Managing Change for Organizational Growth

Organizations and businesses, to be competitive, must be responsive to the changes required – the need for these changes may be a result of changes in technology, emergence of new competitors, change or revision in laws, economics trends or other market factors. If they do not adapt and move forward, it can have disastrous results.  

Organizational change primarily refers to initiatives a business takes to adapt a significant part of it’s organization – these could be cultural, process-centric, technology or infrastructure centric or even change of business like converting proprietorship to private limited company. These changes are either adaptive or transformational. Transformational changes are large in scale and mark a tectonic shift in the status quo. For example, a new product launch or entering a new international market. Whereas adaptive changes are smaller and gradual – concerned with processes, strategies, workflows etc…Shifting to WFH mode is an adaptive change. 

The process of change management is the process of taking the organizational change to it’s envisioned conclusion – from ideation, planning, implementation to it’s conclusion.

Let us look at the different steps involved in the process: 

Setting the Foundation for Change: 

If an organization is to properly chase and implement change, a basic requirement is being prepared logistically and culturally. The willingness and conviction have to be instilled in the employees by managers – they need to know and understand the need for change. Creating awareness about the problems being faced and the organization’s realization of the actions required. This shared communication will help lay the foundation for change, because they will be aware of the need for it. This will be a huge factor in removing friction and resistance in the later stages. 

Developing a Vision and Plan for Change: 

Having laid the foundation, managers must envision the change and prepare a detailed plan to realise the change. There will be quite a few strategic, performance oriented, personnel oriented and tactical issues to be factored into the planning. These could be: 

What goals will this change help the organization achieve? How will success be measured? Who will supervise the implementation of the changes? Who will actually implement? What is the action plan? Scope of project and inclusions in the scope of project?  I

Implement the Changes: 

Once the plan has been made, proper execution is of paramount importance – every step outlined in the plan should be followed through. The dynamics of the project will decide whether it may involve changes to the company’s structure, processes, systems, culture, etc…The change managers driving the process must empower their employees so they can execute the tasks properly for achieving the goals. Being able to identify problems that can arise, or roadblocks to a smooth functioning, is a core ability. Once identified, these obstacles can be removed.  It is important for the change managers to reinforce the organization’s vision is critical all through the implementation process to remind team members why the change is being pursued as a goal. 

Instill the changes in Company Culture and Practices: 

To sustain the change, it is important to instil the changes and the vision in the company’s culture and practices. This has pushed a compliance firm like LegalWiz.in to come up with partners’ platform that offers syrow discount code for businesses in the ecosystem. Employees must live and imbibe it every day. This is a primary requirement when the change is related to processes, culture, workflows, etc…Manager need to put special emphasis on this, because there is a risk of employees getting into the habit of doing things the “old way’. Special care needs to be taken during the transition phase. All the new structures, controls and reward systems can be deployed to help change gain traction and be reinforced. 

Taking stock and analysing results: 

Once the project is complete, it is absolutely crucial to review it and analyse the results. Just because it is over does not mean it has been successful. An analysis can help leaders to understand what worked and what did not. Whether the initiative was a success, failure or a partial success. The insights gained from this review will invariably help to chart a course for future projects that involve change.