Implementing Change, change management

You may prefer to think of this as "change management". We think it is more a matter of making the change happen by helping it, rather than managing it. Although we do leading people blind folded

incorporate many of the principles of change management, we think of the process as one of implementation.

Why is it that implementing change seems to be such an issue for many organisations? With all of the experience which so many people and organisations have had, why does it go wrong so often - or at least not achieve what is wanted? If you want to explore how we can support you with a change programme please e-mail us or complete the contact form below.

The negative side of change - how companies screw it up!

Regard any new idea from below with suspicion - because it's new and because it's from below.
Insist that people who need your approval to act first go through several other levels of management to get their signatures.
Ask departments or individuals to challenge and criticise each other's proposals. (That saves you the job of deciding; you just pick the survivor).
Express your criticisms freely, and withhold your praise. (That keeps people on their toes.) Let them know they can be fired at any time.
Treat identification of problems as signs of failure, to discourage people from letting you know when something in their area isn't working.
Control everything carefully. Make sure people count anything that can be counted, frequently.
Make decisions to reorganise or change policies in secret, and spring them on people unexpectedly. (That also keeps people on their toes!!).
Make sure that requests for information are fully justified, and make sure that it is not given out to managers freely. (You don't want data to fall into the wrong hands.)
Assign to lower-level managers, in the name of delegate and participation, responsibility for figuring out how to cut back, lay off, move people around, or otherwise implement threatening decisions you have made. And get them to do it quickly.
And above all, never forget that you, the higher-ups, already know everything important about this business.

On a more serious note, the more fundamental reasons are tied in with the inability of the change leaders (or change champions or whatever phrase you like) to consider the needs, feelings and responses of people who they need to bring with them. If you are about to go through a change programme it may pay to raise the awareness and understanding of your leaders and managers of how people may react and why. They can then plan to handle this process positively.

Change and stress - the principle of adaptation

Our ability to accept new information and change tends to reduce as we get older. However, the world about us is changing at an ever increasing rate. Thus we have to adapt constantly to existing and changing pressures. How we respond to the changes and whether we might experience a stress reaction depends on several factors:

Our perception as to whether or not we feel we can cope with the new situation.
How important it is to us that we can cope.
What other factors do you think are involved?

How people react to change

A number of change models refer to the chart below, which is originally based on work by Kubler-Ross when looking at the grieving process. However, when you look at reactions to change, it appears that people do seem to follow this curve to some extent. As leaders or managers of change, be prepared!

You can help your managers by giving them support and education about how to manage their people through this process. Another aspect to consider is that individuals will have different response patterns, even within this framework. Some people enjoy change, they are stimulated by it and even make sure that they initiate change in their situations, whether moving jobs, seeking promotions, moving home or whatever. Others dislike it and prefer to maintain things as they are. I wonder which kind is often the change agent or change leader? Oh, and how do the others respond? Learning to understand the differences, the reasons for them - and how to communicate effectively to those with different patterns can pay dividends!