Friday, May 13, 2005

Today and into the foreseeable future, organizational change will occur with increasing frequency. Organization-wide changes such as mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, leadership changes, and changes in technology are the rule, not the exception, in a world where change is the only constant. ?It?s sink or swim,? says Kevin Joyce, an organization development and change consultant and founder of The Quantum Group, LLC. ?Organizations must learn to manage change in order to ensure their future success.?

Large-scale organizational change is planned change affecting all levels of an organization. It generally involves a paradigm shift ? a fundamental change in thinking ? about the way an organization is structured, organized, or managed. The key is that the change is planned. ?Large-scale change should be a proactive process in which the organization scans its environment, affirmatively determines what its future will be, and designs the path to get there,? says Joyce.

All effective large-scale change management processes have a foundation in theory and practice, involve the people of the organization in a meaningful way, approach change systematically, and achieve significant results with a reasonable investment of time and resources.

Quantum uses its six-stage Cycle of Success to help organizations manage change. The Cycle of Success change management model is a planned approach to addressing the broad-based change that businesses and other organizations constantly face. The six stages are Identifying, Discovering, Understanding, Envisioning, Planning, and Sustaining.

Issues and outcomes are the two critical elements of the first stage in the model, Identifying. The first question that must be addressed is: ?What is the presenting issue?? Once a business identifies the cause of the issues of concern, it must decide on outcomes, that is, what will be different about the organization as a result of the change process.

An internal and external scan of the organization and its environment takes place during Discovering. The primary goal of Discovering is to create a common, shared picture of the organization?s current reality among all stakeholder groups, including management, employees, and owners.

Understanding provides a bridge for the organization between Discovering its current reality and Envisioning its ideal future. One purpose of this stage is to collectively determine why the organization must change. The analysis must also move from ?why? to ?how,? as the organization determines what changes are needed for it to operate at peak efficiency.

The fourth stage is Envisioning, during which the firm develops a picture of its desired future. One way to begin the Envisioning dialogue is for a leadership team to present a ?working? vision, based on what has occurred to this point in the change process. A larger group, representative of the entire organization, can then use the working vision as the starting point for a more detailed vision of the future based on the information that has been collected and analyzed.

The purpose of Planning is to design and build the path from the organization?s current reality to its envisioned future. ?Too often, organizations want to jump right into planning,? says Joyce. ?That?s like trying to plan a trip when you don?t know your starting point or your destination. You have to understand where they?re at now and where you want to be in the future before developing an action plan.?

Once a plan has been implemented, the final stage is Sustaining. The purpose of this stage is to monitor the change process and adjust the action plan. Sustaining any change effort is a continuous process that should occur throughout the life of the action plan.

?Organizations that take a proactive, planned approach to change will reap the rewards,? concludes Joyce. ?They will be more adaptable, have a greater understanding of what they are all about, and will operate at the highest levels of performance.?

Kevin Joyce is principal of The Quantum Group, LLC, a consulting business collaborating with clients to achieve measurable performance improvements through change management, human resource, and strategic planning services. Kevin holds graduate degrees in law and management, is certified as Senior Professional in Human Resources, and is an adjunct business faculty member at Bowling Green State University. He has written for a number of business and management publications including Business Horizons, OD Practitioner and CFMA Building Profits. To learn more, visit the Quantum Group website at www.e-quantumgroup.com.