Many organizations suffer from a tragic pattern: Management sets in motion a plan of change and improvement only to have its budget and consulting fees left behind after a few months or even years.
The growing competitiveness in Colombia and its opening up to international markets make it necessary to initiate initiatives to improve production or marketing processes, but be careful when devising such change management, factors such as budget, time, logistics or even the climate or the Organizational culture (see article: differences between organizational climate and culture) can hinder the project, generating detrimental results for the company.
Let's take the example of a healthcare company which, a few years ago, its director of operations launched an improvement initiative for its customer service line. A company committee analyzed the proposal and did not determine a sufficient budget, the result: the times of the project stages were shortened and fewer people were assigned to start it up. The project was a failure.
Another case was presented in a clothing manufacturing company where a manager had the idea of measuring the organizational climate through anonymous surveys on the following topics: organizational objectives, cooperation, leadership, interpersonal relationships, motivation, decision-making and control. The result was a surprise, the employees had no idea about the company's vision or its medium and long-term objectives, they considered that their contributions and demands were not taken into account by management and that there was no channel to express ideas, resulting in a minimal vision of motivation; It was also evidenced that there was no synergy between the company's areas.
After tabulating and analyzing the results, the board of directors did not undertake any action to improve the organizational climate with the excuse that the budget would be allocated for the growth of production, and leaving aside the study of organizational climate under the title of « irrelevant topic.
Like the previous examples, we find countless companies that intend to achieve "stability" in the way they carry out their processes and believe that they will provide like a dairy cow for all eternity.
Thus, for many entrepreneurs the issue of change involves large investments such as having to pay for expensive consultancies and invest hundreds of valuable hours from their employees to expect unsecured results. It is never easy to leave the comfort of the routine, for this reason the lack of ambition becomes a terminal illness.
Are there any steps to break the tragic cycle of aversion to organizational change?
Some proposals are:
Organizational re-alignment: The structure of an organization is decisive in factors such as chain of command, response capacity, motivation, communication, understanding of functions, responsibilities and priorities, among others. (See types of organizational structures).
Method improvement: Whether the organization is focused on growth or cost reduction, it is important that it has a platform for analysis and continuous improvement of methods and processes. Adopting a methodology to improve processes can change the organizational culture of employees by feeling empowered about their tasks, having them the possibility of proposing improvements and obtaining rewards on them. (See continuous improvement).
Commitment: Employees fundamentally want the success of themselves and their companies. Providing improvements in communication within the company such as a suggestion box, meetings in which the organization's plans are explained, activities designed to transmit knowledge between positions and areas or integration activities that aim to exalt the pride of being part of a work team are really beneficial. (See organizational learning).
