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HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT FORUM IN ICT

24TH TO 26TH FEBRUARY 2014

LILONGWE, MALAWI

Creating a level playing field

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“HOW TO DEAL WITH CHANGE AT WORK”.

BY

AVILLA DOROROSA GOBA

HEAD CORPORATE SERVICES

POTRAZ

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AGENDA

• Introduction• Causes and effects of Change • Strategies and Methods for effective

implementation of change in the workplace • Managing resistance/acceptance to change • The Case of Postal & Telecommunications

regulatory authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) • Recommendations/conclusion

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Introduction

Change management is a structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. There are at least three different aspects to change management which are, adapting to change, controlling change and effecting change. A proactive approach to dealing with change is at the core of all three aspects.

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During times of economic instability, organizational change is inevitable. Uncertainty and survival can cause employees to brace themselves for impending changes and a natural resistance can be fully formed by the time the changes are communicated.

INTRODUCTION CONT.

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Change in a workplace is often stressful and it creates feelings of distrust.

Rumors and myths crop in and the whole atmosphere in the workplace is demoralizing and if not checked, this could results in negative energy and production is affected.

Introduction cont.

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Introduction cont.

Terry Paulson, the Author of Paulson on change, quotes uncles’s advice “It’s easiest to ride a horse in the direction it is going” In other words, like water flowing in a river, do not swim against the tide. Learn to use change to your advantage.  

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Examining Causes and effectsof Change

End-of-Life Productsmarket demand for a company's product may diminish after some time. This will then cause the company's profits to drop, and ultimately force the company to abandon the product for a newer source of revenue.

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In other words, when a product reaches the end of its life, the company discontinues it and moves on to something new. When this happens, the company transfers labor and funding to the new product, which may impact on the type of work the company performs and how it operates going forward.

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Government Change

Government employees may find that when a change in government takes place for example, when a new president is elected and consequently a new administration, the new administration may stop certain existing projects. A new government may mean a new political agenda.

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As a result, one of the biggest challenges is that this can completely warp the way the governmental organization conducts its affairs. Such a move may even result in layoffs or redundancies, if two departments are perceived to be doing the same thing.

Mergers and AcquisitionsMergers and acquisitions also cause organizational change. When two companies come together, this usually creates new a structure.

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The acquiring organization may wish to cut the salary bill through layoffs and this is also a change issue that affects employees.

Strategy ChangePressures for change may also arise from a sources within the organization such as adoption of new strategies and technologies. Sometimes, a company may change its priorities.

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For example, an organization might decide to move from focusing on a product to focusing on a service.

This will create a demand for new types of marketing and production, while at the same time requiring a shift in strategy.

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Changes to the business environment can sometimes dramatically impact the way a company makes money. Structural ChangeThere will come a time when an organization overhauls its structure where, the managers and human resources professionals change the way they organize the business resulting in a new structure.

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New methods of accounting, such as going from paper files to electronic files or updating software, will no doubt, cause some change to be introduced. This would require massive retraining for all employees involved. The above examples of change can be grouped as coming from both External and Internal forces. All of these factors combined can trigger massive change.

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However, when change results in major reorganization, plans can be traumatic. Managers have been known to respond to pressures from change, in ways that are ultimately destructive for example, by

• Denying that the change exists

• Resisting the change

• Avoiding the change

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Different stages of change include • Anger where there is realization that the

usual way of doing things is no longer possible

• Insecurity where the usual territory has been invaded and the usual routine is affected,

• dejection where there is feeling that there is no choice but to let go the old ways and conform

• Acceptance where there is no other way but accept this change and begin to reflect on new ways of doing things

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Examining why people Resist Change in an Organization.

According to by Rosabeth Moss Kanter(2012) there are ten most common Reasons People Resist Change and Rosabeth also gives possible ways to manage the resistance.

