Why Change the Organization?
As an organizational leader, you must always be prepared to position and reposition the organization to take advantage of the business environment. A new competitor, technology or government regulation can change the way you do business overnight. There are times when the organizational structure that you currently have is not the one that you need to compete in the new environment. You have the choice to either let the structure stay as is and stick with the status quo, or adapt to the new environment to ensure your organizations long term viability. You have options.
People Change
Another reason to look at organizational restructuring is the fact that people change. They improve their skills (or not). Most people get better at what they do over time, creating new opportunities for the team. It is a wise manager who recognizes that his team members have more skills and is not scared to change things up a bit to take advantage of it.
The Market Changes
Over and over you hear that the business environment is dynamic and ever-changing. Its a fact. If you dont like change, thats ok because you will like irrelevance even less. Your will either adapt to your market and thrive, or you will not adapt and simply be pushed out of the market place. There are times when organizational changes are necessary to facilitate the teams relevance in the market. Failure to make the changes timely enough will impact the teams long term viability. In his book, "How the Mighty Fall", author Jim Collins points out how arrogance and hubris plague successful companies. The market changes around them and they do not see it. They believe that the customers do not have a choice but to do business with them even though they deliver poor service and poor quality products. That is simply not true. Business literature is packed with examples of companies that just did not get this lesson and as a result, do not exist today.
What should the organization look like?
First you should attempt to staff and structure your organization to meet the needs of the market. It does not help to structure your organization to handle one specific volume and type of work only to find that the customers do not order that. Secondly, you are going to be bound by the capabilities of your resources, do not over commit your resources beyond what they are capable of doing. You will frustrate both your customers and your employees. Lastly, the staffing plan must align with the financial goals/requirements of the organization. If you do not follow this last point, you will probably not be able to stay in business very long.
How should organizational change be implemented?
First and foremost, clear goals and objectives should be identified and communicated. People should understand the why behind the actions being taken. All improvement requires change, however, not all change is improvement.
Open and honest communication is key to any organizational change effort. In absence of the truth, people will simply insert what fits. Rumor and conjecture begin to replace rationale and in the end morale and productivity suffer. Additionally, you have to have a methodical and well planned approach. I have been burned by the "change it now, we'll document it later" approach to process improvement and organizational change management. You never get back around to documenting the changes, and people are left confused and out of the loop. The effort should be planned like the major undertaking it is.
When is the best time to change?
I used to live in New England and the saying was that if you don't like the weather, wait a little while and it will change. To me the only thing that changes as fast as the weather is the business climate. You have to pay attention to what is happening in your market space and be prepared to reposition your business in response to the competitive environment. Often, this effort involves rethinking how your team is organized and making the appropriate adjustments.
Final thoughts from the field - General guidelines to help ensure success
- Listen to the pulse from the field. They will tell you whether things are going well or not.
- Never wait for the perfect solution. It doesn't exist and the opportunity for organizational improvement will diminish over time
- Always be completely engaged in the effort. Studies have shown the primary reason for the failure of organizations to adopt new processes/procedures is due to a lack of executive leadership and buy in.
Most companies I worked for abandoned their organizational changes before giving them a chance to work. That was usually because the employees did not buy into it and/or because it was perceived that the cost was too high. No one was willing to give it a chance to work. Upper management tends to want change to have immediate impact and they will go back to what they know if they don't see short term improvements in their bottom line. In my opinion, that is the biggest hurdle to overcome!
ReplyDeleteI agree June. Oh and I love my country too!
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