I spend a lot of my time these days plotting the way that change occurs. In my former corporate life, but in my new life I do it on behalf of several organisations. It is a real eye opener too.
The format adopted by different businesses is striking, other than in one respect. That is the extent to which we complicate matters - no doubt unintentionally - but the effect is the same. It is not that we want to make it hard. It just seems that we forget the things that make people tick and motivated and those aspects that make staff demoralised, and angry. And I am just a tad disappointed, by how much in HR, we sometimes do not practice what we preach. It is as if we have forgotten what it is like to be on the receiving end of unexpected and poorly thought through change.
Don't get me wrong, organisations need the help and discipline that HR provides. But despite the theory and the concepts, one consistent feature is the low level of attention given to the way that change is communicated and enacted. My observation is that we all have a long way to go. Often we say that we should always treat others as we like to be treated ourselves'. We should remember that.
Allan Leighton - a man whose approach to managing change has always been refreshing - once said that we spend 80% of our time conceiving changes and just 20% of our time working though implementation when the reality is that it should be the other way round. I agree.
It is my experience that staff understand that they will be reorganised, jobs will change and products and working systems will alter.
The doubt sets in when those changes are introduced, often overnight and with little explanation and scant regard for the way that people think. The change may be really well thought through but in contrast, implementation is given short shrift. It is here that change fails
Sometimes, good HR goes out of the window as we forget that the actual way someone is made redundant, restructuring is consulted or a new system introduced really matters, and says much about the values of the organisation.
I remember how the new owners of a company I once worked for could not understand why staff were never on side just after they had frog-marched former colleagues out of the door. The style of management - reminiscent of the redundancy sketch in 'The Office' - was that people should be grateful that they had jobs. No matter how many times the new owners exclaimed that those whoremained were special, they were never forgiven for mis-treating of former colleagues. Nor did the staff believe that the same fate would not await them.
In HR, we have opportunity to change the way that organisations behave. It is what we do. Yes we need to handle basic processing aspects of change as well but the requirement is to influence how organisations and managers think. To do that, we need to possess expertise, be inside the business and trusted, operationally in tune, and representative of good people behaviours. Nobody else will take on the role and the impact of the change will be lost.
It is so good to see change well managed. And in those instances when we do, success is usually reflected by the quality of engagement, explanation, consultation and sensitive management.
Good planning always shows.
Martin Tiplady is managing director of Chameleon People Solutions
Chameleon People Solutions is sponsoring the HR Excellence Awards 2103 category: Most successful change management programme.
To book one of the last few remaining spaces at HR Excellence Awards 2013 then go to hrexcellenceawards.com, or email edward.wyre@markallengroup.com
