Service Snapshot: Facilitating Change

We use a comprehensive approach to change which places equal emphasis on emotional and rational reasons for change.

Challenge

To survive organisations need to be able to adapt to a changing environment.  Change may be driven by a change in the external environment, such as a change in the economy or a transformative technology development, or an internal change, such as a new strategy or a different way of working.

Most change initiatives fail to meet expectations because employees have not felt able to commit to the new way of working.

Change upsets the status quo, so in order to make the change a lasting one requires the organisation to execute successfully the rational aspects, such as dealing with processes, systems, technology and strategy, as well as the emotional aspects, such as behavioural and attitudinal changes which facilitate the desired rational ones.

Business people tend to be less comfortable with dealing with emotional issues because they tend to be left-brained people.  The right hemisphere of the brain, on the other hand, is more experimental and open to new ideas and best for dealing with emotional issues.

To be successful a change programme needs a “whole-brain” approach.

Solution

As a strategy consultancy we are always dealing with change driven by rational analysis and planning and we know that if our programmes can’t win hearts and minds they will fail.

Key emotional factors which cause a reluctance to adopt the proposed change are fear of the unknown, loss of power or corporate standing and fear of more transparent accountability.  These factors lead employees to adopt one of four psychological responses: denial – people do not consider the change a possibility; resistance – once they realise the change is happening they oppose it; conditional acceptance – begin to accept change but still disagree with some of it and commitment – people commit to achieving the new goals.

To keep dissonance to a minimum we put a series of core processes in place at the outset before launching a change initiative.

• Chartering – Define initiatives purpose, scope and way people on the project team will work with one another

• Learning – Managers develop, test and refine ideas through experimentation before full scale rolling out 

• Mobilising – Use of symbolism, metaphors and compelling stories to engage hearts as well as minds

• Re-aligning – Series of activities to reshape the organisation and force people to come to terms with change

The four core processes are not sufficient on their own to ensure success and must be run with:

• Clear objectives

• Strong project management

• Clarity about accountability

• Flawless execution

Benefits

• A focus on four core processes at the outset will help to create an environment that is receptive to change and one in which people do not drift back to old ways of working

• Emphasises the importance of the employee’s involvement in the new direction

• Clarifies how employees will participate and how they will be affected

• The tool box makes a “whole-brain” approach easier to implement

• Acknowledges and accommodates behavioural and emotional factors in any large-scale change initiative

• Allows change idea to be refined before launching