Content and Process

• Organizations highly specialized systems & many different schemes for grouping and classifying them
• problems found in organizations, esp change problems, have both a content and a process dimension
• overall processes of change and change management remain pretty much the same

The Task of Managing Change:

• proactive: making of changes in a planned and managed or systematic fashion; aim: effectively implement new methods & systems in an ongoing organization; changes lie within & controlled by organization
• reactive: response to changes over which organization exercises little or no control; changes triggered by events originating outside organization (environment)
• managing its impact on ppl (help ppl cope w/ change and also face their own coping challenges)

An Area of Professional Practice:

• independent consultants...
• In almost all cases, process of change treated separately from specifics of situation

A Body of Knowledge:

• content or subject matter of change management:
  models, methods and techniques, tools, skills and other forms of knowledge that go into making up any practice; drawn from psychology, sociology, business administration, economics, industrial engineering, systems engineering and study of human and organizational behavior
• For many practitioners, these component bodies of knowledge linked and integrated by a set of concepts and principles: General Systems Theory (GST)

A Control Mechanism:

• rein in and otherwise ride herd on changes to systems and the applications that run on them: version control; now begun to refer to this control mechanism as change management

The Change Process as “Unfreezing, Changing and Refreezing” model, framework
process of change three basic stages: unfreezing, changing, and re-freezing. (Kurt Lewin’s adoption of systems concept of homeostasis or dynamic stability)

• useful: staged approach to changing things; not useful: does not allow for change efforts that begin w/ organization in extremis (i.e., already unfrozen, nor does it allow for organizations faced w/ prospect of having to hang loose‖ for extended periods of time (i.e., staying unfrozen)
• beginning and ending point of this model: stability
  (for some a luxury, for others disaster)

The Change Process as Problem Solving and Problem Finding framework

• moving from problem state to solved state in a planned, orderly fashion (the planned change model)
• Dx or problem analysis essential
• Goals set & achieved at various levels and in various areas or functions. Ends & means discussed and related to one another. Careful planning accompanied by efforts to obtain buy-in, support and commitment.
• a problem: a situation requiring action but in which required action not known
• requirement to search for a solution, a course of action that will lead to solved state: problem solving

Change as a “What” Problem

• focus on ends

Change as a “Why” Problem

• ends & means: relative notions--> chains and networks of ends-means relationships often have to be traced out before one finds true ends of a change effort

Change as a “How” Problem

• initial formulation of a change problem is means-centered, w/ goal state more or less implied

The Approach taken to Change Management Mirrors Management's Mindset

• For most part, changes are problems of adaptation: require of organization only that it adjust to an ever-changing set of circumstances

• sometimes: continued, cumulative compounding of adaptive maneuvers that were nothing more than band-aids OR sudden changes so significant as to call for a redefinition of the organization--> changes that must be made deep & far-reaching--> design of the organization itself called into question

  
  

• Organizations frequently survive establishers + Successful organizations resolve early on issue of structure (definition, placement and coordination of functions and people) + ends already been established--> other ppl chiefly concerned w/ means

  
  

• some organizations designed to buffer their core operations from turbulence in environment: all units fit into one of three: core, buffer, and perimeter

  
  
  • core units (e.g., systems and operations): coordination achieved through standardization (adherence to routine); typically focus on how questions
  • buffer units (e.g., upper management and staff or support functions): coordination achieved through planning; often ask what questions
  • perimeter units (e.g., sales, marketing, and customer service): coordination achieved through mutual adjustment; what and how
• Why questions generally asked by ppl w/ no direct responsibility for day-to-day operations or results: senior executives responsible for continued well being of firm: top management; responsible for alteration of design of the firm

• when organizational redefinition and redesign necessary, all ppl in all units must concern themselves w/ all three sets of questions or the changes made will not stand test of time

  
  

• summary: Problems may be formulated in terms of how, what and why questions. Which formulation used depends on where in organization person posing question or formulating problem situated, and where organization situated in its own life cycle.

Political Skills

• the lower the stakes, the more intense the politics
• Change agents dare not join in this game but they had better understand it.
• you must make your own judgments and keep your own counsel; no one can do it for you.

