Presentation by Bob Flecknell, Consultant to Canadian Chamber of Commerce (Manila), The Junior Chamber of Commerce (Philippines) And Article

published in Management Systems Asia (previously Quality Asia Journal)

Managing Employees Successfully Through Change -The Missing Piece

We live and operate in a world filled with high intensity, high paced change. It feels like trying to change a flat tire while the car is moving! No time to stop! And continuing economic conditions and competition continue to put pressure on organizations to operate even more effectively. The successful organizations implement changes more frequently, because they need to keep competitive by improving operations and in turn profits and shareholder value. But to be blunt, many organizational changes at corporate, division, department or unit level are not managed well. This creates unacceptable organizational and employee performance slippage, costly implementation delays, budget overruns and unproductive employee resistance. So why dont some changes "take" successfully? It is because most change management plans include only the strategic plan and the implementation plan. These are only two of three elements of a well designed change plan. The critical missing piece is the transition plan, which maps how to lead, communicate with and support employees through changes effectively. Neglecting this plan makes change painful and costly to the organization. The key to implementing a successful transition plan is to have first line and senior managers who are well trained in managing transition. Unfortunately many managers are thrown in the deep end of the pool with no transition training, yet are expected to implement the change and bring all their people along at the same time. Isnt change and transition the same? No! Change and transition are different. Change is date / task / results driven; the go live date for the takeover; or launching of the new customer service interface; or transferring employees to a new facility; or implementing the new organizational structure; or activating a staff reduction; or rolling out the redesigned employee performance plan; or the new computer system, or introducing the new expatriate director of operations. Assumption; Many managers believe, incorrectly, that once a change plan is implemented employees will fall in line. Transition is the employees personal adjustment to change. Transition takes longer. It can be messy and challenges the managers skills to the limit. Performance, timetable and SLA slippages occur, as well as a wide array of employee behavioral responses occur because the change plan and employee transition responses are not aligned. Think of it this way. A composers well written music (the change plan) is only as good as how the conductor and players perform it (the transition).

How do people respond to change basic principles? 1. They resist because they dont like a change to their comfort zone. They experience loss. 2. They behave differently, based on their individual needs, experience, education, and attitude about the change. Transition is seen from the eye of the beholder. 3. They adjust to change at different speeds. They experience real or perceived losses and show anger, confusion, resentment and even excitement. So, managing people through just one change is a significant challenge for employees and their manager. Imagine the operational impact that multiple changes create! Peoples Journey through Change - A Three Phase Model of Transition Management consultant William Bridges has done deep dive research, and change consulting with many large organizations for over twenty five years. He believes that employees transition, involves three phases which must be well managed for a successful change; Managing Endings: letting go of the past; Managing the Neutral Zone a period of psychological adjustment and transformation; and Managing New Beginnings: embracing the new way of doing things and renewal. To be highly effective, managers must understand that each phase requires different people management, coaching and communication competencies and tactics. They must know how to first engrave a no going back understanding in employees minds while ensuring the integrity of the past is maintained; dealing with a variety of resistance behaviors while leading transformation; setting goals, new processes, retraining and reengaging employees in the new mission. If this is not enough, organizations continue to react quickly to the many external and internal change drivers for improved processes, controls and employee management. Here is a quick change-transition management checkup. 1. Does senior management require and receive a regular dashboard of all the current and planned changes to assist change planning Yes_No_? My experience is that changes are often initiated in an uncoordinated manner by various management levels at the company, the division, the section level. But usually no one has a high level perspective of all shotgun-like changes going on. As a result, employees and the organizational suffer change overload known as transition deficit. This is not good news for the organization because mental and physical energy and resilience drains. Recovery time is slow. Stress buckets overflow! Its the high performing juggler dropping all objects because he was given one too many objects to juggle. Transition deficit impacts profitability and company performance because employee overload translates into poorer performance and customer service, higher stress absences and medical claims, lower company loyalty and higher attritions. This is not just front liners. This affects team leaders and managers, who are also personally adjusting to the change caught in the middle trying to meet demands of senior management and their team members. But team leaders are often not supported as they carry out this double load. Are you creating "perfect storm" conditions for supervisor turnover? One solution is get a handle on all changes by establishing a cross functional transition monitoring team, TMT, which maps and advises senior management on the change landscape ; and very importantly serves as a conduit for two way communications between management and employees.

