The need for change usually originates in the external environment. Today, for example, there is a general recognition
that increased competition and technological change are increasing the power of the customer. Customers now
demand more for less. Leading organizations recognize this important environmental change and have adopted
customer-focused business strategies.
Promote a culture of awareness! All employees should scan continuously for market trends, competitor undertakings,
technological innovations and other external factors to avoid the success syndrome and to encourage proactive
change management.
You can’t change what you don’t understand.
To identify the need for change and build an e
ff
ective solution you must have a complete understanding of your
organizational environment. Ask yourself, “What about our business is congruent with the demanding, changing
external environment?” and “What is incongruent?”
Organizations are complex systems, comprised of both informal and formal elements. Throughout this primer, we will
refer to “the informal organization” and “the formal organization”. The informal organization refers to organizational
values, attitudes and beliefs. The formal organization refers to organizational systems, structures and processes.
Look to two important sources of information in developing an understanding of your formal and informal organization:
Data sources
Examine available data in novel ways to develop novel insights.
5
Employees
Use a variety of techniques, formal and informal, for collecting information from employees across the organization
(interviews, surveys, formal assessments, focus groups).
METRICS TO MONITOR
OPERATIONS
employee productivity,
satisfaction, grievance rate,
absenteeism, turnover, etc.
TECHNOLOGY
innovation, technology
adoption, reject rates,
downtime, etc.
FINANCIAL
revenues, costs, profits,
inventory turns, etc.
MARKET
market share, customer
satisfaction, new product
introductions, time-to-market,
product or service quality,
delivery, etc.
In understanding the need for change and in building an e
ff
ective solution beware of the following traps:
Beware of your own biases
You are not immune from the success syndrome and other cultural biases. Take extra care to examine the
problem objectively.
Look for fundamental problems hidden beneath symptoms
Increasing costs, for example, may be a symptom of ine
ffi
ciencies in work
fl
ow, poor quality or dysfunctional work
teams. Although fundamental problems will never be as apparent as symptoms, you must dig to the root of
problems in order to generate e
ff
ective resolutions.
6
Enlist a core change team
25
25
SPHERE
A L I G N K E Y S TA K E H O L D E R S
E N G A G E O R G A N I Z AT I O N
CONSOLIDATE
Consolidate
gains.
