Organisational Change: Ultimate Guide

What is organisational change?

A sophisticated transformation plan that occurs in a firm is referred to as organizational change. Systems, structures, and procedures are all impacted. This phase typically involves a significant shift in the organization’s strategy. Roles, abilities, and behaviors or ways of functioning will be redefined in accordance with the new approach.

4 types of organisational change

Here are four types of organizational changes that make an organization stronger:

1. Tweak — small adjustments to current People and Resources using the organization’s current Vision and Organizational Structure (i.e.: adding a specific program, adjusting a schedule).
2. Transition — some changes to People and Resources using the organization’s current Vision and Organizational Structure (moving a department under another area; changing a leader’s role).
3. Transformation — helping an organization go from their current level to their next level of growth by developing a new capacity to meet the needs of those it serves.
4. Turnaround — there is a highly critical problem, an organization in crisis, that requires immediate change.

Deciding what type of change your organization needs today is one of the most important decisions any leader can make. Actually, great leaders who can determine the current and future needs of staff and those it serves have already achieved a decided advantage to those who can’t figure out how to best lead. It is the weaker leaders who wait until there is a fire to put out or crisis to solve before taking action. These are the least prepared to lead their staff to greater heights and accomplishments.

The organisational change process

1. Analysis

Understanding the organization’s current status clearly is the first stage in any change process. Managers will use this information to, among other things, determine the project’s starting point, strategy, and action plan.

Assessments may consist of:

• Analysis of gaps
• Risk evaluations
• Digital maturity evaluations
• Examining the preparation for change
• Ability tests

While certain assessments will apply to all change initiatives, others may depend on the specifics of the program. For example, a digital skills test will be required for programs involving technology adoption. However, they might not be necessary for other kinds of change initiatives, such alterations to company culture

2. Creating and implementing change strategy

Early on, change leaders frequently develop a vision for change that depicts how the organization will appear once a program is finished. Teams will use that picture and the change story that goes with it as a reference point and benchmark when putting the effort into action.

The program’s beginning and finish points will be that final assessment and the aforementioned assessments. They will aid managers in the following ways:

• Create a timeline for the organizational transition.
• Create a change management plan.
• Create a concrete change roadmap, as described below.

In other words, evaluations and visions aid managers in determining how the organization should go from point A to point B and in developing the best plan for doing so. However, strategies simply describe the overarching method for resolving a problem.

The next step is for change managers to turn that strategy into a specific set of activities.

3. Creating a roadmap

A change roadmap will outline the change program in stages, much like a project management strategy. Change plans should include goals, milestones, objectives, KPIs, and other aspects that are typical of a business project, just like other business programs.

Change managers ought to put particular emphasis on things like:

• Choosing teams
• Keeping a record of the project rules, team roles, and timetable
• Creating a project journey map that teams may use as a reference
• Creating and applying a communication strategy into the plan

These kinds of roadmaps ought to be built on change models, which are hierarchical frameworks that describe how organizations change. Many of these frameworks are useful models, like Prosci’s ADKAR framework. They offer managers a set of instructions that they can use to reach their objectives, get over challenges, and maximize outcomes.

Others, like the Lewin change management model, provide a more comprehensive framework that sheds light on how group psychology and dynamics are impacted by change processes.

4. Implementing change

Up until this point, all of the attention has been on getting ready for the actual transformation process. While making these preparations can take some time, it is well worth the effort. Executing the change project is the next item on the agenda.

A few things should be kept in mind by managers when implementing change:

• A project will produce greater results if it is managed more meticulously and closely.
• Change initiatives, like most other business projects, should use data to guide decision-making, assess performance, and evaluate results.
• Managers and executives will be able to react swiftly to challenges or unforeseen events with the help of agile change management strategies, which will ultimately lead to improved results.
• Employee support and resistance to change will increase if leaders are present and actively involved with the workforce.

A change project’s ability to achieve its goals will directly depend on how successfully it is implemented. However, as was already noted, how well the project is planned and structured will determine how successfully the managers are able to do their jobs.

5. Reassurance and evaluation

Even when a project is finished, there are still a number of duties that need to be completed.

For illustration:

• Managers should continuously assess employee productivity and uphold rigorous responsibility to make sure the change persists.
• Reinforcing the change through mechanisms like incentives and rewards can assist in preventing staff members from reverting to old behaviors.
• Reviewing the change initiative’s performance can offer helpful insights to include into future initiatives and also serve to highlight the program’s value and return on investment.

Every project may be managed independently by organizations with lower levels of change management, but this might result in ad hoc standards, procedures, and outcomes.

To better integrate change management into an organization’s standard operating procedure and, as a result, increase the organization’s change management maturity level, reinforcement and review can both be used.

Related: Organisational change process: Step-by-step Guide

Organisational change examples (give 4 companies)

Organizational transformation can be so challenging to implement that many corporate leaders steer clear of it entirely. That’s sad because a corporate pivot may be a force for good if done correctly. In order to demonstrate how organizations can become more effective, productive, and profitable, we’ve gathered four examples of organizational change.

