Organizational change management and transformation have become fixtures in today’s business landscape. Due to a variety of challenges within the workplace, company leaders have turned to organizational management techniques to keep up with the demands of change and to remain relevant in an already competitive market.
The need for organizational transformation projects arise for a variety of reasons, including the need to support rapid growth, geographic expansion, or when a merger and acquisition happens within an organization, among others.
Toronto’s Brad Fauteux, an organizational design consultant, explains further, “Transformational change involves dismantling a company’s current ways of doing things, even as the new state is being transitioned in. This can mean changing culture, strategy, structure and process thereby initiating a major shift that would re-energize their workforce and re-establish their operations.”
No matter what the driving force for organizational change is, a well-planned transformation project is an involved process that takes a well-thought out plan combined with a strategic process of preparatory, analysis and execution activities.
As in most situations, transformational change does not happen overnight.
“The change process can’t consistently be managed through linear or time-bound plans. It emerges as you go, and that can be hugely uncomfortable for those operating within that kind of uncertainty,” Brad Fauteux adds.
According to David R. Kolzow, PhD, in order for a comprehensive transformation plan to work, it must start with a strong case for change with respect to company culture. After the guidelines are drawn up, Kolzow says leadership must then be committed to implementing the plan and should provide constant clarity for the people involved, so they perceive the change as relevant.
Kolzow also says there needs to be early input from employees and that the change plan must reinforce the behaviors necessary to create the culture that delivers what the business strategy requires for success. In addition, organization’s leaders must remain positive throughout the entire process – a critical part of transformational design.
In fact, approximately 70 percent of change initiatives fail due to negative employee attitudes and unproductive management behavior. Experts agree company leaders should be regularly tracking their cultural progress within the plan in order for it to work.
Case in point, Lukas Kurzmann, founder and CEO of Women’s Best, realizes that positive company culture starts with employees, and prioritizes enhancing individual employees’ contributions and growth.
“We first and foremost try to hire like-minded people who support the idea of wanting to make a positive impact on their society. To maintain employee happiness and drive, we go out of our way to try to communicate to each individual the direct role they play in every company success,” says Kurzmann.
Experts in transformational design would agree, the most successful organizations are consistently assessing their internal practices to find new ways to improve. After-all, employees are the pillar of any organization, and companies need to be willing to change internal practices to better support individual employees.
