Nothing is more scary for people than change. Nothing is more capable of causing failures, declining productivity and quality. However, nothing is more important to business than change.
History has shown that businesses that do not change die. Equally dangerous, however, can prove to be a company when it changes continuously without properly managing changes. The extent of people’s resistance to change is determined by how good or bad they are seeing the change, and how powerful they think it will be to “bang” them.
The final acceptance of change depends on the size of the resistance and the quality of its changeover skills, as well as its support system. The Human Resources Manager’s job is to look at the resistances from all sides within the company, and to plan with the help of the Human Resources department a support system for the worker so that fear and resistances are kept to a minimum manageable level.
The Market is fluid. Businesses are changing their focus, expanding or downsizing their businesses, and reviewing their products and services. Many businesses today are in the midst of many changes and developments, both at the level of Human Resources and service changes, shaped by market trends and challenges, and aiming to improve the conditions of market movement, to facilitate their clients and training, exploitation and development of their staff.
Effective leadership: The right leaders are ready and able to manage change to ensure common goals and at the same time gain the dedication and commitment of their people before and after the changes.
Empowerment: It is important to empower the heads of departments and they in turn strengthen their teams, enhancing direct and two-way communication for quick problem solving and the smooth running of a company.
Communication: Human Resources Managers need to know how to communicate with business people so that there is a two-way communication with employees and active participation in making changes. The people of a business need to know the company’s tradition, its goals, what’s going on and why it’s done.
Motivation: What makes a business strong? Dynamic leaders motivating their teams to strive for the best and achieve results. Leaders set goals and, with the help of Human Resources Managers, communicate with their people to know what they need to do to make the dream come true and push the business in the right direction. By defining the conditions of change before, HR managers are flexible enough to adapt when needed.
Often, organizations know exactly what changes they have to make, but they do not know how to do it. Ideally, change is managed in a planned and methodical manner to meet the needs of both the organization and the people. The business dimension of the change process involves recognizing the need, the goal of change and the solution design (process, systems and organization structure).
Research has shown that problems with the human dimension of change are what are usually responsible for the failure of a change process. Through your participation in the seminar, you will be able to manage more effectively the basic elements of the human dimension of change:
• Understanding the need for change.
• Willingness to participate in change and support.
• Knowing how to change.
• Ability to apply change on a daily basis.
• Support to maintain change.
Lefteris Kakavoulis, MBA
