Managing Change in Workplace #2

Imparting a change in an organization is never easy as it seems. Many of us don't realize the concerns that the employees have when the change process is on roll. Since many employees do not know what is going to come, their first instinct is to resist. They believe that the management is bringing about the change to impose its authority on them, and nobody likes to be forced. Then how to make a smooth transition? Following steps can be very helpful.

• Communicate in advance about the change to everybody, whether he or she is affected by it or not. This imparts a feeling of 'not being left-out' regarding latest developments in the company.
• Inform as to why the change is necessary in the organization, and what are the objectives that are to be achieved.
• Be open to the ideas from the employees. Who knows, some of them may have a simple idea to achieve your objective that may save a lot of energy & effort of yours.
• Ask the employees as to what is the best point of time to bring about the change. Let them set the date, so that they too feel that they too are involved in taking in such important decisions.
• Be first to accept the change.( For example, if you are planning to migrate your OS from Windows to Linux, you be the first to use it.) This will help you understand the problems that others might face once they accept the change.
• Reward those few who champion to accept the change before other employees.
• Analyze whether the change has achieved its objectives or not. If it is successful, announce this news, and give credit to all the employees. Praise the first champions.
• If the change is not successful, ask the employees as to what can be done to make it successful. Their ideas may be useful. (If no idea comes from anybody, it can be a major indication that people have not accepted the change whole-heartedly)
• Last, but very important. If required, roll back the change. You may consider it as your personal failure, but people will feel that you do care for them. They may even appreciate you for doing that, because in the end you are making their life comfortable.

Some more on change in my next post.