The only constant in life is the change.
But can it be made less painful?
We are all going through a change constantly. Be it a simple choice of a new beverage or a big one like a change in career, a decision to have a partner in life or make a big ticket purchase.
A decision to re-model can take a good talent out of the structure and leave them stranded like a lost Lego piece. During these very uncertain times , many organisations are going through some big decisions. I wanted to summarize something I have learnt through personal experience of a simple and better way of handling difficult change decisions.
Change cannot always solve a root cause but superficial problems only. When an organisation wants to change its strategy it looks at changing its capabilities first. The leaders may have a new product or a new business model to put in place and to make that effective and successful, they will need to look internally first.
Plan a strategy to see what are the best practices in other competitive organisations. Or even other successful organisations. They would then need to build a team to see how to come up with a successful strategy. Not every change can be solved by hiring a big muscle talent. Sometimes there are competencies within the organisation that can be harnessed to meet the capabilities of the organisation.
But in many instances before we embark on a total up-haul, leaders feel that let’s hire a Head of Digital or a Chief Technology Officer who will make the change happen. They sometimes do not realize that this person will need to learn the culture of the organisation, the products and team synergies before they can bring any suggestions on the table. A more effective and less costly solution would be instead for organisations to engage an experienced consultant to look into all these and plan an Organisation Change Strategy.
Use internal clients first, the existing pool of strong talents, team leaders to create focus groups and interview relevant business leaders to understand where are the gaps and what needs to be changed to make the plan a success. Change is a campaign and needs to be planned and carried out as such. To get strong talents an organisation needs to spend valuable resources to recruit them, train them and then get them settled on a task if they want long term success. There is no plug and play. All talents need time to adjust and learn the ropes of a new role.
With talents who have been with an organisation for a long time there are two things which are confirmed.
- Internal team relationships are strong, and
- Collaborations will have a higher chance of being fruitful.
The consultant will be like an objective wire to connect all the missing links by asking open ended questions and help align a solution to solve the root problem. The suggestions will come from the experience of the organisations internal clients and external customers. For any change an organisation must involve the internal clients as well as gather data from it’s customers through a feedback channel.
Many a times, leaders feel that hiring one person can solve all problems but in most instances the remedy lies in providing an opportunity for re-training, collaborative work arrangements and working as a team to bring an organisation to another level.
Bringing in a new talent is good and necessary for a growing organisation once a strategy is in place and there are opportunities to expand the existing capabilities. Just like adding a new piece of Lego to a model which needs a new extension or a part which has fallen off. Change can be made painless despite it being a necessity.
