It Is Advisable To Avoid Deferring Solutions To Continually Escalating Change Oriented Challenges

By Mwangi Wanjumbi – Newtimes B. S. CEO & Chief Consultant/Trainer
One of the greatest organizational challenges is change resistance. The world is changing; technology is changing; the competition is now and then taking new dimensions; social cultural dynamics are also impacting heavily on consumers and employees as well. Actually, the business environment is so volatile,  such that it inevitably demands strategic approaches of making the best out of the same. But what is happening in organizations? Are people changing to align with the dynamics of this business environment?

If you held that people are largely not changing, you could be right. But, why is it that they are not changing? Needless, to venture into the intricate details, change resistance is a topical issue in every organization. People want to remain in comfort zones. They are at ease doing what they are familiar with even when the change would have brought more benefits.

One key reason why people may not change is that they imagine and seriously fear that change will come with more change. This situation is refereed to as the ripple effect which can easily be explained. If you put water in a basin and then throw a small pebble in the middle, water flows outwards, sometimes in beautiful or violent waves depending on the force applied. Change works in the same way. Little changes bring even bigger changes.

When personal computers were first introduced in organizations, the typewriter and calculators were the main desktop equipment of those days. The typewriter was obviously the tool of trade for the secretary, while the calculator was largely used by the accountant. With increased use of the personal computer, the typewriter was largely driven to the archives, whereas the secretary’s job started losing clout.

The calculator too lost favors and was easily replaced by computers. Jobs were lost whereas others were created. Training institutions were closed whereas others were opened. Training and re-training became the new order. Thus new doors were opened whereas others were closed. Is this not how opportunities and threats to progress present themselves?

Alongside, there are those who voluntarily or otherwise decided to associate only with the closing of doors. They were therefore unable to flex themselves, embrace and become part of the transformation. Are they still relevant?

That brings to mind a 2008 published article on organizational culture change that I had written. It was inspired by some revelations made by a HRM. Their organization had experienced an elaborate organizational culture change program. But, 6 or so months thereafter, they were “yet to meet and lay down strategies”, on how to “implement” the training process. Really? Is the training not supposed to be a project of piloting new habits meant to be in practice immediately thereafter?

Another case has also come up in the recent past. Organizational teams spent two whole days training, in a countryside hotel. They did exercises to cement the learning experience. They laughed, joked, ate and enjoyed themselves. Four months thereafter, all that had been forgotten.

Despite being taught new skills, they had quickly melted back into their old ways of doing things. This led to complaints from the management. So, the concerned trainer decided to seek the views of this writer who is also a trainer of trainers. Besides, he has vast wealth of experience on organizational behavior, which borrows further from the company of the year award consulting exploits, since 2006.

Eventually, it emerged that the skills were no doubt renewed. But sadly, the mental attitudes or largely the soft skills remained the same. Prodded further, they were not part of the terms of reference. Should they have been or are they ever part of the TOR? Further, is everybody proficient in moderation of people’s attitudes?

Actually, continued research and experiences indicate that employee attitudes which sometimes unpredictably oscillate between positive and negative, based on prevailing situations, can be great impediments to change as well as progress in most organizations. This is even worse especially in our part of the world, whereby our guiding philosophies are said to be peculiar.

If unattended, attitudes challenges can easily drown or retard whole organizations. It is the same attitudes or mental pictures that lead organizational management to continue postponing problems, citing one reason or the other. When small problems are postponed, they end up becoming huge mountains of challenges. Can you recall the parking bay or gridlock that used to be known as Thika Road?

Recent informal research which borrows widely from an already published international research as well as company of the year award consulting exploits yield a gleam picture. The research indicates that organizations yet to embrace modern global organizational culture could,  unknowingly be similar to the said Thika Road gridlock situation. They could be as clogged as can be imagined, and are in addition continually losing unexploited potential.

Nonetheless, management principles indicate that we can easily solve gigantic challenges presented by change. However, we need to break them up into small components.  If there are communications or team work challenges for example, get the right expertise. Ensure that all the pillars of behavioral change will be adequately sorted out.

Our unique behavior and skills overhaul through organizational culture change/employee re-branding easily transforms organizations from the Thika road situation to the New Thika Superhighway scenario. The latter is too efficient for many Kenyan motorists, to the extent of becoming a killer road. However, rejuvenated organizations do not harm themselves. Instead, they become serious threats to their competitors..

Incidentally, attitude moderation coupled with the necessary paradigm shifts largely drive our 2- 3 day as well as organizational change training solutions. That is why we embrace this daring and quite peculiar approach of giving money back guarantees, with regard to delivering our promise. Interesting, isn’t it?