds of speculation leading to an atmosphere of uncertainty.

I had to manage the Change with no one to talk to as all my seniors were leaving and they had more questions than answers.

As a leader, I had to put my thoughts together with the Centre Leadership and the HR team and work out a communication strategy to minimise the impact. It is quite another matter that we still did not know the extent of the impact.

As you can imagine, both the above situations are connected to Change Management.

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher had said, ‘The only constant in life is Change’.

In these challenging times, we are clearly experiencing this ‘constant’. Leadership is tasked with the successful management of Change. While this is a privilege for leaders, depending on the individuals concerned, such an opportunity could be considered a boon or a bane.

The successful management of Change is crucial to any organisation in order to survive and succeed in the present highly competitive and continuously evolving business environment.

Many a time, Change is imperative, forced by technology, change in a Business Strategy, or as a result of a merger or consolidation.

Although there is a growing need for Change in organizations, it is widely acknowledged that up to 70% of Change initiatives fail. Within the growing literature on Change leadership, there are assertions that the root cause of many Change management issues is leadership behaviour.

Personally, I have learned 4 lessons while managing Change in an era of uncertainty.

They are as follows:

1.    Clearly outline the Change & communicate it clearly.

a.    Create a vision to help manage the Change

b.    Form and bring together a diverse team to work on managing the Change

c.     Create a clear strategy to communicate the Change to everyone in the organisation

d.    Clearly outline the impact of the Change and what it means.

2.    Create a sense of urgency and empower the teams 

a.    Identify obstacles of Change, changing structure or systems blocking the Change

b.    Encourage lateral thinking, risk taking and remove fear of failure

c.     Examine the realities - both internal and external

3.    Look for short term wins

a.    Plan and execute visible improvements

b.    Reward and recognise people who deliver

4.    Be Agile- create a culture of ‘fail fast’ and ‘learn fast’

a.    What has worked in the past may not work

b.    Create a culture of experiments

c.     Encourage failures

d.    Share failure and create learning takeaways

While applying these key learning points, if we are open to adapt and lead the Change while working with the impacted employees, it becomes easier to implement the Change.

Transparency and Open Communication are two key factors for managing any big Change.

To summarize, I would say:

Do not fear the Change. Embrace it, plan well. It will not only result in a desirable outcome, you will also emerge as a strong leader. This has made me a better leader as I can handle difficult situations at ease and manage Change better than I used to do it past.