There is no disputing the fact that many corporations and public bodies are in desperate need of dramatic change and transformation. In fact, if current world events are anything to go by the rate of change and transformation required is about to increase exponentially... Business continuity and disaster recovery plans will need to be rewritten at pace and then reviewed at monthly intervals for some businesses in 2017. Change is needed at a greater pace and over shorter periods of time.
Many organisations have already undertaken significant change and transformation programmes. This has resulted in some amazing work undertaken by high achieving teams filled with capable energetic people. This is truly a success and nobody can deny the facts which are frequently reflected in the triple bottom line...
So why does this work of transformation need to change? What can we do to prepare our people for large scale, fast change? We must change the way we think about change and transformation... If we continue to use the same approach and methods we will be left behind. There is a sea change coming and many are now awakening to the fact that the old methods of "Transform the business and then the people will follow" doesn't have the desired effect. Many now are beginning to learn the lessons of the past...
The executive team have been away for a whole weekend and have now formulated the "Business Transformation and Change plan". It was a difficult weekend there were tensions between the group managers and the VP seemed to have some sort of breakdown... But here it is Monday morning of a brand new week for the organisation... "Bob please can you contact that Change manager that we met 2 months ago we are going to need them!"... Sound familiar? So what's the problem the plan is ready the team have formed around the way forward, this has the makings of success right?
What I am proposing is not complex or difficult to understand in fact it is profoundly simple...The essential ingredient in any change and transformation initiative is what? It is the people who manage and work within your organisation right? Before significant change and transformation can take place your staff need help themselves with personal change and transformation. The reason the VP had a breakdown wasn't that he could cope with the idea of change at work. It was because he was trying to cope with the fact that his marriage and family are falling apart... He needed help with personal change and transformation before he could help with the transformation at work!
I worked on a large scale digital transformation recently and without doubt the biggest lesson learnt was this. "Although we are implementing a system" the project didn't begin to deliver effectively until we acknowledged and reorganised to reflect the fact that we were in fact not just delivering a system but attempting large scale people change and transformation project. This resulted in significant change resource being carefully selected and then being deployed within the various business groups... This was successful but it still lacked the depth of work required to prepare the management team to be made ready for the change...
So what's the point Kieron? Simply put if we really want our change and transformation project to succeed, then we need to acknowledge and reorganise ourselves to undertake personal change transformation first. At the very least your management team will need some coaching themselves just to be made ready for the task ahead and to ensure that needed personal changes and transformations are not going to prevent changes of significance taking place within your organisation.
In part 2 of this article, I will provide you with some key questions you can ask your management team to check their actual readiness for the change programme.
In the coming months, I am looking to devote myself fully to the work of preparing and coaching management teams in readiness for large-scale change and transformation programmes. If you know that your management team is about to commence a large scale transformation, it might be wise to check in on their readiness to undertake that journey. Contact me if you would like to discuss how I might be able to assist.
Kieron McGhie
Change and Transformation Coach