MANAGING CHANGE
"It is not the strongest, nor the most intelligent species that will survive,
but the one most responsive to change“
Charles Darwin
The only thing that never changes is that everything is constantly and ever more rapidly changing
Today, organizations of all shapes and sizes are seeking new ways to improve their operations to survive in an evermore competitive economic environment.
In this Darwinian contest, two of the major but very much neglected factors, that will help the fittest to survive, are the responsiveness to change and the resistance to stress of the employees.
Managers often complain that employees have so much resistance against change. Usually this resistance is not against change but against the way it is implemented.
All your employees are brainworkers nowadays. Even for “simple” jobs at the frontline we need people who use their brains at least as much as their hands.
The brain workers of the 21st century should be managed differently than the manual workers of the nineteenth century. For brain workers it’s the managers who have to create an environment where change is obvious, where people like to change.
A great majority of change projects fail to create any value, because they utterly fail to take into account fundamental directions of use of the human being in general and the Brainworker more specifically.
Therefore I present some of the directions for use of Brainworkers to change.
Brainworkers like change
o If they ? : Guess the number 1 success factor.
o if they understand why
o If you do not go for revolutions
o If they are not rushed: change is a process
o if their stress is positive
o if there is a good answer to their 3 fundamental questions
o with managers who are "service professionals"
o in a climate of continuous learning and inquisitive failing.
o If your company does not suffer from Corporate Brain Disorder
o if you realize that the frontline managers are the motor of change
o If their managers change first
etc...
and...
* Pulling at the cocoon will not speed up the transformation. It will ruin your chances of ever getting a butterfly!
* You can not teach a caterpillar to fly: create an environment in which she turns into a butterfly.
* A sick or hungry caterpillar will never change into a butterfly.
* A caterpillar will never change into a butterfly after you just amputated a big piece.
* The transformation into a butterfly is not enough. You also need the courage to let go off the cocoon.
* An organization will never change quickly if everyone is waiting until the boss has spoken.
* If you feel going trough hell: it’s definitely not the moment to stand still.
* Focus: a Swiss army knife with all tools folded out is useless.
* Resistance is better than apathy: it is only the dead fish that float with the tide.
* The bottleneck is at the top of the bottle.
* Trust is a bucket that you fill drop by drop, but one stupid or clumsy gesture is enough empty it.
* For change you need commitment, passion and time ....
¨ Independent international consultant, coach, trainer and key-note speaker.
Former Suez Chair in Leadership and Personal Development at the Solvay Business School, Adjunct Professor at large at INSEAD, Visiting Professor at the Vlerick School for Management and Professor at the Free University of Amsterdam.