Perhaps a better title for this blog would be making the case for change management in uncertain times.  I cannot recall such uncertain times during the last 35 years.  Sure, we’ve had market crashes, major conflicts and tragedies such as 911.  But we’ve never experienced them on a daily basis before.  Yesterday we saw the biggest ever numeric drop of the DOW, the sub-prime rescue package voted out and three major banks being rescued – a contagion affecting the US, UK and mainland Europe.

It’s unsettling to say the least and it has an impact on most businesses and most individuals.  By this I mean that credit has all but dried up in the financial sector, mortgages are both hard to get and expensive while pension funds have fallen by about 30%.

We’re in uncharted territory and nobody is quite sure how to make a map.  So what do you do?  Well the natural reaction is to do nothing, find a cosy foxhole and pull over lots of cover.

Returning to the markets, that’s just what some people are doing but it was interesting that Warren Buffett is taking a contrarian view.  In the middle of this chaos and uncertainty he has written a cheque for $5 billion – buying into financial services (Goldman Sachs) of all areas.  Few would argue with his judgement given his spectacular track record over the last fifty years.

Uncertain times present opportunities.  But identifying and taking advantage of those opportunities requires a culture which is adaptive to change.  Having a smart CEO is not enough in this age of complexity; gone are the days when the boss made all of the decisions and everyone else implemented them.

Creating a culture which anticipates and embraces change is the real prize, but sometimes it can be hard to work out where to start.  Well, you could try examining the behaviours in your organisation to find out if they are really helping or hindering.  Our Introduction to Culture is a low-cost fast-track way of doing this.

Mike West

www.novaconnection.com

It's a sad fact that the majority of change management programmes fail.  Organisations simply under-estimate what it takes.  Change management programmes rarely succeed if they are just the latest in a string of confusing initiatives.  Right, done that, here comes the next one!  A lot of us have seen and experienced that.

The problem with culture change is that it involves people.  And we've not yet found a way of applying software upgrades to the workforce.  But just imagine if, like Microsoft, we could have a monthly Patch Tuesday where all of the latest updates and hotfixes were applied.

In the real world culture change is about commitment, time and energy.  It's a big investment but the returns can be even greater.  More focus on achievement, less empire building and a greater willingness to take responsibility all have a positive impact on the bottom line.  And there is some excellent research on this which I will be writing about in a future blog.

It's certainly true that all members of an organisation have a responsibility in bringing about culture change, but the commitment of the leadership team is most important of all.  They have to be role models and evangelists, balancing the needs of people with getting the job done, keeping change high on the agenda and regularly measuring progress.

Back to the workforce, and this is why changing culture really is such a big ask.  For the culture to change, everyone in the organisation needs to alter their behaviours.  But for this to happen everyone needs to think differently and respond differently to people and situations.  That kind of change cannot be brought about by edict, software patches or even motivational posters.  And it certainly will not be achieved overnight.  It takes a great deal of commitment, hard work and investment.

Here are some suggestions for what is needed:

·         recognising that culture change is a big ask

·         decisive leaders who act as role models

·         effective two-way communications so that change can be top-down and bottom-up

·         a clear plan

·         regular measurement at organisation, team and individual level

It’s not an exhaustive list, but as Lao Tzu said, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Mike West

www.novaconnection.com