Organizational Change

Becker Associates conducts facilitated team sessions around the issues of organizational change.  We have studied change in organizations for the past twenty years and have created a model of why things don't change for the better and what a company can do to create positive improvement.  

All change management sessions are highly tailored to meet the needs of the organization and the challenges and changes they are facing.  Call us for a discussion of how we can design a session for your organization that will make a difference.

Here's what some of our research says.

Recently, William Schiemann and Associates surveyed senior officers at 104 Fortune 500 companies on the factors affecting successful change. The news was not good. 

Overall, one-half of the respondents considered their company's key change effort to be a failure, while only one-third felt they had been successful in meeting the objectives of their change initiative.

The detailed results of this survey are as follows:

1. 74% felt there was significant resistance from employees, including top and middle level managers, to doing things in new ways.

2. 66% felt there was an inappropriate culture to support the change. This is a result of both not being prepared for the change, and having a value and belief mentality that the status quo is fine. Also, not having an organizational infrastructure, like rewards and incentives, communications, and basic team competencies needed to carry out change effort objectives.

3. 45% felt there was poor communication of the purpose and plan for change.

4. 42% felt there was incomplete follow-through of the change initiative.

5. 39% felt there was lack of management agreement on the business strategy.

6. 39% felt there were insufficient skills to support the change. This points to a lack of skills in middle management and lower level employees to deal with the ambiguity of a change initiative. This lack in core competencies also made it difficult, if not impossible, to lead employees through a change effort.

Keys to Change

Create a Clear Vision

Create a clear vision that helps people understand and keep focused on needed changes.

Clearly Demonstrate Top Management Support

Create opportunities for top management to demonstrate support through their involvement, decisions, and actions.

Empower One or More Champions to Manage the Change Process

Designate and empower a person or team to manage the change process and champion the needed changes.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Use various methods and opportunities to communicate with those who can influence and are impacted by the changes, keep them informed about progress and successes, and listen to and respond to their concerns.

Strategic Involvement

Involvement in understanding and influencing the change process breaks down resistance and increases ownership for the success of needed changes. Use creative approaches to efficiently involve the right people at the right time.

Use Data to Drive Change

Relevant internal or external data collected from surveys, interviews, research, or site visits to discover best practices can provide a strong incentive for change and overcome resistance to change.

Education and Training

Education and training are often necessary to unfreeze old ways of thinking and acting, learn new ways, and overcome fears of not having the skills to adapt to the desired changes.

Reward and Showcase Successes or Efforts to Change

Tangible rewards that reinforce change and recognition for successes or bold efforts to make needed changes increases the incentive for change. How management treats efforts that do not succeed may send equally strong messages.

Provide the Resources to Drive Change

Directing resources towards needed changes provides an incentive for change.

Acknowledge and Prepare for the Stress of Change

It is sometimes helpful to acknowledge that change can be stressful, to prepare people for the highs and lows of the change process, and to provide training in how to manage the stress of significant change.

Pilot Projects

Smaller pilot projects are less risky and will often stimulate interest in larger scale projects.

Be Sensitive to Time and Action Requirements

Some resistance comes from new demands on already busy schedules. Make meetings count, utilize Change Champions and Action Teams as much as possible to accomplish change.

Take a Positive Approach to Change

Negative approaches that seek change through coercion, force, manipulation, placing blame, or looking for scapegoats increase resistance to change. Attack problems and not people and create positive reasons and opportunities for change.

Confront the Resistance

It is usually best to get resistance out into the open and confront it in a constructive and direct way. Resisters won over often become Change Champions. Even if they continue to resist, the issues will be clear.

Know When to Bite the Bullet

Sometimes change needs to be made even though many of the alternatives mentioned above are not possible or did not work. There are times when people either need to join the changes or move aside.