Related: Organisational change examples

1. du Telecom and Huawei Technologies

Consumers and organizations can use du Telecom’s mobile and fixed telephony, broadband access, and IPTV services. In a market with intense competition, the company first started operating in 2006. By 2010, du had about 40% of the market share in the area and was able to keep up a growth rate of over 32%.

But the company’s top executives weren’t content to sit back and enjoy their success. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by du Telecom and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. in 2013. A global supplier of networking and telecommunications products and services, Huawei. The leaders of du understood that Huawei had the skills to assist the UAE telecom company in enhancing its project management capabilities.

Du Telecom has achieved the following since signing the MoU with Huawei:

• Decreased project failure
• A decrease in the number of workers required for each project

Thanks to a single point of contact who oversees the project, lower prices, more constrained time constraints, and projects that come in under budget are all possible.

What lessons may other businesses draw from this collaboration? Sometimes having a companion to support you through change is better. Never hesitate to seek assistance. Your company may receive the boost it needs to become even more prosperous from outside support.

2. The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s Shift to Electronic Medical Records

The integration of electronic medical records for patients was a top priority for the Canadian government (EMRs). It promoted the use of EMRs by healthcare professionals. The change was made by the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO). To assist them in becoming paperless, CHEO selected Epic, a provider of ambulatory medical care software.

The project team had every CHEO patient listed in Epic’s software by October 2014. In addition, 75% of CHEO’s outpatient clinics have medical professionals on staff who can request tests and track patients’ progress.

• How did CHEO succeed in achieving these objectives?
• The project team had a thorough, practical plan in place to implement the move.
• There was a team whose responsibility it was to instruct and aid medical practitioners in using electronic medical records.
• Practice sessions could be attended by end users to learn how to use EMRs.

After the EMRs went live, the team proceeded to teach medical professionals, so end users felt comfortable using the new software.

Even if your company isn’t a hospital in Canada, there are still business lessons to be learned from this. Have a plan that involves training your end customers both before and after the commencement of a big project before you launch it.

3. Nokia . . . Transforms Again

Nokia a Finnish corporation, controlled the industry as mobile phones gained popularity. However, because it was no longer profitable, the company left the market in 2014. Although this isn’t the first time Nokia has remade itself, it was nevertheless a significant choice for the company.

Executives at Nokia made the decision to sell Microsoft the device division. Networking equipment is now Nokia’s primary industry. Executives didn’t take this decision lightly; Siemens, a provider of networking equipment, already had a connection with Nokia. The company’s management understood that investing in networking equipment was a superior business decision. In order to achieve this, they acquired Siemens and established a new management group, corporate structure, business plan, capital structure, and portfolio strategy.

Nokia has accomplished the following since switching from a maker of mobile handsets to one of networking equipment:

had a consistently rising share price, a 12-fold increase in enterprise value since July 2012, billions of dollars in cash repatriated to shareholders, and once again was the most valuable company in Finland.

You don’t need to run a company the size of Nokia to successfully transform it. To make the restructuring work, you need a thorough plan that takes into account as many parts of the change as you can, as well as the appropriate individuals. Additionally, keep track of the market’s direction; Nokia’s move was successful because management understood the direction of the wind.

4. The Pacific Surf School

Despite the fact that surfers are known for their carefree demeanour, the teachers at the Pacific Surf School (PSS) in San Diego weren’t benefiting from it. Students weren’t getting anything out of the lessons because of their poor practices, which included not categorizing wetsuits by size.

The proprietors of PSS sought assistance from the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). An organization called LEI is devoted to imparting lean ideas. According to lean principles, waste should be reduced while customer value is increased. Lean principles can be used in any business, even though they first became popular in the manufacturing industry. The trainer from LEI showed the PSS staff how to implement more effective procedures, such as taping surfboards so that pupils could quickly find their feet.

The advantages become apparent right away:

• Students were surfing more.
• PSS was able to double the size of each class by 50%.
• During daylight hours, instructors had more time to fix surfboards.

A valuable lesson to learn from this is that even little adjustments can improve the efficiency and profitability of your business. Again, don’t be too embarrassed to ask for assistance; efficiency specialists are willing to offer their knowledge to help you grow your main line of business.

Because these four organizations were prepared to advance, organizational change was successful there. Executives and front-line employees alike were all on board. Success didn’t come immediately; it took meticulous preparation and following through on the plans. If you’re prepared to put in the time and effort, you can implement change efforts that are effective.

Importance of organisational change

One might say that organizational change encompasses project-level change. For this reason, organizational change tends to be felt at a deeper level and for a longer period of time.

It is, therefore, important for companies to manage any organizational change as effectively as possible.

 Managing a successful organizational change can increase morale among workers and drive positive teamwork and job enrichment. These factors can directly and positively affect productivity and quality of work while shortening production cycles and reducing costs. 

Effective organizational change management allows the company to maintain a constant state of evolution and facilitate periods of general business change, allowing workers to remain motivated and productive during the introduction of new technologies or procedures.