The right way to manage change

Some Greek philosopher called Heraclitus said, "There is nothing permanent except change" - not bad for the fact that it was supposedly said in 540BC!

Change has been all around us for sometime usually in small incremental bite size chunks but continual innovation and growth is now driving more transformational change than ever before, especially across the region where organisations are facing many challenges. Among them senior leaders are having to deal with tight budgets, more stringent regulations, reductions in work force, increasing competition, stakeholders and shareholders who expect better results, more demanding customers, etc.

Organisations are under extreme pressure to deliver measurable business value from each investment and that usually means that individual's productivity needs to be enhanced or improved. Productivity is more than just 'working harder' and increasing your outputs, it's far more complex than that and revolves around a whole range of inter connected factors such as business processes, technology systems, organisational culture etc, all of which must be addressed in an integrated way to ensure that productivity increases. It is usually underpinned by some transformation in the way that an organisation operates but for me all change starts with us as individuals.

Creating organisational change can be an incredibly difficult process, let alone having to deal with different behaviours, personalities and value sets that make up an organisation's workforce; when you think of it in that way it is no surprise to see why so many organisations have a hard time implementing change.

Organisations are realising that they need to improve their ability to adapt to continuous change without caving into the pressure of new ways of working or disrupting their ongoing business operations. Many improvement efforts don't work because organisations don't apply fundamental change management principles. That means that there isn't effective communication between the employees and the organisation's leaders; they don't ensure that employees understand the impact they have on the organisation's performance; they don't align their workforces with the organisation's strategic priorities; they don't develop change plans that will provide guidance to the workforce as they start to understand and implement the changes that will drive a new way of working.

As a leader or manager though all change starts with one thing: you! You can't really change anyone but yourself and as a leader in your organisation you must reinforce the change you want your organisation to make. After all you can't expect others to change if you are not prepared to show the way - remember people follow good leaders! Never underestimate the impact that your attitude has on those you lead. Your attitude will impact upon those around you and will ensure that your organisation has a "can-do" attitude that does not fear change, but is keen to embrace the challenges and opportunities that change inevitably brings.

The bottom line is that you cannot change anybody but yourself. Forcing others to change will be a painful experience for both you and them; engage with them though and make them see the benefits and opportunities that can exist and they will see how the changes will make their working life easier and more stimulating.

- The writer is a consulting director of Kenexa, EMEA