2. Are your change planners, senior leaders and all employees aligned? Management often does not recognize the marathon effect Yes_No_? Senior business leaders are like elite marathon runners, far in front of the rest of the organizational levels in their expectations of change implementation and outputs, the Marathon Effect. They expect all employees to fall in line and look after themselves on the Go Live date. But the reality is that employees lag all over the change timeline because they are adjusting to the change at their own speed, often dealing with several changes at the same time. This difference between expectations creates frustration at all levels, change delays, client service concerns and cost over runs. 3. Do managers understand survivor syndrome and how to treat it Yes_No_? When restructuring causes employee terminations, the concerns of the survivors of the downsizing of go unattended. Organizations need them to maintain productivity but survivors suffer the same symptoms of transition because their comfort zone has been violated too; the organization is leaner and looks and feels different; the future looks more uncertain; teammates and lunch bunch are gone; promotion paths and opportunities are fewer; job security is now perceived as tenuous and future ability to provide for family threatened; relocation to the other end of Manila or another city is not an option. Survivors show anger, stress, envy, passivity, loss of commitment to the company, all leading to slippages in productivity, employee confidence and loyalty. So, effective transition management is needed to keep these key employees engaged, supported and performing productively. 4. Does management always prepare and roll out an ongoing effective Communications plan to employees during changes Yes_No_? Change announcements often come on short notice to employees and stakeholders, with turn on a peso directive. This really gets people frustrated, particularly if the change was a long time in planning and only a few people were informed. Endings, neutral zone and new beginning phases require different communication tactics and feedback loops. Leaders at all levels need to effectively and consistently show the change storyboard on how and when the promised land will be reached and who will get there and regularly updated. Do your team leaders know how to communicate a change effectively and to keep the team informed, even when there is nothing to say? 5. Are front line managers transition savvy Yes_No_? Many management training programs provide only very basic information on managing transition, the people side of change. They do not do a deep dive into understanding change driven behaviors and specific leadership competencies and techniques required to avoid or minimize the operational impacts and to manage transition successfully. These are the action people, the change implementers. For successful change they need to be expert engaged champions and leaders of change. If they are well trained, their own performance, job satisfaction and retention will be higher. The Bottom Line Business changes, large or small, will be significantly more successful and cost effective if a transition management plan is integrated with the master change strategy and implementation plan. It should include 1) How employees at all levels will be guided and supported through the change(s) and

2) A comprehensive communication strategy. Developing flexible, change and transition responsive managers and employees through transition training is an essential, cost effective, but underutilized, strategy to improve organizational change implementation, employee and operational performance, profitability and shareholder value. _________________________ Bob Flecknell is a Philippine based, Senior Consultant-Training and HR with Assessment Analytics Inc. and TeleDevelopment Services. Previous HR Director positions with APAC Customer Services (Philippines); Convergys (Canada); Service Zone-ClientLogic (Philippines). Director of Personnel, Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada; Holds a Bachelor of Science Degree, University of Kings College Nova Scotia CANADA and is a certified trainer with Achieve Global Inc. in delivering Leadership and Customer Services workshops and is a certified facilitator with William Bridges Managing Transition Programs. He has been a regular guest speaker at Philippines business groups and has guest lectured in Acadia University and Mount Allison University business classes. Bob can be reached at Mobile +632 0919 369 5765 or Email robert.flecknell@assessmentanalytics.com flecknell@yahoo.com