Understanding and Using Resistance – in Business Transformations
Vivek Sood
I solve most supply chain problems quickly. In an open forum, a client proclaimed that he would not hesitate to call me " Mr. Supply Chain."
19 years ago, when studying for MBA, our Professor in Change Management, Dexter Dunphy told us that Change Management is nothing but management of downside. I understood that his point was every change has a downside – and as a change manager, the most important job you have to do is to understand the downside of the change being proposed, and manage it well enough. When I became a management consultant with a top-tier strategy house after the MBA, I took his dictum to heart, and it served me well through several change management projects. Those who were most affected by change appreciated the fact that the change was managed in a sensitive and caring manner – rather than imposed abruptly.
After few years, when we started our current boutique consulting house, I started to notice another pattern. This was that many companies could accelerate their change management by skipping one entire generation of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in their efforts to make their businesses more modern. In other words which change management would entail moving from SCM 0.0 to SCM 1.0 or from SCM 1.0 to SCM 2.0 or from SCM 2.0 to SCM 3.0. On the other hand, many companies would want to down up an accelerated path – jumping 2 steps at a time – e.g. SCM 0.0 to SCM 2.0 or from SCM 1.0 to SCM 3.0. This enabled them to frequently leapfrog their competitors, and transform their businesses rapidly and systematically. This was nothing different than many companies skipping a generation of Microsoft Windows when they upgrade their operating systems – for example skipping Windows Vista and jumping from Windows XP to Windows 7.0. The reasons were different, yet the methods were similar.
While change management entailed managing the downside for those who were affected by change, business transformation was more about understanding and managing the resistance. By now, downside management for the personnel affected by change has already become a big enough industry – just look at the number of large outplacement consulting houses, HR consultancies, and the booming business they do through the ups and downs of the business cycles.
Business Transformations will lead to a second boom in these. If a business keeps up with the SCM evolution and moves with it, there will be more need for leadership training, corporate cultural adjustment, collaboration training and less need for outplacement and redundancies.
And, there will be need for understanding, managing and using resistance to further the business transformation.
What is the nature of resistance? What is the reason? How to identify 4 different types of resistance? How to use resistance to accelerate positive business transformations? That will be the topic of my next blog.
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ABOUT VIVEK SOOD:
Vivek is the Global Supply Chain Strategist and Author who works globally with large and mid-size corporations to FIX their Business-to-Business Networks in order to their multiply profits.
In that last 14 years he created several new breakthroughs in Supply Chain - including business transformations led by SCM 3.0. His more than 400 projects have spanned approximately 84 countries on five continents, with clients ranging from fortune 500 companies to innovative green technology companies.
Get free extracts of his books and see why thousands of executives at the world's leading corporations trust Global Supply Chain Group to build brilliant business-to-business network strategy.
We are rapidly growing and hiring. Exceptional (world's best) Outsourcing Experts, Logisticians, Strategists and Supply Chain should contact me directly.
Follow Vivek here and @GlobalSupplyCG
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If you are a HR professional, recruitment or HR consultant - and you think your clients might benefit from these insights about business transformations - feel free to forward this blog series via email or linkedin. The nature of your industry is changing rapidly as a result of forces mentioned in this article.