By David Tomkinson
As the pace of change gets ever faster, organisations are constantly searching for the Holy Grail of sustainability. They push harder and quicker, put more pressure on their staff and very often end up losing the morale, or worse still, the best people leave. It strikes me that the answer, like a moustache, might be right under their nose, if they would only take the time to think and plan like they do for so many other things in business.
The main reason that change fails to stick is that the people kill it – not deliberately but just through lack of engagement. At the first opportunity they return to what they know or work around the new system to get what they want or what they had before. Humans are complex but at the same time simple creatures, who like and need routine. They have two basic needs at work (and some would say out of work as well) – to feel valued and to feel in control. When change happens, it often threatens both of these at the same time. The key to sustainability is focussing on these and letting the people sustain it for you.
One client I worked with recently was making major redundancies to enable the business to become competitive. We worked with them to plan how people were going to react/feel before, during and after the changes. We prepared the leaders for the change, ran workshops for staff going into the change and delivered recovery/rebuild sessions once the restructure had been implemented. One member of staff summed up how most of the people felt through this process; “this is the fourth major change I have been through with my organisation and this is the first time I have felt as if they care how I feel and that I have something to contribute. As a result our new team is stronger than before and is already working together more effectively than the old team”
To find out more about Sustaining Change, why not attend our free annual seminar on 8th September. More details of this and other work we have done in this field are at www.andpartnership.com
