The Organizational Changenator
Has the alarm sounded yet in your organization? Is your organization ready, poised and engaged in meeting the enormous changes going on in the market place and the world? Has your organization moved beyond the "survival" mentality and created a robust "change" mentality that will ensure thriving in the world that is evolving? Far too many organizations get bogged down in the day-to-day operations and don't spend enough time preparing to deal with necessary changes it faces in order to prosper going forward.
Depending on how you answer the above questions, you may want to engage the services of an "organizational changenator.
' Let's identify what is needed for the organization to orchestrate a change effort that ensures thriving in the world that is evolving.
The organization needs robust change plans deployed and a designated person to coordinate and honcho those plans to ensure action steps are taken to actualize those plans.
The scope and work of the organizational changenator will be determined by the size of the organization.
It could be a full time or part time effort, a person part of internal leadership in the organization, or an outside consultant.
This person will primarily be concerned with engaging all levels of the organization in the necessary change efforts.
Without designating someone with individual responsibility to drive the change effort, the organization can easily fall back into the rut of being preoccupied only with today's effort.
What is the makeup of the organizational changenator and how does that person orchestrate the change effort? Personality/Skills The type of personality and the kinds of skills needed will be important in choosing the right person to be the organizational changenator.
Considerations include: -a personality that enjoys being a facilitator and collaborator, rather than being a dominator.
This is important because the change effort over time involves all levels of the organization, both leadership and working members.
-influential leadership skills.
While charged by the organization to lead change efforts, this person will not usually have direct authority over others.
Thus, it is important to be able to lead others by being able to influence them through personal power, reasoning, networking, etc.
-communication skills.
The organizational changenator needs to explain what needs to be done, discuss approaches and methodologies, listen to suggestions and ideas from others and draw out observations and new ways to look at situations.
-facilitation skills.
The organizational changenator realizes effective change comes about easier when people are involved and see the value of making the change.
There tends to be much more resistance when change is imposed.
The facilitator orchestrates the various contributions and efforts into a whole and brings about successful interaction.
Functional Analysis As mentioned, the organizational changenator engages all levels of the organization and all parts of the organization.
The output the organization produces, products or services, and how the market reacts to these are important considerations.
There needs to be a thorough analysis of each organizational function to see what can be improved, what innovations are possible and what changes can be made in relation to competitive advantage.
Te functional analysis evaluates each of the core functions and each of the support functions of the organization with regard to how close they are to state of the art and what needs to change to get them there.
Core functions include such areas as product/service development, operations and production, procurement, logistics and distribution, marketing and sales and customer service.
Support functions include such areas as organizational structure and management, legal, finances, planning, administration, human resources, technology, facilities management, etc.
Each organization will be different and each of the evident functions is open to analysis as part of the change effort.
In short, how can we do things faster, shorten the process, increase the quality, lower the costs, and innovate in the function being analyzed? Sometimes the answer may lie in combining some of the functions and streamlining.
Change Projects Once key change possibilities are identified through the analysis discussed above, and agreed upon, the organizational changenator musters each of the change efforts into a project to begin the effort of transformation.
Key to this development will be answering the following questions: -What needs to change and by when? (Project goal) -How do we go about effecting the change? (Involves steps needing to be taken, equipment and technology involved and removing impediments to implementing the projected change) -Who will be involved? (This includes project leadership and membership and assignments of who will do what and by when) -What other issues need identification, development and follow-up to ensure the change is successful? There may be other considerations depending on the scope and involvement of the project.
The organizational changenator and project team should feel satisfied all bases in this change project are being covered and the outlook for success is positive.
The organizational changenator is a critical function in today's organization.
Due to the depth and rapidity of change in the world and the marketplace, the organization cannot leave the change effort to chance.
It is best that the effort be assigned to one individual who works with both a macro and micro view to ensure the organization is making the changes it must in order to continue prospering.
The organizational changenator is the company's alarm clock.
Depending on how you answer the above questions, you may want to engage the services of an "organizational changenator.
' Let's identify what is needed for the organization to orchestrate a change effort that ensures thriving in the world that is evolving.
The organization needs robust change plans deployed and a designated person to coordinate and honcho those plans to ensure action steps are taken to actualize those plans.
The scope and work of the organizational changenator will be determined by the size of the organization.
It could be a full time or part time effort, a person part of internal leadership in the organization, or an outside consultant.
This person will primarily be concerned with engaging all levels of the organization in the necessary change efforts.
Without designating someone with individual responsibility to drive the change effort, the organization can easily fall back into the rut of being preoccupied only with today's effort.
What is the makeup of the organizational changenator and how does that person orchestrate the change effort? Personality/Skills The type of personality and the kinds of skills needed will be important in choosing the right person to be the organizational changenator.
Considerations include: -a personality that enjoys being a facilitator and collaborator, rather than being a dominator.
This is important because the change effort over time involves all levels of the organization, both leadership and working members.
-influential leadership skills.
While charged by the organization to lead change efforts, this person will not usually have direct authority over others.
Thus, it is important to be able to lead others by being able to influence them through personal power, reasoning, networking, etc.
-communication skills.
The organizational changenator needs to explain what needs to be done, discuss approaches and methodologies, listen to suggestions and ideas from others and draw out observations and new ways to look at situations.
-facilitation skills.
The organizational changenator realizes effective change comes about easier when people are involved and see the value of making the change.
There tends to be much more resistance when change is imposed.
The facilitator orchestrates the various contributions and efforts into a whole and brings about successful interaction.
Functional Analysis As mentioned, the organizational changenator engages all levels of the organization and all parts of the organization.
The output the organization produces, products or services, and how the market reacts to these are important considerations.
There needs to be a thorough analysis of each organizational function to see what can be improved, what innovations are possible and what changes can be made in relation to competitive advantage.
Te functional analysis evaluates each of the core functions and each of the support functions of the organization with regard to how close they are to state of the art and what needs to change to get them there.
Core functions include such areas as product/service development, operations and production, procurement, logistics and distribution, marketing and sales and customer service.
Support functions include such areas as organizational structure and management, legal, finances, planning, administration, human resources, technology, facilities management, etc.
Each organization will be different and each of the evident functions is open to analysis as part of the change effort.
In short, how can we do things faster, shorten the process, increase the quality, lower the costs, and innovate in the function being analyzed? Sometimes the answer may lie in combining some of the functions and streamlining.
Change Projects Once key change possibilities are identified through the analysis discussed above, and agreed upon, the organizational changenator musters each of the change efforts into a project to begin the effort of transformation.
Key to this development will be answering the following questions: -What needs to change and by when? (Project goal) -How do we go about effecting the change? (Involves steps needing to be taken, equipment and technology involved and removing impediments to implementing the projected change) -Who will be involved? (This includes project leadership and membership and assignments of who will do what and by when) -What other issues need identification, development and follow-up to ensure the change is successful? There may be other considerations depending on the scope and involvement of the project.
The organizational changenator and project team should feel satisfied all bases in this change project are being covered and the outlook for success is positive.
The organizational changenator is a critical function in today's organization.
Due to the depth and rapidity of change in the world and the marketplace, the organization cannot leave the change effort to chance.
It is best that the effort be assigned to one individual who works with both a macro and micro view to ensure the organization is making the changes it must in order to continue prospering.
The organizational changenator is the company's alarm clock.
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