After all, it’s just common-sense……isn’t it?
Organizational Change Management: how difficult can it be?
My long-standing professional itch with the common-sense assertion has been well and truly irritated over the last few months. This blog is a gentle scratch!
I’ve been involved in many lessons learned sessions and when these lessons have been identified, discussed and documented, often the common-sense comment can be heard. So far, so predictable.
Here’s my point: if common-sense Is in abundance across organizations, why does change management remain difficult?
Most organizations hold some form of lessons learned activity during and at the notional end of a change project. Common-sense dictates that these lessons learned would be baked into the next change programme or project, thus gaining improvements and avoiding missteps.
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT: How many of these actions and lessons are applied? Common-sense would suggest all of them, but that’s not always the case. And what are the blockers to their application?
Organizational culture is a major factor in many, having potential for positive and negative impact.
Think about the organization/s you are working with; is there a difference between the organizational culture as described in annual reports, public statements and the obligatory “poster wallpaper”, and what happens day-to-day in the execution of the organization’s purpose? As per the warning commonly seen on the London Underground: “Mind the Gap”! Excellent advice for those working in organizational change management.
Returning to common-sense, how much attention is paid to the impact of the actual organizational culture when creating a change plan and responding appropriately when that plan meets reality? Does the organizational culture reward or punish the change professional telling truth to power about the impact of negative culture on the effective delivery of change? Is the organization more tuned to listen for what it wants to hear rather than what is being said and what is actually happening?
Common-sense would say, of course, the organization would respond positively, rewarding professional bravery. The acid test for this common-sense is during your next change milestone delivery: who is brave enough to say red is red and not some softer rosy on the RAG report? Leadership and high-performance team behaviours are essential for the efficient and effective delivery of organisational change.
As part of your team and individual delivery reflections and retrospectives, how does the culture, leadership and team behaviours stand up to scrutiny and applied lessons learned?
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