Administratively there is a new term that has emerged in the business environment, which allows us to realize that things can change, the term is Knowledge Management which says that we must stop thinking about Human Resources as a resource and see in the the opportunity to manage the talent you have.
The work of Knowledge Management is aimed at facilitating the active participation of staff, as the only way to develop strategies that make a difference compared to the competition, since there are several suppliers of the same product and / or service, with characteristics Same or similar, the client has the freedom to search and choose the company that meets their needs with effectiveness and creativity, where logically they will lean towards the one that offers them the best service.
The implementation of Knowledge Management is important and begins to be essential, to create a new image for organizations, thereby achieving offer products and / or services with greater enthusiasm, dedication and initiative; but also, to prepare and have the ability to compete against prestigious international organizations, with more experience, infrastructure, desire to provide a better service and that in the very short term they will become direct competitors as a consequence of the globalization trends of the markets..
Market leadership will remain in the hands of those who develop better methods and work systems, using the creativity of its staff as the main source of internal development to achieve spectacular improvements under service and quality premises, in the face of new challenges and opportunities that are faced currently provides, taking into account the changes that are expected in the very short term.
Entrepreneurs and / or administrators must strengthen their labor competencies system (people), to make profitable those organizations that are not yet profitable and more profitable to those that are already successfully positioned within a constantly changing market, in where competition intensifies and clients have the freedom to choose, among many options that offer them the same or similar benefits.
That is why at this time, organizations are in a process fight, in which in the future it will have more opportunity to be sought that facilitates the obtaining of the products and / or services it offers, through the use of internal processes adapted to the real needs of its clients; among which stand out: agility, speed, accuracy and comfort. On the contrary, those organizations that seek internal security rather than customer satisfaction and that in order to achieve this, fill the processes with cumbersome and unnecessary steps will be left out.
It is necessary to put aside what exists and design new organizations that seek to offer the same products and / or services to the client, with better characteristics; without leaving aside the aspects related to controls and based on the reality of the organizations, which includes knowing all those technical, operational and infrastructural aspects at a general level and in each of its component areas.
Today, the foundation of organizational changes is the intellectual capacity of those who make up the companies, regardless of the position they occupy in traditional organization charts, which have passed into history.
Culture of change
Organizational change is a necessity for any company that wishes to subsist in today's markets, therefore the word change must be part of the culture of the organization in general and of each of its members.
Cultural aspects have a powerful influence on the perception, behavior and performance of the individual and the company in general. Organizations have their own culture, but at the same time they are formed by the set of sub-cultures of their members.
Cultural differences can create conflicts and become obstacles to development, if not managed properly. This can be detrimental when these conflicts occur between those responsible for carrying out the tasks that make up the processes.
The lack of a culture of change is a common problem in our environment, it occurs at all levels and its causes are reflected in at least one of the aspects that will be studied below and which, in the author's opinion, represent the main obstacles to implementation of a culture of change within any organization.
- Lack of general aspects of the organization and its main administrative elements. Resistance to change and low participation of staff within Continuous Improvement and Organizational Development programs. Lack of alignment between the organizational objectives and the personal objectives of all the members of the company.
Lack of general aspects of the organization and its main administrative elements:
Ignorance and / or lack of interest in these aspects form barriers that do not allow us to detect the need to change, assuming that things are being done properly and that there is no need for organizational transformation.
Within all organizations, even those that are empirically managed, there are guidelines that its members must follow to carry out their activities, as well as internal norms, policies and rules that help the proper functioning of all the gears that make up the structure of said organizations., which in many cases are not instilled at all levels and in the worst case there is not even interest in them, on the part of the businessmen and / or administrators of the organization.
Most organizations lack a mission and vision defined in writing and lack of disclosure of them to the staff that comprise them.
This results in working without clear objectives and goals that require evaluating whether the direction and efficiency of the functions is adequate.
The ignorance of these factors does not allow verifying if the efforts of all the members of the organization are directed in the right direction and if at the same time they are collaborating with the achievement of the institutional objectives or simply with the particular objectives of each one of the areas and / or departments that make up its structure.
Not all organizations have administrative members qualified by experience and / or training, located in the appropriate positions to strengthen the administrative aspects of it, most of the personnel are suitable for operational positions that seek to meet the current demands of the business, without thinking about the mechanisms that in the future can help improve the organization.
Very few entrepreneurs and / or administrators constantly change organizational models and adapt them to current customer demands.
