From Change Readiness to Change Effectiveness

Change is inevitable, and organizational change becomes a common practice within an organization. However, more than two-thirds of Change Management efforts fail to achieve the expected results. How to capture the signals of change readiness, and how to manage and sustain change effectively, not for its own sake, but to improve organizational agility and maturity?

Change readiness can be determined via a validated instrument, the change profile-scan: Most of the organizations today are the “sum of functions,” not yet being a cohesive whole. Too many organizations are mechanistic, control and command hierarchies. When productivity is low, the further analytics is needed for understanding the cause, whether it is due to the change curve, inefficient practice/ process, or the culture complacency. If your organization fits the description, get out fast or initiate change within. Trace down the poor behaviors or lower-than-expected performance understand the causes behind it. Companies don't think about change. People in companies do, from different positions. Mostly the management wants to see a different (better) result of all combined efforts. So methods or people held responsible for those results 'have to change.' An organization’s “DNA” is visible from the collective mindset, attitudes: The most critical one is how decision-making process at various levels within an organization affects all other factors that form the culture over a period of time. An organization's DNA is visible from the collective attitudes - how employees behave at the workplace with co-workers, interaction with customers, adapt technological changes and accept challenges and show loyalty to the organization etc. All these factors take shape over a period through the decision-making process. Closer to reality is that 'change' is continuously happening in the environment of a company. The desires of stakeholders, clients and employees are evolving naturally. The challenges, competitions, and complexities may be on the increase, but along with it there comes the increase in opportunity and in the form of demand.
Change readiness also reflects whether Change Management is a “snapshot” of one-time initiative or an ongoing business capability and continuum: Lack of change review, reflection, and recognition often makes changes not sustainable. The lack of recognition for change impacts individuals and businesses’ willingness to extend themselves again for the next change. When a change initiative is completed, often the team walks away without checking to see if it adds value or evaluating if additional work is required. Taking the time to communicate the expected outcome with consideration of the "right" way allows the team to have room to make success progressive. The lack of breathing space between change initiatives is an issue as well. Plowing on to the next big thing before completely embedding the change into business as usual or running multiple simultaneous changes can leave a workforce reeling and exhausted.
Digital makes a profound impact from the specific function to the business as a whole, the purpose of building change management capability and accelerate radical digitalization is to make a significant difference in the overall levels of customer delight and achieve high performing business result. People are complex, business is complex, and society is complex, what's needed every now and then in any individual, team, organization, society, and on up to the entire planet's population, is a little or a lot of energy to re-focus, kick start or 'game-change.'


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