CHANGE in organisations was once seen as a special or one-off event. Today, people describe change as being so common that it is virtually a feature of everyday life.
CHANGE in organisations was once seen as a special or one-off event. Today, people describe change as being so common that it is virtually a feature of everyday life.
Few people believe there will be a reduction in the frequency of change, so everyone must learn to adapt and be agile enough to cope with constant changes.
Yet challenges remain for managers and leaders to implement change. Just because change is more frequent does not mean that co-workers will embrace change more readily or that managers can ignore the essential ingredients of a successful change strategy.
Todd Jick, a recent speaker at the Australian Institute of Management, offered five leadership change strategies that will be familiar to most modern managers.
The first challenge is to “transform for tomorrow while doing business today”. This reflects the need to keep the business running and prospering while investing time and resources in developing future business.
The second, “manage an uncontrollable change process”, recognises the organisational realities that you can’t just change one aspect of the business. Most components are interdependent and therefore the change can get out of control very easily.
Managers have to learn to live with the ambiguity and uncertainty of this situation.
The third challenge is to “lead to an uncertain destination”. Like the ambiguity in challenge two, managers must learn to cope with the external environment changing constantly and causing changes in the internal targets set by organisations. Often managers are forced to say “we are heading in this general direction”, rather than being able to be more precise.
“Deal with disruption” is the fourth challenge and is recognition of the inevitable shocks that happen to organisations. They don’t have to be as dramatic as the terrorist attacks in New York. It could be a change of government, a rise in petrol prices or the loss of a key employee. Contingency planning and quick thinking are essential to cope with disruptions to the best-laid plans.
The final challenge is to “confront the need for personal change”. The focus here is on the manager changing themselves as much as others.
One interesting message from Mr Jick’s challenges is that even change is changing. The environment in which we are forced to implement change is very different in 2002. But we have no choice but to continue to look for ways to improve our organisations and find better ways to do business.
We can no longer go “back to normal”, we must go “forward to normal” and discover a new modus operandi for our organisation, our staff and ourselves. Only then will we be comfortable with change being as common as everyday life.
Few people believe there will be a reduction in the frequency of change, so everyone must learn to adapt and be agile enough to cope with constant changes.
Yet challenges remain for managers and leaders to implement change. Just because change is more frequent does not mean that co-workers will embrace change more readily or that managers can ignore the essential ingredients of a successful change strategy.
Todd Jick, a recent speaker at the Australian Institute of Management, offered five leadership change strategies that will be familiar to most modern managers.
The first challenge is to “transform for tomorrow while doing business today”. This reflects the need to keep the business running and prospering while investing time and resources in developing future business.
The second, “manage an uncontrollable change process”, recognises the organisational realities that you can’t just change one aspect of the business. Most components are interdependent and therefore the change can get out of control very easily.
Managers have to learn to live with the ambiguity and uncertainty of this situation.
The third challenge is to “lead to an uncertain destination”. Like the ambiguity in challenge two, managers must learn to cope with the external environment changing constantly and causing changes in the internal targets set by organisations. Often managers are forced to say “we are heading in this general direction”, rather than being able to be more precise.
“Deal with disruption” is the fourth challenge and is recognition of the inevitable shocks that happen to organisations. They don’t have to be as dramatic as the terrorist attacks in New York. It could be a change of government, a rise in petrol prices or the loss of a key employee. Contingency planning and quick thinking are essential to cope with disruptions to the best-laid plans.
The final challenge is to “confront the need for personal change”. The focus here is on the manager changing themselves as much as others.
One interesting message from Mr Jick’s challenges is that even change is changing. The environment in which we are forced to implement change is very different in 2002. But we have no choice but to continue to look for ways to improve our organisations and find better ways to do business.
We can no longer go “back to normal”, we must go “forward to normal” and discover a new modus operandi for our organisation, our staff and ourselves. Only then will we be comfortable with change being as common as everyday life.
