There are two major reasons why I think a change in the organization is made, expansion and contraction. But for the case of IT, let’s add constant technological advancement as reason.
Whichever the reasons are, the company should be careful about carrying out a new plan to keep up with the challenge. But I should say that this is a more challenging move for the management than building a new organization from nothing. Considering that you have to retain some of what you have (procedure, people, etc.) while moving them up to a higher level, which could either make or break the company.
I have witnessed the growth of the organization for quite some time. And every year, there is a change in management, new departments, new divisions, new positions, people coming and leaving, new procedures, etc. We change because of expansion and competition, which is a good thing than witnessing laying off staffs.
In a software development industry like ours, applications, technologies and tools improve over time. People need to upgrade their knowledge and skills. Competition in the market gets tougher because everyone introduces new and interesting technologies and systems. This also means for the company to invest in the newest technologies to provide better and more efficient service to our clients. Investments were made to purchasing powerful computers, expansion of servers from other states, hiring more senior programmers, customer support, quality control, etc, even if it means getting a loan to provide the needs of market. If the company stays stalled and do not dance with the change, it will never survive. To change is to take a risk. And to change is to fight for existence.
In our case, the company sees survival in the competition, thus it needs to change. I asked myself upon writing this, “How did the company started the change?” I am not sure if I know exactly but I tried to recall the presentations and meetings we had with our COO.
There are a lot of theories how to do change but citing in Kotter’s 8-step model, let me review and check it against my knowledge of the organization.
Establishing a sense of urgency. On this step includes examining the current market against the company’s standing in the competition. And yes, this has been the very reason why the company made and is making a change. The people wanting the change identified the risks against opportunities, loss over gain.
Creating the coalition. The core group that initialized the change is the Executive Department. This department actually existed on the course of changing because previously, the top management only has the CEO and COO in it. Later on, I think, they realized that it will be more helpful if someone from the employed section will be part of them, thus this new department was born. Members are the CEO, COO, Technical Director, Executive Director, Human Resources, and all other top-level supervisory positions. This company’s coalition made up of caliber people who see the external and internal factors of the company’s existence. And it is just proper to have a powerful set of people to make the change viral.
Developing a Change Vision. Why is there a need to change? The coalition must be able to put a vision on what they want to be and what they want to have on their target date after having the change. How should this be achieved? It should always be clear and feasible so that lower-level managements are able to deliver what they ought to deliver. I have witnessed this on our meetings.
Communicating the vision for buy-in. When a vision is made from the top-level, this should now be disseminated to everyone in the company. All possible ways to communicate it should be made. And yes, we had annual presentation, semi-annual meetings with the COO, biweekly meeting with the Technical Department, biweekly meeting with QA, and etc.
Empowering broad-based action. This is I think one of the most difficult steps when making a change because this is where you get to eliminate obstacles from making it possible. It could be people who are not cooperative, or an old system or culture. I remembered one critical issue we had when I was still starting. It was about a change in the pay scale where senior programmers felt that juniors surpassed their pay. This made the management to do some restructuring of the department. Some got replaced, some were transferred, and others opted to leave.
Generating short-term wins. It is always best that employees are properly taken cared of. For a change to be successful, the employees should be motivated and persuaded. How? Give incentives and rewards. If the staff needs to work more than his current responsibilities and expected to perform more than his average, then there’s a need to increase pay. And so far, this has been always a practice for the company.
Never letting up. On this step involves hiring, promoting and developing employees who can implement the vision. I remember the time when the management called me that I am needed by another department to do project management for a system that needs to be critically released to clients, as it was overdue. So I worked for both departments.
Incorporating changes into the culture. Planning is only the start, but it is strong implementation that measures success. It is not easy to inject change in the culture and system of what we are used to, but constant practice and monitoring of the vision will help the change to be felt by the members. I admit that we are always struggling with the changes, but with our coalition, we are always brought back to the vision to hit our target.
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