Change Management

In today’s world organizations are constantly under pressure of change, driven by expanding competition, consumer expectations and developing technologies. To survive these external pressures, change must be successfully addressed within the business.

Change management is a skill in which business leaders and managers must be competent; there are very few (if any!) working environments where managing change is not important. Change management entails thoughtful planning, sensitive implementation, and above all, consultation with, and involvement of, the people affected by the changes.

“Communicate, Communicate, Communicate” Tim Carrier - Director, WIT Systems

However, there is a natural resistance to change in everyone and people react differently to change. All employees have fundamental needs to carry out their work and change can be perceived as a loss. It is important to realise that people go through the "loss curve". With change there is an expectation and this needs to be managed realistically, in addition to dealing with any fears people may have about the proposed change.

WIT Systems can help through ...

• Smoothly manage the introduction of business changes
• Identify new ways of improving business performance
• Deliver improvements such as cost reduction, waste elimination, better throughput, accelerated R&D and supply-chain streamlining in often tight timeframes

Why do organizations need to change?

Change is now a constant in business. Many things cause organizational change:

• Growth, especially global markets one of the key areas that drive change
• Strategy, usually linked to growth
• Technology, external factors can force change on a business
• Competition, competitors can drive internal pressures
• Customers, shifting markets and customer behaviours
• Learning new skills or organizational behaviour
• External legislation/initiatives or Governments

There is much research on business change, it shows that organizations are undergoing major change approximately once every three years and this pace of change is unlikely to slow down. Smaller changes will occur continually, and the key is to drive these smaller changes in the right direction.

Whilst each change event will be different, there are common themes that help ensure that the change process will be successful. Managers need to introduce and lead change to ensure that business objectives are met. It is essential that they gain the commitment of their people, both during and after implementation. For these reasons, it is important that the way we lead change is carefully considered by the business.

A six-step process to achieve effective change, these concentrate on 'task alignment', and employees' roles, responsibilities and relationships are key to bring about changed ways of thinking, attitudes and behaving.

The stages are:

• Mobilise commitment to change through joint diagnosis.
• Develop a shared vision of how to organise.
• Foster consensus, competence and commitment to shared vision.
• Spread the word about the change.
• Institutionalise the change through formal policies.
• Monitor and adjust as needed.

WIT Systems can introduce these stages and supervise throughout the change process to enable a comfortable and efficient transaction.