Change Management

1. Change Management IACT 918 July 2004 Gene Awyzio SITACS University of Wollongong

2. Preface • Some claim that almost any change is a good thing simply because it is a change ! • Can’t have changes without consequences. • So, WHO benefits from the consequences of the change ? • Will these benefits be for the organisation as a whole or for individuals’ private agendas ?

3. Overview • Your network does not exist in a vacuum. • The influences (internal & external) on your business and its network will require that you make changes, or respond to changes imposed upon it. • Change Management is what happens when an organisation attempts to control changes and their consequences. • It is not a simple thing to define…

4. Three Basic Definitions • At least three broad areas need to be considered when trying to define what ‘change management’ is: • The task of managing change • An area of professional practice • A body of knowledge

5. The Task of Managing Change • This definition has two meanings: • Making deliberate planned changes • Implementing new systems and/or methods • These are “internal” changes • Responding to unplanned changes • Adapting, coping, responding • These are “external’ changes • Legislation (standards, regulations, tax etc) • Social/political change • Actions of competitors • Technological innovations

6. Change Management as a Professional Practice • Claimed to be a profession, usually made up of consulting “Change Managers” or “Change Agents”. • Some claim to help clients manage they changes happening TO them • Some claim to help clients MAKE changes • Professional Change Agents tend to treat the PROCESS of change separately from the specifics of the situation • [is that a good thing?]

7. Change Management as aBody of Knowledge (paradigm) • Can be considered to be a set of • Models • Methods & Techniques • Tools • Skills • Drawn from psychology, sociology, business admin, economics, industrial/system engineering etc. • THERE IS NO SINGLE BEST METHOD !!

8. Problem Solving • Planned Change model: • Concerned with moving from aproblem state to a solved state • Concerned with ENDS and MEANS • “problem” or “opportunity” ?lets just say that a ‘problem’ is simply a situation requiring action, where the required action is not yet known

9. Problem Finding • 2nd part of the Planned Change model • Searching for situations requiring action • Perhaps to avoid or cope with something ‘bad’ or to change direction to take best advantage of the environment • Identifying and settling on a course of action that will bring about some desired and predetermined change in the situation

10. The Change Problem • Move from ‘old state’ to ‘new state’ by meeting three goals: • TRANSFORM GOALS • Identify differences between the two states • REDUCE GOALS • Determining ways of eliminating the differences • APPLY GOALS • Taking the steps and setting up the processes that will eliminate these differences

11. The Change Problem II • Define the outcomes of the change effort • Identify the changes necessary to produce these outcomes • Find and implement ways and means of making the required changes • The Change problem can be treated as smaller problems of HOW, WHAT & WHY

12. “How” Problems • Initial formulation of the change problem • Means-centred • Diagnosis is ignored or at best, implied • The goals are more or less implied • Examples: • How do we get staff to be more productive? • How do we introduce self-management teams? • How do we move to e-commerce? • How do we minimise user errors?

13. “What” Problems • Since ‘how’ problems don’t conduct diagnosis, they don’t concentrate on the ‘ends’ • WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACHIEVE • ie: what are the ‘ends’ • Typical WHAT questions: • What changes are necessary? • What standards apply? • What indicators tell us we have succeeded? • What performance measures are we trying to affect?

14. ‘Why” Problems • Means & Ends are relative • Need to trace sets of ends-means relationships to find the real ends of change • WHY questions determine the ultimate purpose of functions and reveal new ways of performing them. • Why questions can also get into the ‘politics’ and motivations of those driving change

15. Managers’ Mindset • A person’s position within the organisation often defines the scope, scale & kind of changes they’re involved with. • Sometimes changes with fundamentally restructure the whole organisation • Some organisations are designed to protect core operations from change turbulence and have ‘core’, ‘buffer’ and ‘perimeter’ units.

16. Managers’ Mindset II • Core units (systems, operations) stick to standard procedures and tend to ask “HOW” questions • Buffer units (upper mgmt, support) responsible for performance, tend to ask ‘WHAT” questions • Perimeter units (sales, customer service etc) co-ordinate and ask “HOW” & “WHAT” • “WHY” is asked by people with a ‘top-down’ view, not concerned with day-to-day operations, ie: Senior Management • [should “WHY” questions be the sole province of senior management? Does involvement in day-to-day operations prevent you from asking WHY?]

17. “Unfreezing, Changing & Refreezing” • Another Change Management ‘model’ • Usefully, this model gives rise to a ‘staged’ approach, look before you leap • However, too reliant upon ‘stasis’ at the beginning and end of the change • Cannot cope well with highly flexible environments (such as I.T.?) • Too much internal stability can stifle growth

18. Skills Required for Change Management • Political Skills • Change Agents must not get stuck in internal organisational politics, but MUST understand them! • Analytical Skills • Clear analysis will overcome many objectionsneed financial analysis & workflow operations / systems analysis • People Skills • Communications & Interpersonal skills. Ability to listen & speak with all sections, and reconcile conflicts. • Systems Skills • Arrangement of resources and routines. ‘Systems analysis’ & ‘General Systems Theory’ • Business Skills • How businesses work: Money, Market, HR, R&D, IR, EEO etc.

19. Four Basic Strategies

20. Factors in Selecting Strategies • There is no single perfect strategy … please consider: • Degree of Resistance • Strong: Power-Coercive & Environmental-Adaptive • Weak: Rational-Empirical & Normative-Re-educative • Target Population • Large populations need all four strategies in a mix‘something for everyone’ • The Stakes • High stakes need all four strategies in a mix‘nothing left to chance’

21. Factors in Selecting Strategies • The Time Frame • Short: Power-Coercive • Longer: Rational-Empirical & Environmental-Adaptive & Normative-Re-educative • Expertise • Mix the strategies according to the expertise of the Change Agents • Dependency • If organisation is dependant on its people, managements ability to lead is limited • If people are dependant on the organisation,their ability to resist or oppose is limited • Mutual dependency requires negotiation

22. How to Manage Change • Jump in, get into the scenario • Clear sense of mission (simpler the better) • Build a team • Flat organisational structure, keep the information flow informal & flexible • Pick people with relevant skills and high energy levels • Throw out the rule book, new circumstances mean old procedures are out of date • Action-feedback model, short plan-action intervals

23. How to Manage Change • Flexible priorities, must be able to shift your focus to an urgent issue • Treat everything as a temporary measure • Ask for volunteers • Set up a good team leader and let them do their job • Give team members everything they want - EXCEPT authority • Concentrate dispersed knowledge – keep an issues logbook, let anyone speak to anyone • Bring order to chaos, don’t pretend it’s already well organised !