Structures with many hierarchical levels and with little coordination or integration between their component units still persist, which do not allow the various activities to be related and grouped appropriately for greater effectiveness.
This organizational model causes that its members do not understand their work, their authority and their relationships with other members of the same, and that as a consequence they lose effectiveness, for trying to maintain the old administrative schemes.
The ignorance of the mission and vision, as well as the lack of coordination and integration of its members, causes that work is done in different directions and that some departments have too much independence and little communication with the other areas of the organization, which is why in many Sometimes it is possible to achieve particular objectives that seem appropriate, but which are not contributing to the development and achievement of institutional objectives, but on the contrary may hinder them.
The lack of planning for all those activities carried out within the organization is a consequence of the lack of knowledge of its general aspects and its main administrative elements.
Undoubtedly, not knowing clearly where the efforts are directed, does not allow planning the activities that must be carried out to achieve their objectives, it is very difficult to plan without direction, normally what is done is to carry out the activities mechanically and monotonous, based on custom and experience gained over time.
Resistance to change and low participation of staff within Continuous Improvement and Organizational Development programs.
Instilling the culture of change is a function of the administrators of the organizations, so it is important that the people who occupy administrative positions involve the staff in this work, as part of the responsibilities of each job, from the moment of hiring or as part of training and development programs for existing staff.
The knowledge of the processes and the objective pursued by each one of them, must be part of the internal culture of all the personnel of the organization, in addition it will allow to reduce the specialization of some jobs and with it the dependency of the people who execute specific functions within processes.
The availability, initiative and support by the staff, when making changes within the organization, are aspects that help considerably when implementing them, thereby minimizing the risks of failure. Conversely, resistance to staff change does not allow for rapid action and reduces the likelihood of success.
It is important that teamwork made up of managers and their staff is part of the culture of the organization, since the probability of success will increase by taking into account the opinion of all those involved in the processes when thinking about carrying out changes.
Lack of alignment between the organizational objectives and the personal objectives of all the members of the company.
When the new collaborator comes into contact with the organization for the first time, it is when opinions or value judgments are formed about the entire organization, that is why the identification or sense of belonging must start from the process of selecting new collaborators and not expect it to be a consequence of time.
Design a process for the selection of strategic personnel that allows knowing the objectives, interests and ambitions of the candidates, to find within them those who best suit the objectives, interests and ambitions of the organization.
Satisfying the needs of new collaborators as a consequence of meeting organizational objectives should be the most important task of the Strategic Human Resources Manager, which will achieve the strategic alignment that will allow it to have satisfied staff and, as a consequence, with attitudes. positive, willing to face any process of change.
The ability to respond quickly and flexibly to the changing demands of customers must be part of the culture of change of all the personnel that make up the organization, regardless of its structural conditions; Internal controls should not be part of the processes, nor should they be instituted for lack of trust in people, much less to hide internal deficiencies.
The initiative and creativity to make the changes will allow the organization to be a pioneer and innovative in the face of competition, managing to create quality processes that can become a competitive advantage.
The ability to renew the knowledge of the personnel must depend on the demands of the clients and not on the capacity for renewal of those who run the organization, so when deciding to make changes it is important to know the opinion of the personnel, the communication with them it is vital to improve what exists and to adequately satisfy your needs.
The key to counteracting the lack of a culture of change
The key to counteracting the lack of a culture of change can be summed up in two administrative foundations, which, when used properly, will help to minimize the resistance of the personnel and with it the probabilities of failure when implementing Continuous Improvement programs within any type of business.
These foundations are: Training and Participation, although they seem to be simple to implement, it will be very difficult to expect spectacular results without the conviction and support of the higher levels of the organization.
Talking about training, although it is a common practice within any company, today is considered one of the fundamental pillars that sustains the quality of the products and / or services offered to customers, so their approach begins to take another theme.
The behavior and knowledge of people as well as their needs for training and personal development are important factors for the application of new processes and for the development of the culture of change that is pursued when applying them.
The training programs that are imparted to the people must have as objective to make known the general aspects of the organization and its main administrative elements, but above all the processes in general that are carried out within the company and not only the activities in which the personnel undergoing training intervene directly within them.
The current trend is to move away from people-based organizations that carry out individual tasks and focus on teamwork that allows the effective achievement of the processes carried out by its members, which can only be achieved if they are provided much more general knowledge.
