eBusiness Weekly
Dr Keen Mhlanga
Businesses must continually grow and adapt to address a wide range of difficulties, including changes in technology, the rise of new competitors and changes in laws, regulations, or fundamental economic trends.
Failure to do so may result in stagnation or, even worse, failure. Approximately half of all organisational change initiatives fail, underscoring the need of learning how to plan for, coordinate and carry out change for managers and business leaders alike.
Organisational change broadly refers to the efforts taken by a company to change or adjust a significant component of its organisation.
This could include the company’s culture, internal processes, underlying technology or infrastructure, corporate hierarchy, or another essential factor.
Adaptive or transformative organisational change is possible. Small, progressive, iterative adjustments are made by an organisation to evolve its products, processes, workflows, and strategies over time.
Hiring a new team member to meet growing demand or instituting a new work-from-home policy to attract more competent job candidates are both instances of adaptive modifications.
Transformational changes are larger in scale and scope, and they can represent a drastic and, at times, unexpected break from the status quo.
Examples of transformational change include the introduction of a new product or company division, as well as the decision to grow worldwide.
Change management is the process of guiding organisational change through its various stages of conceptualisation and preparation, implementation and resolution.
As business leaders we must understand the change management process to guarantee that the entire organisation can seamlessly navigate shifts.
This allows us to assess the possible impact of any organisational changes and better prepare our teams.
When we prepare our team, we can ensure that everyone is on the same page, create a comfortable environment, and engage the entire team toward a similar purpose.
Change processes begin with a set of conditions (point A) and end with a functional endpoint (point B).
The intermediate process is dynamic and unfolds in stages. The following is a summary of the essential steps in change management.
To effectively achieve and implement change, a business must be prepared both logistically and culturally.
To attain the best commercial results, cultural groundwork must take place before going into logistics. During the preparation phase, the manager focuses on assisting employees in recognizing and comprehending the need for change.
They promote awareness of the numerous issues or problems confronting the organisation, which operate as change agents and create dissatisfaction with the status quo. Obtaining early buy-in from employees who will assist in the implementation of the change can reduce friction and opposition later on.
When a company is ready to embrace change, managers must devise a comprehensive, realistic, and strategic plan for implementing it. All that remains after creating the plan is to follow the actions indicated within it to achieve the necessary change.
The nature of the programme will determine if this entails changes to the company’s structure, strategy, systems, procedures, employee habits, or other components.
Throughout the implementation process, change managers must focus on motivating their workers to take the necessary measures to achieve the initiative’s goals and celebrate any short-term victories.
They should also try to predict potential bottlenecks and prevent, remove, or reduce them once they are found.
The organisation’s vision must be communicated often during the implementation phase to remind team members why change is being pursued.
Change managers must prevent a reversion to the previous state or status quo once the change endeavour has been finished.
This is especially true for organisational change including business processes like workflows, culture, and strategy formulation. Employees may revert to the “old way” of doing things if a sufficient plan is not in place, especially during the transition time.
Backsliding is made more difficult by incorporating changes into the company’s culture and processes.
New organisational structures, controls, and reward systems should all be viewed as tools to assist in making change stick.
We change for a reason; we change to achieve a future state involving a specified and desired end.
Reasons for change range from cost savings to increased consumer pleasure. Change is always motivated by an opportunity or a problem to tackle.
Individual transformation is required for organisational change, new technologies or processes alone will not result in organisational change; employees within the organisation must adopt new ideals and begin working in new ways.
Individual change produces collective organisational consequences, because change is an individual experience, there are human variables to consider. That is, the more an organisation’s people accept it, the closer it is to reaching the desired results.
Change Management is a framework for managing the people aspects of change. In organisations, especially in change-saturated environments, resistance to change is the norm. Managing the human side of change accelerates uptake and improves proficiency.
Change Management is also used to attain the benefits and desired results of change. The primary goal of change management is to drive and support the realisation of the intended future state and the attainment of the expected objectives.
Employees are the focus of change activities, with the goal of increasing employee productivity and satisfaction.
They can, however, concentrate on the whole corporate culture and influence it in a specific way. This can boost morale and make the workplace more appealing to both new and returning employees.
Modernised business models, such as lean and agile, are widely used nowadays. Innovative, change-driven businesses are increasingly adopting such modern business strategies. Another outcome of today’s digital world is digital maturity.
Companies are more inclined to adopt digital technology, business strategies, and cultures as they evolve. Improved corporate change capability is another effect of organisational change. Organisational changes help an organisation develop more formalised, sophisticated change departments over time.
In today’s fast-paced market, inventive thinking is required to drive change. And, because change and innovation are inextricably linked, firms that effectively transform are typically more innovative.
This, in turn, has a number of advantages. Change can be frightening, however, it has the potential to bring employees closer together.
People can also develop better ways to communicate and collaborate. Successful change programs have a favourable impact on the customer experience, either directly or indirectly. A better client experience also benefits the organisation as a whole.
Change initiatives should strive to improve an organisation as a whole. When these modifications are successful, they serve to align the organisation with its objective.
Change cannot be avoided. The world is always changing, and businesses must adapt in order to thrive and develop.
By managing change, you can avoid being caught off guard by internal or external upheavals. While change can be difficult, the benefits can include improved processes, cheaper project costs, improved business culture, risk mitigation, and increased the organisation’s ability to overcome hurdles.
Dr Keen Mhlanga
Dr Keen Mhlanga is an Investment Advisor with high skills in Finance. He is the Executive Chairman of FinKing Financial Advisory. Send your feedback to [email protected]/Contact him on 0777597526.
