Organizational Changes

In today's fast pace business environment where the business landscape continually changes in response to shifting consumer preferences, new and superior production processes, and the development and introduction of disruptive technologies, companies need to have flexible and planned business practices to facilitate change to adapt to the market environment. Aligning resources and employees to a companies goals and objectives is imperative. Whilst machines can easily adapt to a change in command, the human composition does not always provide for such an easy transition. Dealing with the human psyche, entrenched values, fears, anxieties and insecurities necessitates careful change management planning. Several critical success factors for organizational change are discussed further below.

Change to company processes requires dedicated organizational strategic planning. With the dependency between integrated business units, a change in one area of the business can severely impact another. Consider the implementation of a new project management framework in a web development company. Failure to consider the requirements and dependencies of the production process can sabotage development time and create project cost blowouts. Involving team members from business units that will be affected by the change will maximize planning feedback, minimize areas of risk and improve the chances that team members will be prepared for and accept the change to the organizational process. Having the foresight to involve important personnel is a critical success factor for organizational change.

Adopting a long term vision is a critical success factor for managing change. Companies that commit to the process are more likely to experience a greater acceptance than those who implement short term or damage control practices. Initiatives take time to iteratively refine and sometimes processes require an adjustment for best fit. Managing and committing to this can raise a companies chance of success.

Building performance metrics to measure the change process provides a framework for benchmarking the change process. The evaluation stage of change management scopes and bounds this requirement. When you know where you are going you have an immediate point of reference for determining how close you are to goal realization and can make the necessary adjustment when slightly off course. Establishing performance metrics is a critical success factor for organizational change.

A top down approach is important for widespread company adoption. If management set the mandate and fail to adhere to the initial objectives, company personnel can start to assume that goals and objectives are no longer important. It is, therefore, imperative that all levels of management champion the cause and remain accountable.

Committing to employee training and development is a critical success factor for organizational change. When technology processes change or new initiatives are adopted, empowering the workforce, overcoming fear or failure and facilitating change is improved by educating the affected personnel. This is imperative for change management strategic planning success.

An awareness of critical success factors for organizational change better prepares a company for the strategic planning and implementation of change. The above guidelines are an example of proven considerations that need to be factored into the change management framework.

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