Managing Change

...

Secondly, change of vision and strategy. Company had provided a range of valid and pragmatic reasons for carrying out those changes. Mainly stressing the importance of correcting some historical problems through these changes. However, these actions can be perceived by his staffs that everything they had been doing in the past are wrong. It will create a very negative environment. “When one focuses on problem solving, the energy to change comes from the desire to escape an unpleasant status quo” (Mento, A., Jones, R. & Dirndorfer, W. 2002) Most staffs will not have the determination to make the changes stayed implemented. Even if they want to.

If left on their own, having a new superior and the complete overhual changes introduced to disrupt their status quo (Levenson A. 2017), resultant workplace fatigue will destroy whatever progress we had made. Knowing our people, understand the culture is of upmost importance prior to implementing changes. After which we need to convince our staffs that the changes were not design to destroy everything they believed in, it is an evolution of the present culture. We are building on our strength to become stronger and more resilient in the current challenging market environment. The organizations must reconcile change with continuity in order to preserve an evolving identity. (Trompenaars F, Woolliams P. 2003). Human continuously evolved to adapt to the ever changing environment, the same applies in the commercial business world as well.

A system of change has to be put in place first to ensure the success of change.

Implementing the Change

The organization had defined the critical necessity of these changes and had the buy in from all senior Directors from CEO to Regional Directors. The CEO also defined the vision and strategy as “Evolution of our core strength”. From the Regional director perspective, his first priority will be forming his Top management team as well as obtaining buy-in of the new vision and strategy from all the key stakeholders.

Firstly, he will form a top management “change” team, This organizational change will be doom to failed without the support of the Regional Director and his team. “It is often said that major change is impossible unless the head of the organization is an active supporter.” (Kotter. 1995). Especially for this senior management team, any performance gaps identified all need to be addressed as soon as possible, else a minor failure will turn into a major one. (Charan R, Drotter S, Noel J. 2011) Some senior managers will be let go while some new players will be promoted or recruited.

The core change team must consist of the senior executives (key stakeholders) identified to hold the 2 Business line managers and 12 Service line managers. These senior executives will be part of a powerful high level coalition to guide and lead the changes. (Smith, I. 2011). This team will need to consist of right people with the right skill sets and mindset. They will need to believe in the merit of these changes. They need to buy in to this newly evolved vision and strategy. Preferably a mixture of pragmatists and originators tendencies leaders.

- Pragmatists tend to be result orientated, solve problems in ways that emphasize workable outcomes. These people are the do-ers and can easily understand the rationality of the change implemented. They will seek out the problems and try to solve it one by one effectively regardless of the status quo. In turn, lead their direct report in the right direction.

- Originators have the tendency to prefer quick and expansive change. They will see these changes as a challenge and drive it with passion. They can translate the organization’s vision into clear cut individual actions and will build commitment within their team.

In addition, effective collaboration is one of the key criteria of a successful change leader. The complexity of modern business environment is unprecedented. Constant changes, social complexity and unprecedented challenge are all daunting wicked problem, impossible for the Regional Director to face them all on his own. (Camillus, J.C. 2008) Thus being the number 1 leader of the region, he will need a team of senior executive who trust and respect each other to maximize management effectiveness. He should encourage collaboration, open communication and positive behavior to build that trust and respect. (Carmeli A, Tishler A, Edmondson A. 2011)

In the initial 3 months, the change team will meet up twice every month to update everyone on the progress in their own areas. Identified areas requiring immediate attention may it be due to lack of progress and/or facing stiff resistance. Any barriers identified need to be documented into the minutes as “Action items” to be follow up throughout the progress till the issue is closed. Subsequent 12 months, will all the foundation change of laid and in progress, the change team will meet up on minimum once a month as per Regional Director’s discretion. I cannot stressed enough the importance of continuous review. Successful change requires leader to continually negotiate all aspects of the change approach. (Oakland, J.S. & Tanner, S.J. 2007) Subsequently depending on the progress of the change carried out, the Regional Director can adjust the frequency of this change meeting (minimum of bi-annually) based on actual requirement.

With the proper change team in place, the Regional Directors now have people to drive the entire region to make these changes happen and persist. We need to implement change in such a way that the effect will be maximize, the vision and strategy as well as the passion will be cascade down to the entire region thus achieving the objective of being a profitable organization again.

As most of our directors and managers are all from technical background. They need to be trained or at least guided on how to motivate their men. Understand the difficulty and concerns of their staffs. All the staffs will undergo the 3 phases of transition. Letting go of the old ways, neutral zone and the start of a new beginning. In my research on motivation, Susan Fowler (2014) concluded that traditional motivation methods does not work. To achieve optimal motivation, leaders need to understand and take care employees 3 psychological needs.

- Autonomy. Human in general have the need to perceive we have choices. Perception of having control over the outcome through our actions of our choice. This does not mean leaders should adopt a complete hands off approach. Just we need to let our staffs feel they have influence in the workplace. If they do not have sense of empowerment, they will lose their sense of autonomy