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Change Management Principles
All change efforts, personal or corporate, are built on a system of beliefs and assumptions. What is most important is that a client, who must provide leadership and must “own” the change process, consider and make clear their own beliefs about change and the desired outcome. However, consultants inevitably bring with them their own beliefs or biases, principles and preferences, and it is also desirable that these be acknowledged. Over the years I have come to believe that the following are critical to successful change efforts:
Whole-System Thinking and Change
Change can and should occur at three levels: the individual, the team and the organizational system. These three levels can be aligned to assure lasting change. Training and coaching can assist at the level of the individual. Team development and action learning address the second. The organizational systems have been built over the years on assumptions that are often no longer appropriate. The organization is an organic whole, a whole-system, that include different subsystems such as the structure, the information systems, the work flow or processes, the human resources and other supportive systems. In order to optimize change, these systems need to be designed and aligned to common principles. This is “whole-system design.”
Culture and Commitment
Culture and commitment are the foundation of business results. All business success, whether personal or corporate derive from human performance, human habits, and human values. Technologies, processes, systems and methods all change rapidly and all can be easily copied by competitors. The lasting source of competitive advantage is the human side of enterprise. This is our focus.
High Involvement = High Commitment
Many consulting processes rely heavily on the consultant to “do”, to study, to make recommendations, and to be the expert. I believe that many of these processes reduce the ownership of the client managers and are therefore self-defeating. Ultimately it is the internal client managers who must implement change and achieve results. The first rule of managing change is that we will be committed to what we create, what we own. The change process may be “facilitated” or guided by the consultant and the client managers must do, must think, must study, must recommend, must decide and must implement. Our process of change highly involves managers and employees as “the experts” who will feel ownership for the change.
Business Focused Change
Be dedicated to business results, not technique. Too many change efforts over the past years have been a love affair with a technique (quality circles, Six Sigma, re-engineering, etc.). Use techniques as they apply, but remember that it is the on-going, regular process of management, that drives performance. Focus on improving the “norms” of management behavior and systems and those norms are best changed when focusing on the results that measure the effectiveness of the organization.
Teamwork Creates Collective Wisdom
I believe we live in an age in which the best results come from creating collective wisdom. Teamwork, effective group decision making, and trust among colleagues is the foundation on which successful companies are built.