The key to effecting change management

By Paul Mbithi and Naserian Kimathi

Think of a driver who sets on a journey without giving a thought to the destination of passengers.

He will reach his desired destination, with a vehicle full of disgruntled passengers who are awaiting the earliest opportunity to hop off and get into another one that will take them where they want to go. Otherwise, somewhere along the way, the passengers might actually take control of the vehicle and drive it towards their destination.

The above analogy explains why companies’ fail when they ignore the people aspects of any implementation.

In 2010, researchers from Pepperdine University in the US reviewed 10 years of independent studies of organisations undertaking business improvement projects. The average rate of return on all project implementations was seen to be negative.

Stakeholder input

The root cause for the negative rate of return was found to be related to ‘people factors’ such as lack of executive sponsorship, lack of early stakeholder input, poorly defined or changing specs, and poor or dishonest communication among others.

Conversely, higher value was obtained by focusing on managing the people, resulting in senior and middle managers and frontline employees being involved, everyone’s responsibilities being clear, and the reasons for undertaking the project understood.

Change management is the process that helps an organisation align leaders, engage and communicate with stakeholders, and assess risk during an organisational transition or transformation.

Through this process, an organisation can get its employees to meet targets.

The goals may include the adoption of a given set of behaviors, the successful implementation of an information system or enterprise application or the attainment of its strategic objectives.

To do this, the organisation appoints a change manager who develops change plans and their associated measurement instruments and tools.

But why does change management matter?

There are a number of variables and unseen employee behaviours one has to accommodate when implementing change intervention.

This fact is further compounded by the size of the organisation, the novelty of the change being introduced and the degree of employee preparation.

In some cases the leadership of the organisation might themselves not be fully aware of the rationale for the change, or even understand how it will impact them.

Heads of departments and units also face the same challenge, because the concept being introduced will most likely have been formulated from without, rather that within the firm, and they would thus have played a minimal role if any.

Changing systems

On their part, employees will wonder why the firm keeps changing systems and practices because they have become used to the way things are done.

Take the example of a Finance department with branches all over the country. Assume that the organisation decides to adopt a shared service model for the finance function with regional offices.

The employees who work in the branches will perceive that a new layer of reporting has been introduced and that their autonomy and decision-making within the branch network will appear diluted or eliminated.

Even then, change management can be successful, if the firm ensures readiness before doing anything. This involves confirming that employees understand the vision and why it is important to them and the business.

It is also important to have willingness. In which case, employees know their role in the vision and are committed to the future. They must believe there is broad support for the vision.

Core requirement

Ability is another core requirement. Employees must be trained and have the tools required for the transformation. It is essential that change be measured and that staff are rewarded for supporting the vision.

Paul Mbithi is director of Human Capital Consulting in Deloitte Consulting, Tanzania, and Naserian Kimathi, Human Capital Consultant in Deloitte Consulting, Kenya. Opinions expressed here are their own.