Change is everywhere and nothing in this world can remain untouched from it. In this article also the author talks about the change that takes place in the organizations and the end results of such change programs. To remain competitive it is a must for the modern day organization to undergo through many change programs from time and again. But to carry out the change programs effectively and efficiently is not that simple as it seems to be.
Many times the change programs fail to deliver the end result that had been intended. Here the author raises the question that why the change programs fail to deliver the end result that had been intended previously. And to address this issue the author has presented some few key practices that will facilitate in guiding a change program based on his experience as a coach and facilitator of many change programs. The issue that the author has raised here is very important one because as change programs have so much importance in the very existence of a company and so if the change programs fails to deliver good results than the organization would be on the back foot.
From the various data that are available it is a well known fact that most of the change program does not deliver what was intended from it. So from this point of view this article is very important for those people who are directly or indirectly involved in carrying out a change program. In an attempt to address the issue raised in the article to some extent the author has suggested five activities that lead to a change program being an ineffective one.
Firstly he writes that people create too much hype about the change program but later fail to deliver according to the hype created. The author here does not mean that it’s a bad thing to hype something before it has been initiated but it only becomes a problem when the hype is not followed by certain actions. The author is right here when he says that, lets hype the actions we are actually taking, not just our intensions and plans. Then in the next point the author mentions that the action that are going to be carried out must be accordance to the advertisement of that particular task. The author raises a valid point that no any action should be talked in loud voice until and unless it is actually carried out.
Another reason the author cites for the change program to fail is the fact that a lot of time is wasted on endless meetings and forming committees rather than actually thinking towards accomplishing the change program. Another important thing mentioned in the article is that there should be made changes in the senior leadership as and when require. If some young and dynamic person is willing to explore far beyond the boundaries, s/he should be given the opportunity to do so.
Leadership plays one of the most important roles in the accomplishment of the change program. We know that those that did best at change programs the top management were more involved. So letting people who are more likely to become good leaders come in the frame of things would be a good thing with respect to the change program. Another mistake that most of the time spoils the change initiative is not involving the customers in the process.
Ultimately no matter how good the leader may be or how well the change program has been carried out but ultimately the success and failure of the program remains in the market itself. And by market we mean the customers. So if the customers don’t accept the change then it would be of no use. It would be better to involve the customers early in the change program rather than be sorry when the program fails to deliver the intended result.
The author presents the example of Unilever case from which the above mentioned points seems to be really important one. The case talks about the success story of the Asia hair category team. And the author credits this success to the factors that he talks about in the beginning. Here the author does a good job by presenting a real case to support his argument. After going through the case of Unilever it becomes quite clear that for any change program to be effective one needs to focus on its customers and market place, very little must be hyped and the action must be decisive, and leaders should not be kept constant.
The author at the last part of the article talks about the importance of relationship and communication in the change program. According to the author how much we talk about the importance of various things for a change program to be successful but ultimately it’s the quality of communication as well as the level of relationship that eventually matters.
After going through the article I found that the author is quite experienced in the subject matter that he is trying to deal in the case. The author must be congratulated for the input he has delivered on the subject matter. But still there are certain gaps that do exist in the article. The five elements that the author mentions that are important for making effective decision on change program is presented in a well organized manner. But the author has not clearly mentioned that is these elements equally applicable for all types of organization or is it for a manufacturing company only.
In the article also the author only mentions examples of manufacturing company only. The author should have presented some more relevant examples to support his arguments. As in the beginning of the article the author mentions about his experience in the subject matter. So it would have been more realistic if the author had mentioned some more examples of real company’s that he was involved in.
At the end of the article the author talks about the power of relationship and communication in the effectiveness of the change program. But this can’t be applicable in all the countries. As every country have their own kind of culture and similarly the degree of relationship and communication might differ from one country to another. The level of communication will be different in an individualistic society to that of collective society.
The author concludes the article by saying that the leaders should go hand in hand with the team members during initiating a change program. And the leaders should go for the change program selectively, constructively, personally and, above all, credibly. Though, it’s a necessity for organizations nowadays to go for the change initiatives but it’s also equally important that the initiative should only be taken after thorough analysis and proper visualization that is both realistic and achievable.
This article would have been more informative as well as interesting if the author had presented few more examples of some real change programs of various companies. The author does not maintain a smooth flow of ideas due to which it becomes difficult to grasp what the author is trying to say in its exact sense. Overall it’s a good article and it only some minor adjustment in order to make it more interesting and reader friendly.