What, if any, are the catalytic mechanisms in your organization? What is the link between vision, goals, and catalytic mechanisms? Collins implies that using catalytic mechanisms is not a widely employed management practice. Has that been your experience? What are the barriers to using catalytic mechanisms? What are the benefits?
While the purpose of a catalytic mechanism is to essentially take a business “by it’s horns” and establish processes and core structures that works towards producing effective results internally and externally, it may not necessarily provide the thoroughness needed when mid to large sized companies are involved. The problem with establishing catalytic mechanisms is that it doesn’t establish who, within the organization, should reinforce these procedures. This one single point of contact is key for enforcing such an affect on the organization.
A year ago, the executives at my company began planning on the restructuring of how our products would be managed through the various cycles of planning, development, and execution. This process is called Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM). PLCM promised to deliver the following:
1. Checks and balances
2. Eliminate bureaucracy
3. EVERY single person involved would impact the process. Any individual who did not influence any part of any of the planning, development, and execution stages, would have their position restructured. Otherwise, they would be fired.
4. Streamlined processes across the board
5. Increase in communication across all departments. Getting rid of silos.
6. A system by which the various departments could feel a sense of camaraderie and support.
PLCM officially launched World Wide in October of 2007. While only 2 fiscal quarters have passed, there has already been much disapproval of PLCM. Complaints include, lack of consistency across the board, checks and balances are not distributed equally and/or properly, and the lack of communication has not improved.
Consistency has proved over time that it is not established by making simple statements or claims that promote change. It requires that all parties involved remain dedicated and committed to the process and actively pursue new methods that foster this change. In another words, for PLCM to work across the board, ALL departments involved need to abide by their newly outlined processes THEY had developed and submitted to the executives a year ago. The overall goal from the executives was for departments to streamline their headcount. This would ensure the beginnings of efficiency. However, some of the crucial participants to the overall process (directors and their direct reports) have preferred not to change anything about their department.
The team needs to establish a policy and procedure which would be a step toward an organizational structure. This process will be a framework that defines formal reporting relationships between the different levels of management. For example, the guidelines can be used as a protocol of the process managers needs to follow to assist their employees through the change process. The team also needs to provide in house trainings for all departments so employees can be aware and implement the new changes. The training will increase skill level and improve staff productivity.
...e, L. & Roberto, M. (2005, Summer). The art of making change initiatives stick: the seeds of effective change must be planted by embedding procedural and behavioral changes in an organization long before the initiative is launched. MIT Sloan Management Review, 46(4), 53-60.
S, Rawat 2001, Organisational Change and Forces Prompting Change, Academic Paper Review, Shovoong viewed on 2nd April 2011, on http://imgs.shvoongstatic.com/images/2011/_v_070420111027/scp.PNG">
Leading Change was named the top management book of the year by Management General. There are three major sections in this book. The first section is ¡§the change of problem and its solution¡¨ ; which discusses why firms fail. The second one is ¡§the eight-stage process¡¨ that deals with methods of performing changes. Lastly, ¡§implications for the twenty-first century¡¨ is discussed as the conclusion. The eight stages of process are as followed: (1) Establishing a sense of urgency. (2) Creating the guiding coalition. (3) Developing a vision and a strategy. (4) Communicating the change of vision. (5) Empowering employees for broad-based action. (6) Generating short-term wins. (7) Consolidating gains and producing more changes. (8) Anchoring new approaches in the culture.
