Change is inevitable and often creates positive and negative repercussions. As an enterprise undergoes a metamorphosis, they should bring in a seasoned expert, an Organizational Development professional. They help with the transition, easing any bumps and maximizing its potential positive impact.
The mere mention of the word change can send staff into a frenzy. Immediately, individuals worry about their futures. Some workers become quite intimidated by the unknowns that change brings. Many individuals resist because it means they may have to retool their skill sets, and the process may push them out of their comfort zone and into an uncomfortable place, one where they feel out of place or lost.
Change is External; Transition is Internal
According to William Bridges, change is situational. For example, you move to a bigger office at work, the company replaces its founder with a new CEO, or you move from a small team to a much larger team. On the other hand, transition is psychological. For example, it is how you feel about the change that is happening – you are excited about the new office, employees may feel nervous about the new CEO and may fear big changes in the organization, or a team member may feel intimated about joining a much larger team.
Change and Transition Can Must Work in Concert
Nowadays, change comes faster than ever before. The emergence of new technology has empowered corporations, so they can alter business processes easily. Growing competition is forcing businesses to innovate as often as possible. This can also take a toll on employees.
As noted, your managers, unsure of how a potential restructuring will affect their jobs, can feel anxious and worried. Your staff can show signs of resistance toward learning new processes, shun new digital solutions, or complain about a complete organizational change initiative. So, navigating these waters can be tricky. If transition is not taken into consideration and change is mishandled, it can wreak havoc, such as prized employees walking out your door and into your competitors’ workplace. Make no mistake: change is hard. Seven out of ten change programs fail because of employee resistance.
Embrace Change Management Best Practices
To alleviate the many concerns requires following change management best practices. This is where organizational development consultants shine. Organizational Development helps organizations build their capacity to change and achieve greater effectiveness by developing, improving, and reinforcing strategies, structures, and processes. Organizational Development is designed to foster planned, systemic change in the beliefs, attitudes, performance, and values of employees. Its goal is to spur individual and company growth.
Organizational development practitioners and strategists identify ways to increase an organization’s effectiveness by more efficiently utilizing and managing their resources. They analyze business operations and processes, interview personnel to identify needs, create an organizational plan, and report their findings to executives and senior management.
This process helps decision-makers come up with a strategic plan that outlines what effects the changes will yield. This blueprint also evaluates the impact that the changes have on the workforce and the best way to roll them out to the entire organization.
Organizational development practitioners do much more. They create strategic plans, facilitate culture audits, provide assessments, develop comprehensive training programs for employees and provide executive coaching to your most senior leaders.
But most important, organizational development practitioners act as trusted advisors to the firm as change and transition take place. After implementing its plan, management needs to understand what impact it had on the business. Organizational development consultants help to create metrics that measure improvements during the transition.
So, what are some potential benefits that change and transition will yield?
Improve Communications
Communication is the lifeblood for any enterprise. An organizational development plan focuses on enhancing communication, feedback, and interaction within the organization. Communication is open across all levels of the organization, and relevant feedback is shared openly, honestly, and transparently. Taking these steps aligns employees to company goals and values. Candid communication also leads to increased understanding of the need for change within the organization and a willingness to accept it.
Innovation
An organizational development specialist undertakes competitive analysis, market research, and understanding consumer expectations and preferences to gauge a firm’s potential. Effective organizational development empowers an organization to better respond and adapt to industry challenges and market opportunities.
Collaboration and training lead to increased employee engagement. In essence, the business unleashes the inherent creativity within its walls. A major benefit is more innovation, which leads to product and service enhancements.
Leverage Technology
Technology has been moving at a rapid rate. The introduction of Big Data, data analytics, and artificial intelligence and machine learning enables employees to gain more insight into their business. Many current business processes were created to work with yesterday’s technology, which was much more limited than what is available today. Increasingly, organizations are moving away from traditional paper based procedures to a new business models based on digital interactions. Here, clients input more information providing companies with a means to remove a lot of the friction found in the old way of completing work.
Create Strong Teams
Collaboration is a vital component of organizational development. From it spouts teams that support an entity’s new vision. Communications creates bonding among stakeholders, and ideally, they commit to the enterprise’s new vision.
Streamline Business Processes
Organizational Development professionals consult with many companies. From that experience, they see which practices work and which ones do not. They use that knowledge to advise management on the allocation of personnel and resources. They find ways to create more cost-effective and efficient procedures, so the staff does more with less.
Maximize Resources
One of the goals of organizational development is to maximize a company’s strengths and reduce its weaknesses. Sometimes to move ahead, a business needs to restructure its employee resources. Adding more personnel to areas that are strong and thriving and reducing human capital in areas where the business is not realizing strong returns strengthens the company’s competitive market position.
Today’s business climate is extremely competitive – and becoming more so every day. As a result, enterprises need to incorporate change within themselves, a difficult process for many. Organizational Development professionals specialize in this process. Leveraging their expertise translates into many benefits, including optimized efficiency and increased profitability.
Have a corporate culture change challenge? Let us help you transform your organization into a more thriving, collaborative, inclusive and emotionally intelligent work environment.
Contact True Synergy at [email protected].
