Descon is one of the largest conglomerates in Pakistan operating for over three decades. Founded in 1977, initially it was a multi-faceted engineering and manufacturing concern that has now become the largest Engineering, Procurement, Construction & Commissioning [EPCC] company in the country.
A few years after its establishment, the focus turned to chemicals, materials and power generation. For over three decades. Desk on is a group of companies with multiple companies operating under this group conglomerates. It has a workforce of over 600 persons and operating from different location and has product range of more than 200 innovative products and services.
My research work is focused on the how change can be implemented in an organisation. Detail the implementation with a special focus on dealing with resistance to change in an organisation of my choice. So I have selected Deskon for my detailed review and analysis.
Introduction to Change Management
Change management is a structured approach to shifting individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organizational process aimed at empowering employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment. In project management, change management refers to a project management process where changes to a project are formally introduced and approved.
Source: Wikipedia
Change management has different areas and phases which a change manager need to condiser at planning stage and these areas include;
- Missionary changes
It is a strategic management job which was performed by executives and relevant business area managers at Deskon but in this project there were not many missionary changes. However, Chief Executive made it clear that we nee new system and he emphasied the reasons in the light of long term strategic objectives and competitive emvironment.
- Strategic changes
At Deskon strategy is designed by BOD and relevent managers and in the over all strategic planning they considered the element of new ERP system and how it could help to acheive strategic ovbjectives.
- Operational changes (including Structural changes)
Likely changes in operational and technocratic structure of Deskon and improvement in the current working practices and relative resistance against the new system and how to cope with it through imposition, training and communication.
- Technological changes
What type of technical infrastructure will be installed and how it will impact the working style of staff and training needs of individuals and support they want.
- Changing the attitudes and behaviors of personnel
Discussed in detail in next section.
How Change Management worked at Descon
- Measurement: Organizational Change Management at Descon started with a systematic diagnosis of the current situation in order to determine both the need for change and the capability to change. The objectives, content, and process of change was specified as part of a Change Management plan.Change Management processes was treated as a creative marketing to enable communication between change audiences which included both internal as well as external to organisation, but also deep social understanding about leadership’s styles and group dynamics in different departments like marketing, production and finance. As a visible track on transformation projects, Organisational Change Management aligns groups’ expectations, communicates, integrates teams and manages people training. Director of IT made use of performance metrics, such as financial results, operational efficiency, leadership commitment, communication effectiveness, and the perceived need for change to design appropriate strategies, in order to avoid change failures or solve troubled change projects.
Strategy was Successful at Descon because DIT included some of really important elements in the Change Management strategy including;
Measurement enefits management and realization to define measurable stakeholder aims, create a business case for their achievement , and monitor assumptions, risks, dependencies, costs, return on investment, dis-benefits and cultural issues affecting the progress of the associated work.
- Effective Communications
Informs various stakeholders of the reasons for the change (why?), the benefits of successful implementation (what is in it for us, and you) as well as the details of the change (when? where? who is involved? how much will it cost? etc.).
- Training
Devise an effective education, training and skills upgrading scheme for the organization.
- Change Management as part of over all strategic plan
Counter resistance from the employees of companies and align them to overall strategic direction of the organization.
- personal counseling
Provide personal counseling (if required) to alleviate any change related fears.
- Feedback stystem in operation
Monitoring of the implementation and fine-tuning as required.
Change management in the context of IT projects
Change Management is a part of IT Service Management discipline. At Descon, Change Management in this context is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures were to use it for efficient and prompt handling of all changes. This process controlled IT infrastructure, in order to minimize the number and impact of any related incidents upon the project.
It is important to consider that changes may arise reactively in response to problems or externally imposed requirements, e.g. legislative changes, or proactively from seeking improved efficiency and effectiveness. Change Management can ensure standardized methods, processes and procedures which are used for all changes, facilitate efficient and prompt handling of all changes, and maintain the proper balance between the need for change and the potential detrimental impact of changes. This strategy proved to be very successful at Descon.
Resistance Framework
Resistance is the act or power of resisting, opposing, or withstanding. Changes always welcome resisted especially in an organisational context. Major reasons for resistance that I observed at Descon include:
- A lack of awareness about the change
Resistance was higher from the employees who were less aware or completely ignorant of what is happening around them and what are the reasons for the introduction of new Hi-tech ERP system.
- Comfort with the ways things are and fear of the unknown
Technology fear was very common as most of the employees including management level staff were suffering from this fear as they were more comfortable with the existing in-house developed system.
- The individual's personal predisposition to change
New system means new management infrastructure and sometimes redundancies. Also managers had the fear of losing their current comfort zone and powers.
- Surprise and fear of the unknown
As new ERP Oracle based system was an unknown for most of employees and staff and there were so many myths and self developed perceptions so this leads to create stress among the employees which was a major cause of resistance.
- Climate of mistrust
In a phase of change because of fear of losing current position and even job people did not trust even their peers and colleagues, this situation creates a frustration and element of stress.
