Change
as the New Normal
Takeaways
“Change
before you have to.” Jack Welch
Change as the New Normal
What it Means
The
ultimate test of a change initiative is to see if the new systems or behaviors
it ushered in become entrenched in the operations and procedures of the organization.
Effective change agents leave their legacy when the improvements remain intact
or continue to evolve long after the project or initiative was launched.
Why it Matters
·
The
vision of the future was created to make the organization in some way better. Experiencing
failure at the end of the process results in minimum waste of the human
resources, funds and time that were spent on the initiative.
·
In
today’s environment, there is not much time to focus on maintaining a change once
the initiative is complete. If the new behaviors aren’t embedded into the
organization’s workflow, systems, HR practices, and structure, the likelihood
of sustained change diminishes.
·
Being
the change leader of a successful initiative brings positive visibility and
opportunities to share your best practices.
“Change
takes time, change takes commitment, change buy-in from lots of people for
meaningful and lasting success.” Jack Welch
Action Plan
Change as the New Normal
Here I’ll
cover how to put the final pieces in place to transition from an initiative into
the new norm. There are four areas that must be managed to ensure long term,
sustainable change. If you successfully work through these areas, the desired
behaviors will become the new habits of associates and your initiative will
survive after the change team has completed their work:
·
Human
Resources in the areas of hiring, training and performance evaluation
·
Organizational
design in creating the structure to support new processes
·
Workflow
in optimizing processes across the organization
·
IT
systems in automating non-value added and reinforcing new behaviors
Your Starting Point
1.
What
are the job descriptions that will need to be revised or created to define
expected new associate behaviors?
2.
What
processes have been (or need to be) redesigned to facilitate the change and who
needs to be trained on these processes?
3.
Is
a re-organization required to support the new normal?
4.
When
you finish, who will own the sustained change?
Quick Wins for Managing Change
The
following three simple actions can help solidify the new normal and help others
learn from the experience.
1.
Have
an event to punctuate the start of the new way. For example, if a business has
gone paperless, have a clean-up day to dispose of, or scan, the remaining paper
in the office.
2.
Do
a post-project evaluation with the team to identify:
·
Best
practices – What worked well
·
Lessons
learned – What could have been improved upon
·
Next
steps – What was uncovered that may require future effort or spin off projects
3.
Celebrate
to show appreciation for the effort of the team and associates that made the
change happen.
The People Equation
Finding a
partner in Human Resources is critical in supporting all aspects of people
management. This includes hiring, training, rewarding and promoting.
·
It may be necessary to hire people
with new skills.
Updating hiring criteria, including job descriptions, ensures that new
associates are selected for the skills and behaviors that will be needed for
the future, not the past.
·
Training existing associates is a
necessary step to make change the new normal. Consider both what they will now need to do
differently and what they need to know that wasn’t required previously.
·
Rewards and celebrations can be
large or small, but they should be a part of your human capital plan. Retaining your talent is
important, and retention increases with associates who feel appreciated for
their work.
Deliver
your message by “walking the walk.” If adopting the desired behavers is truly important,
then show it by rewarding those who engage with opportunities, promotions and
other incentives. Your best employees will catch on quickly and will find ways
to adopt and enhance the new normal.
Action Plan
The Org Chart
New skills
and redesigned processes require a fresh look at your organization’s structure.
As you consider the changes being implemented, you have one question to discuss
with HR and your team: “What is the best way to organize associates and groups
to support the new processes?”
·
Streamlining
process often redefines the lines of management. If the organization didn’t previously
exist, define the natural lines of responsibility and ownership. Consider if
physical moves are required and if remote offices are realistic.
·
Are
Centers of Excellence the best approach for associates who deliver similar
services and share the same skill sets and goals, such as Finance, Payroll,
Accounting and Procurement? By joining forces, they are able to more
efficiently and consistently serve their internal or external customers.
·
Is
the flexibility of a matrix organization, virtual organization or flat
organization the structure for the new normal?
·
Sometimes,
there is nothing that needs to be done organizationally and that’s okay.
Reorganizing creates a temporary disruption and should only be done when the
value outweighs the cost.
Design organizations
to best meet the customer’s needs, optimize processes and to highlight the new
behaviors of the associate. It rarely works to design around a particular manager.
If a manager will not fit in the new organization because of their skills or
attitude, now is the time to face the facts and move them into a more
appropriate role or determine a respectful exit strategy.
Workflow
In today’s
world, where people move frequently, it’s important to ensure that your
workflows are not disrupted or knowledge lost as associates change roles.
Sustainable processes with training and documentation safeguard the
institutional knowledge.
All
organizations need established workflows, also called process flows. Building a
change initiative into a new workflow enables you to make change last. And this
is a place that fits the saying, “start slow to finish fast.” Every associate
engaged in the process should have training or clear instructions that detail
the exact steps and behaviors they should follow. If needed, a testing phase
with practice and coaching can be added before the new workflow goes live.
As you
implement your change initiative, strive to make the new workflow as easy and intuitive
as possible. Focus Groups composed of spokespersons from different areas doing
the work can help perfect workflows that meet everyone’s key needs. Getting
associates’ assistance in testing the workflow also facilitates identification
of issues and gaps quickly. The more the new workflow is accepted by everyone
involved, the easier it is to make long term, sustainable change.
Finally,
check your workflow by walking the process backwards from the customer’s
perspective and into your organization to the starting point. You may find
additional opportunities for change that will enable you to eliminate
unnecessary steps, address weak spots and ultimately improve the customer
experience.
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