An Essential Order to Organizational Change

Some recipes can be done without regard to order, but most have to be done in the proper sequence. You can’t bake the cake pan, then put the batter in it. Same with organizational change, where the recipes are all variants on a simple core three-step recipe: Assess the strategic gaps; cut unneeded, counterproductive, and wasteful parts of the organization including staff, then shift to rebuilding with a new, positive vision and plan. Three steps. Not so complex, really. But do them in the wrong order or waffle amongst them on and off, and the results are going to be a mess instead of a nice cake.

With that thought in mind, here are some tips for change managers, to help avoid the most common pitfalls of their role:

1. Identify Issues before starting to work on them.

2. When it is clear that staff needs updating (as is almost always true in change management), change the staff ASAP. Other changes being impractical until one has the right staff.

3. In changing staff, lay off, fire, retire early or whatever, ASAP. There can be costs associated with moving someone out, especially if they are a long term employee. These costs are modest compared with the costs of delaying. Put it in perspective. Also note that the costs always are greater when you delay and procrastinate, because every day that you have the wrong staff in place is costing you and your organization in many (often hidden) ways.

4. Until the staff is aligned with the needs (both ‘soft’ attitudinal/personality alignment and ‘hard’ skill/experience alignment), it will be impossible to complete any substantive, durable,  proactive changes. (It is always possible to begin good initiatives, but to get them to become easy routines, no; not until the prerequisite steps have been completed.) This is because of three barriers: Attitudinal resistance, lack of needed skills/experience, and squeaky wheel syndrome (meaning that the misaligned or inadequate staff will pull most of the management attention and effort to them and away from proactive and positive activities).

These are of course my opinions. There are mostly opinions and not a lot of absolute facts in the field of management. The above opinions are formed from seeing many management teams go through change, and from reading many studies and reports from experts on organizational change, who have a surprisingly high degree of agreement about the fundamental need to make staff cuts and disinvestments aggressively and quickly, so as to be able to move on to rebuilding as soon as is possible. Also, not to alternate using the axe and the hammer, as this leaves everyone (esp. staff) confused as to when it is okay to start feeling secure and buy into the change. Cut where you must, first, then go about the process of rebuilding. (Next post will be about the ethics of organizational change.)

Alex Hiam

Amherst, Mass., Sept. 30, 2013