The Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously said that change is the only constant in life. That’s because change is necessary for survival. Conditions and environments continually evolve — thus, adapt or die. This is true for every living being and for organizations as well.
Consider that manufacturing buggy whips was a thriving business in the early stages of the last century. Then, in 1913, Henry Ford and his assembly line came along, marking the beginning of the end of the horse-and-buggy era. Buggy-whip manufacturers had no choice but to adapt, perhaps by shifting to manufacture fan belts for the tremendous number of cars that were being assembled.
It's important to note that change is necessary even for organizations not experiencing an upheaval of their business plan. Innovation and process improvement are synonyms for change, and if you’re not innovating or improving your processes, you’re stagnating — not performing optimally. In the case of our public-safety and justice clients, stagnation means that they’re not serving their constituents as well as they could.
However, while change is necessary, it usually doesn’t come easily. According to the American College of Psychiatry, 80 percent of Americans don’t like change and steadfastly try to avoid it. Consequently, organizations need to spend a lot of time and effort helping their personnel understand the factors that led to the change, because humans have an innate need to understand the “why.” This is foundational to organizational change management.
Most people are familiar with the role of project managers, whose job is to get a solution ready for their organization. They are far less familiar with the role of organizational change managers. However, their job is very similar to that of project managers — they get the organization ready for the solution. This requires a partnership between the organization’s technologists and those who focus on the human element of change.
The rate of change that we’re experiencing today makes matters much more challenging. A couple of years ago, I attended a conference where the keynote speaker stated that the rate of change we’ve experienced in the last two decades is equivalent to the change experienced in the previous half-century. While change is at least a little scary for most people, for some it is overwhelming because of how quickly and frequently it occurs in today’s environment.
Benjamin Franklin famously said, “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” I would amend that to, “except death, taxes, and change.” Consequently, the better we are at managing change in our personal and professional lives, the more successful we will be.
But few of us can do that on our own. It’s very difficult for someone to lose 75 pounds, quit smoking, or buy their first house without some kind of support. The bigger the change, the more support that is required.
Future blogs will explore the obstacles that typically stand in the way of effective change management and how to overcome them, as well as what success looks like. In the meantime, we would love to chat with you about how MCP can elevate your organizational change management program — even if you’re not a rookie. Please reach out.
Jennifer Wray is an MCP organizational change manager. Email her at JenniferWray@MissionCriticalPartners.com.