Analytical Skills

• Insight nice, useful but difficult to sell & almost impossible to defend
• lucid, rational, well-argued analysis in most cases, will carry; If not, then political issues haven’t been adequately addressed
• Two particular important ones:
  
  • workflow operations or systems analysis
  • financial analysis.
• learn to take apart and reassemble operations and systems in novel ways, and then determine financial and political impacts of what they have done
  Conversely, must be able to start w/ some financial measure or indicator or goal, and make their way quickly to those operations and systems that, if reconfigured a certain way, would have desired financial impact.
• Solution Engineering?

System Skills

• a system: an arrangement (organization) of resources & routines intended to produce specified results.
• A system reflects organization & an organization is a system.
• computers and larger, info processing systems in which computers often embedded,...: hard systems
• soft systems: compensation systems, appraisal systems, promotion systems, and reward and incentive systems
• two sets of systems skills mastered
  
  • Many associate first set w/ computers and it is exemplified by: systems analysis
    
    • predates digital computer & known elsewhere (partic in US Air Force & aerospace industry) as systems engineering.
    • Mostly concerns itself w/ a closed system (simply a mechanistic or contrived system w/ no purpose of its own and incapable of altering its own structure; cannot learn and cannot change of its own volition)
  • General Systems Theory (GST): deals w/ ppl, organizations, industries economies, and even nations as socio-technical systems — as open, purposive systems, carrying out transactions w/ other systems and bent on survival, continuance, prosperity, dominance, plus a host of other goals and objectives.

People Skills

• heading of communication or interpersonal skills
• listen actively, to restate, to reflect, to clarify w/o interrogating, to draw out the speaker, to lead or channel a discussion, to plant ideas, and to develop them
• learn to speak Systems, Marketing, Manufacturing, Finance, Personnel, Legal, and a host of other organizational dialects.
• see things through eyes of these other inhabitants of organizational world

Business Skills

• understanding of money — where it comes from, where it goes, how to get it, and how to keep it
• knowledge of markets and marketing, products and product development, customers, sales, selling,..

Empirical-Rational: ppl rational & will follow self-interest — once revealed to them. Change based on communication of info & proffering of incentives.

Normative-Reeducative: ppl social beings & adhere to cultural norms & values. Change based on redefining and reinterpreting existing norms and values, and developing commitments to new ones.

Power-Coercive: ppl basically compliant. Change based on exercise of authority & imposition of sanctions.

Environmental-Adaptive: ppl oppose loss and disruption but adapt readily to new circumstances. Change based on building a new organization and gradually transferring ppl from old one to new.

 Scope and Scale: The larger, the more likely a broad mix of strategies will be required w/ Power-Coercive playing a central role.

 Degree of Resistance. Strong R: Power-Coercive & Environmental-Adaptive strategies. Weak R or concurrence: Empirical-Rational & Normative-Reeducative strategies.

 Target Population. Large: a mix of all four

 The Stakes. High: mix of all four

 The Time Frame. Short: Power-Coercive strategy. Longer: mix of Empirical-Rational, Normative-Reeducative, and Environmental-Adaptive strategies.

 Expertise. adequate: some mix of strategies. Not: power-coercive strategy.

 Dependency. If organization dependent on its ppl, management's ability to command or demand limited. Conversely, if ppl dependent upon organization, their ability to oppose or resist is limited. (Mutual dependency almost always signals a requirement for some level of negotiation.)

1. jump in

2. clear sense of mission or purpose essential. The simpler the mission statement the better

3. Build a team.

4. Maintain a flat organizational team structure and rely on minimal and informal reporting requirements.

5. Pick ppl w/ relevant skills and high energy levels.

6. Toss out the rulebook. Change, by definition, calls for a configured response, not adherence to prefigured routines.

7. Shift to an action-feedback model. Plan and act in short intervals. Do your analysis on the fly. No lengthy up-front studies

8. Set flexible priorities

9. Treat everything as a temporary measure. Don’t lock in until the last minute, and then insist on the right to change your mind.

10. Ask for volunteers

11. Find a good straw boss or team leader and stay out of his or her way.

12. Give the team members whatever they ask for — except authority

13. Concentrate dispersed knowledge. Start and maintain an issues logbook. Let anyone go anywhere and talk to anyone about anything. Keep communications barriers low, widely spaced, and easily hurdled. Initially, if things look chaotic, relax — they are