Every cliche has its day, so here goes: It is an ill wind of power that blows nobody any good - We live in a strange world - PDF version Stephen Handelman is the author of Comrade Criminal: Russia’s New Mafiya and a consultant for Freedom House’s annual Nations in Transit survey Thieves in Power: The New Challenge of Corruption
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Art of Living & Change Across Frontiers: Running with Change
The winds of change rarely smell sweet. As soon as organizational changes are announced, you can smell detractors, naysayers, doubters, critics--all those who resist the changes. When you are the manager of a change-supporting project, you are going to be a target of this resistance, directly or indirectly.
You will have the opportunity to influence the workforce in a constructive way during your project to counter the resistance. If you fail to fully take advantage of this opportunity, your project objectives will be much more difficult to achieve. Think doing nothing or remaining neutral will be a viable safe tactic? It’s as good as joining the resisters.
When You Must Be Ready to Respond to Resistance
First, how do you know you are in an organizational change supporting project? One obvious example of such a project is where a new, more powerful software system is being created to replace another. There are usually concurrent consolidations in user roles and departmental realignments.
Sometimes, though, an organizational change occurs when the scope of an organization’s role changes, as when a chunk of work is delegated to an outsourced organization. Projects can generate from these organizational changes as systems and procedures must be adjusted.
Finally, an organizational change common to IT is centralization or decentralization, which occur randomly to all organizations depending on factors such as shareholder satisfaction, newly hired leaders and whether the CIO salary has recently been publicized. You may manage a project that supports any of these or similar efforts. Any of them may produce that special odour of resistance.
Reactions You Can Expect
Understanding general types of workforce reactions will help you prepare to respond appropriately and avoid embarrassing and destructive reactions.
Active Resistance. Many workers may feel that they, their department, even the organization may come out worse off once the changes have occurred. They may not hesitate to express their fears to you, using for instance:
? Verbal complaints in project meetings (“We should not be developing a new system when our existing system can be updated more cost-effectively.”)
? Actions to avoid working in the project or doing certain tasks (“Our team will not be a good choice for this activity. Perhaps you should go with contractors.”)
Allowing active resistance to exist throughout the project, even when the best interest of the organization is the motivation, keeps the workforce from focusing on project objectives and reduces productivity.
Passive Resistance. Some workers and team leads will have concerns over the efficacy of the change and your project, but will not be obvious about it. There may be no objectively clear behaviour that you can put your finger on. Many times, resistance is conducted by not doing something that needs to be done. Examples of passive resistance (or evidence thereof) are:
- Quietly spreading any news or rumour of anything negative or unsuccessful with the project
- Not prioritizing high-priority project work, so that deadlines are always missed, then giving excuses for not completing work on time or to the expected quality
- Avoiding documentation of project issues so that they cannot be successfully resolved
- Constantly requesting delays to wait for organizational decisions before starting or completing project tasks.
It is easy to underestimate the problem with this insidious type of resistance. As the project progresses, it gradually erodes the ability of individuals and teams to complete work efficiently.
Have fixed, regular places for worker input and issues. Don’t let the passive resistors get away with spreading rumours and sabotage. Give them every opportunity to voice their concerns--appropriately.
- Bad--Activate your workers in a standard way on the issue resolution process.
- Worse--Let the issue resolution procedure fall between the cracks as your project gets more intensely busy.
- Better--Make a special effort to emphasize the importance of the issue resolution procedure. State how anything other than aggressive resolution of project issues will be seen as substandard performance in any project group. Explain how issues about the change strategy as a whole are also important and should be brought up in the appropriate organizational feedback method (not the project).
Organizational Change and Your Career
Of course, you like to bask in the knowledge that the organization will benefit from your selfless sophistication in change management leadership. But think of yourself for a moment. What skills will take you as a project manager to the next level? Positive political and interpersonal skills will.
Like it or not, there is more organizational change in your future. The more practice you get at influencing the workforce during difficult changes, the more you will come out smelling like a rose.
• The CIO as Driver of Organizational Change [We live in a strange world. Change insinuates itself into the very fabric of our lives, yet most people have a hard time dealing with it. It’s no wonder an enormous body of knowledge revolves around every conceivable aspect of change. The Change Game ; ]
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