Two examples of new product development tools include stage-gate processes and the critical path method, both of which possess benefits and cons. In the context of bringing a new product to the market place, the stage-gate method provides many direct benefits to the product manager. Stage-gate processes allow organizations numerous opportunities to kill projects that no longer seem to be viable products, saving both wasted time and money (Cooper, 2014). Additionally, the stage-gate process provides incentive for senior management to keep abreast of the development cycle of new products. For these reasons, it is suggested that product managers strive to implement stage-gate processes into their development of new
The eight stage process gives leaders a plan on how to tackle and implement change the first time, while empowering employees to buy into the organizations end state. Many times leaders make changes and are puzzled why they don’t work. This is not the end all be all, but when implementing change you have to remember to that it’s a process that takes time and determination. You have to stick to the plan to see it through and that takes patience, planning and good decision making skills. Applying these steps will help your organization thrive and stay competitive in the 21st
By evaluating any barriers that could effect change, will help remove obstacles and assist leaders in executing the organization’s vision. At Cornerstone, our branch managers repeatedly make changes to current procedures; typically, we become frustrated and begin to resist this change. When we have a chance to communicate our frustration, we often get negative feedback and the issue never seems to be resolved. There are several solutions to removing any barriers or obstacles. First, if an organization can afford to hire a change management specialist their role would be to identify and deliver change accordingly. Second, evaluate your company’s organizational structure, job descriptions, performance appraisals, and compensation packages to ensure they align with the organization’s vision (Mindtools). Third, by identifying individuals that are resisting change leaders of an organization can detect any hidden needs or suggestions they may not
Kotter’s steps 5, Enabling Action, and 6, Creating Short-Term Wins contribute to the success of a change effort by enabling all involved parties to make meaningful contributions to an organization’s progress, while seeing timely results that maintain the effort’s momentum (Cohen, 2009). Alaska Airlines successfully implements a sustainable change agent with key performance indicators and measurable metrics to empower employees for broad-based action that allows employees to see how short-term successes within each department turn into long-term growth for the organization. Ben Minicucci manages to integrate universal key metrics that focus on cross-divisional collaboration and alignment to reinforce the actions and interdepartmental communications
A lot of organizations initiate change programs and action plans that vanish after a while but have had, it’s hoped, some impact on performance, even though one cannot be sure. The first challenge when initiating change is to make sure that every employee understands that this business system is not an action plan; it’s a faith that is about what should characterize a really good company, and there are no option to this faith. It is important to put a lot of effort into making everybody understand this (Ahlberg & Nauclér, 2007).
By leading to the change process, you need to create a guiding coalition by assemble an effective group with power and energy throughout the organization. The group of people’s power is come from their expertise, job position, or some other sources.
This paper will focus on a framework in order to enable change. From Johnson & Onwuegbuzie (2004) it can be deduced, that a framework is the general structure and a method is a specific way something is carried out within the framework. The framework that has been chosen is Lewin’s three stage method (Kubr, 2002). According to Kubr (2002) Lewin’s three stage method “unfreezing”, “changing” and “freezing”. Kubr (2002), mentions three forms of change environmental change, organizational change and change in people. The reason why Lewin’s model is so interesting, is because the approach can be used to analyze, understand and bring change at group, organizational and societal level (Austin
The key factors that contribute to divisional decentralised change failure are poor executive sponsorship centrally, resistance from separate divisions to change and having adequate resources to drive change and implementation (Green, 2007). Although, implementing change across decentralised organisations can be communicated effectively as there are less layers of hierarchy to get approvals which can result in decisions being made faster, the structure can also provide a variance of constructive opinions into a change being implemented (Tripathi and Reddy,
The change process within any organization can prove to be difficult and very stressful, not only for the employees but also for the management team. Hayes (2014), highlights seven core activities that must take place in order for change to be effective: recognizing the need for change, diagnosing the change and formulating a future state, planning the desired change, implementing the strategies, sustaining the implemented change, managing all those involved and learning from the change. Individually, these steps are comprised of key actions and decisions that must be properly addressed in order to move on to the next step. This paper is going to examine how change managers manage the implementation of change and strategies used
Once the product life cycle ends, it is up to the project team to help
Change Management is not impossibly difficult. It need detailed planning, including everyone affected, frequent interaction, accomplish a perspicuous target for the change and a method of measuring success, complete the plan, and strengthen the change once it is in place.