- Fear of failure.
Managers always have a fear of failure to achieve tasks and targets and even a failure to adjust in the new environment would expose them.
- Disruption of cultural traditions and/or group relationships
New system affected the cultural traditions and relationship among the staff. New set up so new relationship dimensions and so new culture which is quite unfamiliar will increase strain and stress.
- Personality conflicts.
New system and setup where everyone is stressed and under pressure, it would affect relationship dimensions among the people and hence personality clashes would be exposed and severe which will ultimately create stress and resistance to new system as people will think major cause of problem is new system.
- Not seeing the benefits
People always look at negative aspects and they disregard the benefits and positive areas. This attitude will generate lot of stress and resistance to new system.
Change Management system Goal
The goal of the Change Management process is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes, in order to minimize the impact of change-related incidents upon service quality, and consequently improve the day-to-day operations of the organization.
Change Management system at Descon
Change Management would typically be composed of the raising and recording of changes, assessing the impact, cost, benefit and risk of proposed changes. It also involves developing business justification and obtaining approval, managing and co-ordinating change implementation, monitoring and reporting on implementation and finally reviewing and closing change requests.
1. Responsibility for managing change
At Descon Management realised that the employee does not have a responsibility to manage change - the employee's responsibility is no other than to do their best, which is different for every person and depends on a wide variety of factors (health, maturity, stability, experience, personality, motivation, etc). Responsibility for managing change is with management and executives of the organisation - they must manage the change in a way that employees can cope with it. The manager has a responsibility to facilitate and enable change, and all that is implied within that statement, especially to understand the situation from an objective standpoint (to 'step back', and be non-judgemental), and then to help people understand reasons, aims, and ways of responding positively according to employees' own situations and capabilities.
2. change must involve the people - change must not be imposed upon the people
Top management was aware with the fact that key to success is 'changing people's mindsets' or 'changing attitudes', because this language often indicates a tendency towards imposed or enforced change and it implies strongly that the organization believes that its people currently have the 'wrong' mindset, which is never, ever, the case.
Management was also aware that whenever an organization imposes new things on people there will be difficulties. Participation, involvement and open, early, full communication are the important factors and they adopted a very systematic approach involving;
Workshops proved very useful processes to develop collective understanding, approaches, policies, methods, systems, ideas, etc
Staff surveys also proved to be a helpful way to repair damage and mistrust among staff - provided you allow people to complete them anonymously, and provided you publish and act on the findings.
Management training programmes helped a lot because managers are crucial to the change process and they enabled and facilitated, not merely convey and implement policy from above, which does not work.
Change Management principles
At Descon top management realised the importance of principles good change management which later proved to be a success story for Deskon. These principles including;
Ø At all times involve and agree support from people within system (system = environment, processes, culture, relationships, behaviours, etc., whether personal or organisational).
Ø Understand where you/the organisation is at the moment.
Ø Understand where you want to be, when, why, and what the measures will be for having got there.
Ø Plan development towards above No.3 in appropriate achievable measurable stages.
Ø Communicate, involve, enable and facilitate involvement from people, as early and openly and as fully as is possible.
John P Kotter's 'eight steps to successful change'
American John P Kotter is a Harvard Business School professor and leading thinker and author on organizational change management. Kotter's highly regarded books 'Leading Change' (1995) and the follow-up 'The Heart Of Change' (2002) describe a helpful model for understanding and managing change. Each stage acknowledges a key principle identified by Kotter relating to people's response and approach to change, in which people see, feel and then change.
Kotter's eight step change model if applied at Descon then we discover that;
- Increase urgency - Inspire people to move, make objectives real and relevant. Descon created sense of urgency among its people and gave every one some tasks to perform and thus made everyone part of it.
- Build the guiding team -Get the right people in place with the right emotional commitment, and the right mix of skills and levels. Descon hired a team of at least 20 people with different backgrounds like system, network, security and management consultants to implement the system and also involved existing business manager to design and implement this programme.
- Get the vision right - Get the team to establish a simple vision and strategy, focus on emotional and creative aspects necessary to drive service and efficiency.
- Communicate for buy-in - Involve as many people as possible, communicate the essentials, simply, and to appeal and respond to people's needs. De-clutter communications - make technology work for you rather than against. That was the key tactic of Descon to get the project done.
- Empower action - Remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback and lots of support from leaders - reward and recognise progress and achievements. Chief Executive officer, busness area managers alwasys reduced sense of beurocracy to get the jobs done before deadlines.
- Create short-term wins - Set aims that are easy to achieve - in bite-size chunks. Manageable numbers of initiatives. Finish current stages before starting new ones. Even the team achieved to Go Alive of system one month before the deadline.
- Don't let up - Foster and encourage determination and persistence - ongoing change - encourage ongoing progress reporting - highlight achieved and future milestones.
- Make change stick - Reinforce the value of successful change via recruitment, promotion, new change leaders. Weave change into culture. This strategy helped a lot as management created an environment of change and they were successful to clone it into Deskon’s culture. www.kotterinternational.com.
