After conducting a leadership development offsite
programme for a large Indian manufacturing company, I
asked the president of the company what his biggest
concern was regarding the change initiative they had
undertaken. He said he was worried about how the
workforce will react, how the teams will stay together
during this initiative and how they would be able to
lead everyone through this change.
Many a time the best-laid strategies and plans have gone
awry as managers and workforce failed in the
implementation of these strategies and plans.
Managing the human side of an organisation throughout
the change initiative is as important as the strategy
but is often given less importance. First of all we need
to understand that any major transformation process will
create people issues.
Involve everyone
As transformation programmes progress from defining
strategy and setting targets to design and
implementation, they affect different levels of the
organisation. Change efforts must include plans for
identifying leaders throughout the company and pushing
responsibility for design and implementation down, so
that change “cascades” through the organisation.
Create a formal case
Employees may question to what extent change is needed,
whether the company is headed in the right direction,
and whether they want to commit personally to making
change happen. They will look to the leadership for
answers. The articulation of a formal case for change
and the creation of a written change strategy and
approach will reduce ambiguity in the minds of
employees. Leaders must then customise this message for
various internal audiences, describing the change in
terms that matter to the individuals.
Creating ownership
I have heard many a time employees cribbing
about the external consulting agency or their leadership
that is leading the transformation process. The reason
for this is that most of the employees feel that they
are not involved and their opinions are not asked. If
they do not feel involved, their engagement in the
transformation process would be less. Ownership is often
best created by involving people in identifying problems
and crafting solutions. If leaders could adapt the role
of facilitators involving as many people as possible,
ownership can be created.
Address cultural issues
An organisation’s culture is an amalgam of
shared history, explicit values and beliefs, and common
attitudes and behaviours. Leaders should be explicit
about the culture and underlying behaviours that will
best support the new way of doing business, and find
opportunities to model and reward those behaviours.
Understanding that all companies have a cultural centre
— the locus of thought, activity, influence, or personal
identification — is often an effective way to jump-start
culture change. Leaders should ask if this culture
supports the transformation initiative or what kind of
cultural shifts they need to make.
Written by Santhosh Babu
First published in Financial Express
