achieving long lasting change? When are these factors at their most and least influential?
Our research study
The study consisted of in-depth interviews with executives from 13 manufacturing companies which had sustained a change initiative in their business. The duration of the change initiative varied from a minimum of 1.5 years to 6.5 years and all were still ongoing. We felt these periods of time would be of an appropriate duration to justify a change initiative being called ‘sustained’.
Findings: four key change skills The research findings suggest that most of the factors had a role to play in sustaining change, but their influence varied depending on the stage of the change programme. Four factors stood out most strongly, but they often differed in when they had most influence. Some of these factors were most influential at the start of the change, others as the change continued. Based on the analyses, the top skill areas were: • Leadership skills • Political skills • Managerial skills • Individual employees’ skills.
In the next section we discuss each of these four skills in more detail, indicating when they are most important and when least. The quotes illustrate what the change leaders we interviewed had to say on these subjects.
Leadership skills – important throughout change Perhaps unsurprisingly, leadership came out as a very important common factor to successfully sustaining change at all stages within each of
the programmes that were researched. It is well documented that at the start of any change initiative leaders must set out a vision which is both inspiring and makes sense to people; a vision that people feel motivated to follow. Leadership is an active process of staying in touch and listening and our findings indicate that leadership remains highly influential in sustaining change. As an operations director of a cement products company said, “Change doesn’t stop after the initial stages”; and as a production manager in a petrochemical business remarked, “We [The director’s team] just go around and talk and talk and talk – we promote like crazy. It’s the three key specialists [our team] that bring the rest to life”. In many of the organisations we questioned, senior leaders had been replaced by new personalities and this brought vital fresh perspectives and ideas; seven of the 13 companies were so affected. A plant controller in a vehicle accessories business said, “The original leadership team has changed [while the change programme has been ongoing]. The people that left were all promoted within the group. The changes refreshed the initiative. We are still challenged continually by the company. The new plant manager for example had the idea to remove some support functions…just fresh eyes”.
Political skills – important in the early stages Managing and leading change is a political process and in the change processes we researched, political skills were most influential in the early stages rather than throughout the programme. Such skills involved leveraging power, influencing people, building relationships and developing reputations and also dealing with conflicts. Indeed, the most important focus for political activity was getting stakeholder commitment early,
Reference
1 Buchanan, D., Fitzger- ald, L., Ketley, D., Gollop, R., Jones, J., Sharon Saint, L., Neath, A. and Whitby, E (2005). ‘No going back: A re- view of the literature on sustaining organi- zational change’, Internation- al Journal of Man- agement Reviews, Vol 7, No 3, pp 189-205.
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