Start managing change before it happens

 

Despite the constancy of change, many strategies for managing it focus on the defined period within which change occurs: the phase following an acquisition; a process redesign; the response to a competitive threat. Such efforts often fall far short of expectations. That’s because the core factors in successful change can't always be created at short notice; they need to be in place.

 

Change comes much more readily to the organization with a clear mission and strategy; consistent and supportive leaders at every level; and employees who are informed, educated and involved.

 

Preparing for, managing and integrating change

 

Managing today means dealing with change: understanding it, leading it, integrating it, responding to it, creating it. But most organizations are organized and staffed for current operations. They have limited resources for planning and managing change. The failure to adjust workloads or reallocate resources during change is one of the primary sources of resistance and breakdown.

 

Major change calls for intensive and sustained effort at many levels. It may mean driving a new culture through an organization, or integrating a newly acquired business, or divesting some operations, or installing new systems and processes.

 

It’s been observed that change happens, and can’t be managed. Some changes are external to the organization and can’t be controlled. But the organization’s response, or the initiatives it takes to prepare for change, can certainly be managed.

Manage change, or be managed by it

Change affects each person and organization differently. But its impact falls into patterns that can be understood and managed.

Strategic clarity, communication and leadership are three of the primary levers through which the organization can changing its culture, structures, processes, people and systems.

 

Howard Schultz built Starbucks into a global brand while staying focused on the firm’s core cultural values. The commitment to employees, customers and the community has remained in place and enabled extraordinary growth and change.

 

Gordon Bethune and Greg Brenneman led Continental Airlines through sweeping structural and cultural changes, and back from the edge of bankruptcy.

 

Michael Dell has continually fine-tuned Dell’s strategy, structure, culture and operations to stay ahead in a fiercely competitive marketplace, and to emerge as market leader in the post-dot-com era.

 

These leaders have responded to change in their markets and created change in their organizations. Each is building the capacity for sustained success by continuing to anticipate and manage change.