Many companies have made efforts to remake themselves and become better competitors. These companies include large corporations like FORD, or small businesses like 3D systems, both international and local organizations, companies that made a lot of money and others that were bankrupt. They called this change effort in different ways: reengineering, Total Quality Management (TQM), cultural change restructuring, etc. In each case, the goal was the same: to make fundamental changes in how the business was managed to become a more competitive company.
Few of these efforts were successful, few were total failures, but most fell between these 2 points, but at the bottom of the scale.
We live in a very competitive business world and the lessons we can learn from these cases are very relevant for organizations that want to survive. One of these lessons is that change goes through a series of phases that usually require considerable time to implement. By avoiding some of these phases we will only live the illusion of speed, but we will never obtain satisfactory results (Kotter, 2007).
A second lesson is that critical errors in any of these phases could have a devastating effect, avoiding reaching the desired goals.
The 8 steps to transform your organization are the following:
1. Establish a sense of urgency
- Examine the market and the changes that are happening that could affect our company. Work in the discussion of the crises that we are experiencing, the potential crises, or even opportunities that we could take advantage of.
2. Build a leading coalition with powerful teamwork
- Assemble a group of people with the power to lead change. Motivate the group to work as a team.
3. Create a vision
- Create a vision that helps drive change efforts. Develop strategies that help achieve that vision.
4. Communicate the vision
- Use all possible means to communicate the new vision and strategies. Demonstrate new behaviors through example through the leading group.
5. Delegate to others the authority to act on this vision
- Detect and get rid of obstacles to change. Change organizational systems or structures that undermine the new vision and strategy. Motivate risky decisions that are not traditional to discover new paths.
6. Plan for short-term victories
- Plan for visible short-term performance improvements.Implement these improvements.Reward and recognize employees involved in those improvements.
7. Consolidate improvements and produce even greater improvements
- Improve the credibility of the systems, the organizational structure, and policies so that they fit even more with the new vision. Employ, promote and develop employees that fit with this vision. Reinvigorate the processes with new improvement projects.
8. Institutionalize new achievements
- Become part of the organizational culture connecting new achievements with the success of the corporation. Develop the means to ensure the development of leaders as well as their succession. Return to step 1.
How can we visualize this more than just being 8 steps is a continuous improvement cycle. In an article as short as this it might seem simple, but the reality is that even the companies that have been very successful have had a tortuous path and full of surprises in their implementation. The key is to have a vision of change, which is needed to guide people's efforts and, in turn, decrease the percentage of errors. Avoiding making even a few mistakes could mean the difference between success and failure.
Source
- John P. Kotter. (2007, Jan). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard business Review. From the January 2007 issue.
