Change Management with Three Focal Point ~ Future of CIO

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Change Management with Three Focal Point

11:07 PM Pearl Zhu No comments

The transformative change needs to inspire mind shift.

Change is inevitable. The speed of change is increasing, the digital ecosystem has become more complex and dynamic, often Change Management needs to be changed in order to adapt to the digital new normal. Because successful Change Management is an ongoing business capability, not just a one-time project. How effective the change would be will depend on a change leader’s perspective of view about the right mix and relative importance of ingredients. But more specifically, what are the focal points in transformative changes, and how to improve the success rate of Change Management?

The transformative change needs to inspire mind shift: Organizations are a huge melting pot of various personalities and depending on the generations the comprised employees belong to, 'change' is probably the last thing on their minds, regardless of how enthusiastic the management team is, you can certainly change behaviors with the right push. Short-term changes are common under pressure to change, but it breeds discontent and, in the long run, people revert to their original habits, most of the time. Hence, bigger changes come with inspiring the mind and challenging winning attitudes. People change for a reason, it is a mind which manipulates the reasoning and logic behind the change. Think of behavior change as acting into a new way of thinking and believing. The question to be asked is why are you wanting the change? What do you expect to gain from adopting the change? You can't change anyone's attitude or behavior. They have to be the ones that change. Dig into the mind level, people love to change but fear loss. People do feel very uncomfortable and vulnerable in the face of "uncertainty" (their perception at any moment in time) - it is essentially this feeling inside them that they are resisting - they do not want to experience it within themselves and so they push back on their own reality in the best way they know how. It is directly proportional to the perception of the potential impact and your ability to control the change. Therefore, it needs a solid organizational culture that is built on the foundations of “accepting change.” During the whole process, make sure that all staff is aware of the plan and process, timely updated, and responsible for something. Make your plan flexible and implement changes based on staff feedback. Because people are always at the center of changes.

Transformative change takes a holistic approach: Too often transformational change is acted on the basis of improving one part of an organization at the expense of other parts of the organization. The main reason is that up to this point in time, most leaders have been silo managers and don't really have the business skills or personality traits to lead change and transformation. Change Management is all about balancing the following main elements impacting change: People (the most important one), Strategies, Process and IT. And you have to maintain and fix any imbalance in those elements by establishing a cross-functional change management team to involving the management in the HR, IT and operations. Secondly, you want to emphasize on the talent management role in the change management because people are always considered as the real axle for the organizational movement. IT can help to weave all these important business elements such as process and digital technology & tools into the building blocks of change capability and highlight the characteristics of “Changeable Organization” such as flexibility, agility, and innovation. It’s important to weigh in different variables and manage change via a holistic approach.

"Metrics" is important, first, measure the right things, and then measure them right: If you can't measure it, quantify it, it’s difficult to change and "improve" it. Not only must there be a way to measure and quantify a condition; there must be a willingness to want to improve the condition. In the business world, if the change doesn't translate to the bottom line, it’s doomed. Quantitative measures do play a valuable part in assessing, measuring, and quantifying anything. However, quantifying is only part of the pie. Many times, in the business world, the metrics do show a pretty pie chart and that is what management wants to see the numbers add up. Ultimately the success of the change program is measured by results that are important values to the organization, and the cultural adoption of these goals is part of that measure. If these values have not been clearly identified at the outset, you cannot get the true alignment of your organization and all working toward the same goals and outcomes, you lack clarity and purpose of direction. The trick is to recognize negative trends early enough to change direction. Hence, ensure measuring the right things qualitatively, and then measure them in a quantitative way.

Real change and creativity are deprogramming old mindsets, letting go of outdated traditions or the voices from the past, reprogramming collective minds with new values, norms, and attitudes. To make change sustainable, engage people in the design of change solutions so that critical issues can be surfaced and addressed early, make change cascade, take a holistic approach, set up and align change goals with business processes, and measure change result qualitatively and quantitatively.