The functions of each of the positions play an important role as elements of knowledge and experience and will always have a place within the organizational structure, they are also necessary within the work teams, as they cannot only be made up of people with knowledge general, but with people with special and particular attributes with team thinking based on the processes they execute. Each of them will add additional value to the team with specific knowledge and skills.
The formation of teams goes beyond the simple union of people, the formation of teams begins from the recruitment process of the personnel, adapting the profiles of the positions to the culture and interests of each group to which they will belong and the objectives of the processes that they will support., seeking balance in relation to people's abilities and experience.
The work teams are made up of people with complementary knowledge who work towards the same objective and where each of them is responsible for achieving it, they must be organized according to the processes and not the activities that each of them has to carry out.
Within organizations there are many different interest groups: groups of people with different goals and ambitions. Individuals will unite with those who have similar ambitions or who feel threatened by similar threats.
The critical perspective on the methodology of change recognizes that overcoming resistance to reorganization cannot always be resolved through dialogue and that overcoming this resistance may require a change in the material and ideological conditions that distort or impede communication.
The culture of change of any organization is a consequence of the culture of change of its members, the first of them can hardly exist if the second does not exist.
When carrying out organizational change programs, it is important to encourage participation among staff, it is not appropriate to be tax, it is enough to explain and surprise them with what you want and they will surprise you with their ideas.
Staff must have the ability to understand the change process quickly and easily, there should be no reserved activities, as everyone needs to have a common vision of what is happening within the organization and this will only be achieved if they are highly trained.
Functions that previously were the exclusive property of managers, today begin to be shared with all those involved in the processes, do and improve now go hand in hand as organizations seek to benefit from the intelligence of all its members.
The capacity of people is increased by the comfort and motivation they feel when they are allowed to take the initiative and work without strict rules. When evaluating to what extent the staff should have delegation of authority, it is important to analyze the particular characteristics of the process and the controls that must be adapted to it, in order to minimize risks.
People who prefer to take the initiative to carry out their tasks are frustrated when they must work under strict guidelines imposed by the higher hierarchical levels. Therefore, it is important to empower those performing the tasks to carry out their own quality supervision and inspection.
The key is found in the empowerment, which allows us to personally assume the responsibility of satisfying the needs of the clients.
Promoting the participation of staff means giving them the freedom to carry out their activities under clear guidelines for action that allow them to flexibly develop the activities within the processes they carry out and put into practice their initiative and creativity to improve those activities and achieve the pre-established objectives with greater effectiveness.
The lack of knowledge and participation of staff results in frequent consultation with higher levels to make decisions or respond to unexpected customer inquiries, which in most cases is a common practice within any organization that only encourages the creation of unnecessary positions and in the worst case, unnecessary areas or departments that are based on the division of labor, but that complicate the carrying out of activities and the timely resolution of the problems they face daily.
The solution to casuistic problems is not to create intermediate levels or middle managers that are responsible for solving this type of query, it is simply to train all personnel, providing general knowledge about the company and the processes that are carried out in it. In this way, everyone will be able to participate in solving common problems and also those that eventually arise.
But it is not enough to train personnel extensively, it is important to delegate total responsibility within the processes, so that there is a commitment to solve eventual problems with the same accuracy and certainty of common problems.
Making the most of the skills and initiative of the personnel is important for the implementation of Organizational Change programs, because through this, spectacular improvements can be generated in the activities they carry out and eliminate everything that is unnecessary.
The openness and interest in the ideas of the staff without discarding them from the beginning, allows promoting mechanisms to encourage the participation and dissemination of knowledge of all the members of the organization, creating commitments and developing new objectives that allow for the renewal of what exists permanently.
Improvement depends on the experience, knowledge and learning of all members of the organization, especially those who are responsible for the tasks that make up the processes, so performance will depend on the participation of each of them within the renewal and change thereof.
Change processes can only work well if the people who carry them out are the right ones, so the training and participation of staff is the key element in promoting a culture of change within all members of the organization.
Knowing the people who are within the company is key to take better advantage of them. A training program is necessary, with a new set of knowledge and behaviors necessary for some, if not all, individuals.
Identify and agree on the new order of hierarchies, conditions, roles and responsibilities, to allow putting into practice the application of Continuous Improvement programs.
As part of this new business method, the exact nature of the roles must be detailed and employees must be trained and guided to perform them. The new roles will give employees a greater degree of authority and should not only emphasize the roles of the task, but also the performance improvement roles to be carried out.
