The Vargas Group

“Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have—and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.” James Belasco and Ralph Stayer, Flight of the Buffalo (1994)

There is a difference between change and transition. And some companies begin with one and never make it to the other.

Change involves disruption and often frustration, confusion and anger. Transition is an internal human process – a gradual reorientation to the change. The goal is to not get stuck in the world of change but to move into transition where the real work can begin.

However, that is optional!

Author Steven Denning has a new book coming out in fall of 2010, titled: The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Re-inventing the Workplace for the 21st Century.  I can’t wait. I got a hold of some pre-release notes where he discusses why it is so hard to make organizational change stick. Personally, I think the primary cause for the failure of change initiatives is a lack of commitment on the part of management. Organizational change is difficult and often the challenges are more than they anticipated. When bad behavior erupts or the process just seems to take too long, I’ve seen managers or sponsors be the first to lead the charge back to the status quo.

Decisions, decisions ...

Change management experts caution against that lack of commitment. When an initiative is launched, move quickly, swiftly and decisively. As Denning puts it, “Once organizational change takes off, it will happen rapidly. The process is viral in nature. The idea is a virus that is either growing and spreading and propagating itself; or dying and de-energizing people and spawning new constraints.”    

What appropriate symbolism. Organizational Change that is well planned and actively managed leads to a workplace transition that is truly viral in nature. It’s energizing, even to those who may not have agreed in the beginning. There is nothing worse than launching a change initiative and then losing your nerve – but continue to slog through it year after year, inflicting pain and suffering on everyone involved. Well, maybe there is something worse – to abandon it altogether and then launch the “flavor of the month” change initiative a year or so later.

Moving from change to that place of transition, where those involved in the process evolve from observers to active participants, is the sign of success – the sign that the change has taken hold and will spread to other parts of the organization.

Make a plan, make the commitment and move!

I recently wrote a blog for BizSanDiego (my favorite local mag, by the way) where I proposed that downsizing could be the BIGGEST mistake  a company could make. How so? If there isn’t some careful planning and forethought given to it.

Every time the economy goes into an adjustment period, individuals and organizations have to adjust, too. We all have to tighten our belts, cut costs and rethink the way we do things. Too often in companies, though, in trying to reach a desirable bottom line number, we cut costs in the wrong areas and end up crippling the business. Here’s a true story:

A local company made sweeping personnel cuts across the organization. They treated the furloughed employees with dignity and care and the exit was as graceful as possible, however they made one significant error. They had not fully reviewed the assigned tasks of these employees to ensure there was backup support once they were gone.  About 60 days later, it came to light that critical quarterly sales reports were not being generated and the remote salesforce was without meaningful, relevant data. You guessed it – the database engineer in charge of that data process had been let go along with the sales assistant that compiled and produced the reports. Two seemingly unrelated individuals whose absence sent the company into a mad scramble to figure out how to fill the gap. They ended up offering both former employees a contract to come back and train others on how to do their job – and only one of them was willing to do so.

I recommend a process called OPSthat utilizes Optimization, Performance and Strategy to help organizations achieve their desired result -  to streamline costs without impeding business continuity. In these difficult times, considering the big picture will be your best bet.