In my observation at Descon there are some very important aspects which were either ignored or less importance was given to them and these aspects include:
The six phases personal or professional change Model
- Anticipation
This is a waiting stage. In this stage employees really don't know what to expect so they wait, anticipating what the future holds.
- Confrontation
Employees begin to confront reality. They realise that change is really going to happen or is happening.
- Realization
Post change - Realizing that nothing is ever going to be as it once was.
- Depression
This is often a necessary step in the change process. This is the stage where a person mourns the past. Not only have they realised the change intellectually, but now they are beginning to comprehend it emotionally as well.
- Acceptance
This involves acceptance of the change emotionally. Although they may still have reservations but they are not fighting the change at this stage. They may even see some of the benefits even if they are not completely convinced.
- Enlightenment
This involves people completely accept the new change. In fact, many wonder how they ever managed the "old" way. Overall, they feel good about the change and accept it as the status quo from here forward.
At Descon people proceeded through the different phases at different rates of speed. Some people accepted the change in two months and some of them took twelve months. So a change manager has to consider all the people according to their perception, level, position and attitude.
Resistance to Change – A more intellectual discussion
Most people prefer predictability and stability in both their personal and professional lives. People typically avoid situations that upset order, threaten their self-interests, increase stress or involve risk. When faced with changes to the status quo, people usually resist initially. The resistance continues and, in some cases increases, until they are able to recognize the benefits of change and perceive the gains to be worth more than the risk or threats to their self-interests.
Project leader should anticipate resistance to any change effort, prepare for it, and make special efforts to assess and deal with individual reactions to change.
Leaders must develop the proper attitude toward resistance to change and realize that it is neither good nor bad. In fact, resistance can serve as a signal that there are ways in which the change effort should be modified and improved. The following steps should help leaders faced with resistance to their change attempts:
Ø Actively seek out people's thoughts and reactions to the proposed changes.
Ø Listen carefully. Do not launch into lengthy diatribes justifying the change - in the early stages, people are not interested in that. They want to be heard and have their concerns attended to. Recognize that it takes time to work through reactions to change.
Ø Engage people in dialogue about the change. Leaders should do this only after fully understanding the specific concerns of others.
Ø Involve Others
There is no better way to minimize resistance to change than to involve those responsible for implementing it and those affected by it. If there is no involvement early on in the planning, during the implementation and throughout perpetuation, the change effort will fail. When people feel that they are valued participants in planning and implementing the change, they are more likely to be motivated toward successful completion. The following techniques are effective ways to get people involved and gain their commitment to change efforts:
Ø Determine who must be involved in planning the change and include them in the decision making process. Err on the side of involving more people rather than fewer. If there is a question as to whether or not a certain person's support will be needed, include them.
Ø Ensure that people from all levels of the organization are involved in planning the change process. This means involving the people that are at the on the floor level as well. It will be these people who will make the change process succeed or fail.
Ø Consult with employees from the areas affected by the change when determining the steps needed for change.
Ø Seek input from people at all levels to establish realistic time frames for specific actions.
Ø When possible, run a test program with a selected work unit and solicit feedback on what is working well, where the problem areas are and how to work out any difficulties.
Ø Publicly recognize any employees whose suggestions are used in the change process.
Ø Design a mechanism that provides ongoing feedback from employees throughout the change effort. Involved people are an effective barometer of what is working well and what is not working well. Ask them to suggest improvements.
Monitor for Results
All change efforts are results-oriented - leaders implement change to realize new, different and better results. If the change is not monitored, effectiveness cannot be measured. Monitoring is particularly crucial during change processes due to the many forces that will challenge, resist or disrupt efforts. Since organizations must continue to operate day-to-day while undergoing change initiatives, the complexity of change is increased. When people within the organization begin to suspect that senior leaders are more interested in starting new programs than in the follow-through necessary to complete them, they will lose the sense of urgency and commitment to the initiatives and be more sceptical about any future change efforts. While monitoring change, remember to:
- Provide people the authority to implement changes.
- Keep people informed about the progress of changes.
- Listen to people's needs and concerns.
- Reward those who support the change efforts and achieve milestones.
The key to monitoring change effectively is to stay in touch with the people. Ask questions, demonstrate concern for their welfare and goal achievement and commit to do whatever is necessary to make the change successful. Leaders who can do this while continuing to practice great leadership skills will attune themselves to how the changes are progressing and react quickly with any required adjustments.
Concluding Thoughts
Although most people feel comfortable with minor changes, no one can live and work by yesterday's reality. Leaders must enlist the support of other organizational members to identify the right changes to make, credibly communicate these changes throughout the organization, provide resources to support the changes and allow enough time and flexibility for the changes to take place. With the widespread commitment of people throughout the organization, change efforts will succeed. Change does not substantially alter the way a leader leads; change only reinforces that leaders must always use their skills to lead every day.