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Loss of controlChange interferes with autonomy and can make people feel that they’ve lost control over their territory. It’s not just political, as in who has the power. Our sense of self-determination is often the first thing to go when faced with a potential change coming from someone else. Smart leaders leave room for those affected by change to make choices. They invite others into the planning, giving them ownership.

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Excess uncertaintyWhen change feels like walking off a cliff blindfolded, then people will reject it. People will often prefer to remain mired in misery than to head toward an unknown. As the saying goes, “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.” To overcome inertia requires a sense of safety as well as an inspiring vision.

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Leaders should create certainty of process, with clear, simple steps and timetables.Surprise, surprise! Decisions imposed on people suddenly, with no time to get used to the idea or prepare for the consequences, are generally resisted. It’s always easier to say No than to say Yes. Leaders should avoid the temptation to craft changes in secret and then announce them all at once.

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It’s better to plant seeds — that is, to sprinkle hints of what might be coming and seek input.

So its better to avoid surprises

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Everything seems different.Change is meant to bring something different, but how different? We are creatures of habit. Routines become automatic, but change jolts us into consciousness, sometimes in uncomfortable ways. Too many differences can be distracting or confusing. Leaders should therefore try to minimize the number of unrelated differences introduced by a central change

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Wherever possible keep things familiar. Remain focused on the important things; avoid change for the sake of change.

Loss of face. By definition, change is a departure from the past. Those people associated with the last version — the one that didn’t work, or the one that’s being superseded — are likely to be defensive about it.

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When change involves a big shift of strategic direction, the people responsible for the previous direction dread the perception that they must have been wrong. Leaders can help people maintain dignity by celebrating those elements of the past that are worth honouring, and making it clear that the world has changed. That makes it easier to let go and move on.

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Concerns about competence.

Can I do it? Change is resisted when it makes people feel stupid. They might express skepticism about whether the new software version will work or whether digital journalism is really an improvement, but deep down they are worried that their skills will be obsolete. Leaders should over-invest in structural reassurance, providing abundant information, education, training, mentors, and support systems. A period of running two systems simultaneously helps ease transitions.

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More work

Change is indeed more work. Those closest to the change in terms of designing and testing it are often overloaded, in part because of the inevitable unanticipated glitches in the middle of change, per “Kanter’s Law” that “everything can look like a failure in the middle.”

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Leaders should acknowledge the hard work of change by allowing some people to focus exclusively on it, or adding extra pecks for participants (meals?).

Reward and recognize participants — and their families, too, who often make unseen sacrifices.

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Ripple effectsChange creates ripples, reaching distant spots in ever-widening circles. The ripples disrupt other departments, important customers, people well outside the venture or neighborhood, and they start to push back, rebelling against changes they had nothing to do with that interfere with their own activities. Leaders should enlarge the circle of stakeholders. They must consider all affected parties, however distant, and work with them to minimize disruption.

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Past resentmentsThe ghosts of the past are always lying in wait to haunt us. As long as everything is steady state, they remain out of sight. But the minute you need cooperation for something new or different, the ghosts spring into action. Old wounds reopen, historic resentments are remembered — sometimes going back many generations. Leaders should consider gestures to heal the past before sailing into the future.

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Sometimes the threat is real. Now we get to true pain and politics. Change is resisted because it can hurt. When new technologies displace old ones, jobs can be lost; prices can be cut; investments can be wiped out. The best thing leaders can do when the changes they seek pose significant threat is to be honest, transparent, fast, and fair. For example, one big layoff with strong transition assistance is better than successive waves of cuts.

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Effects of Change in an organization Change affects workers in different ways. Some common responses are as follows:• Loss of Self –confidence Change can cause people to feel incompetent, needy and powerless. Leaders should make workers a part of the planning and execution process. Implement a support system to deal with the changes that will occur before, during and after implementation.

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• Confusion Change alters the regular routine of a workplace and often creates chaos.

As managers, leadership skills will be critical in re-establishing formal patters and routines. • Conflict Individuals become attached to

things that they consider the norm and to the stability of their workplace. When change occurs, workers often have difficulty letting off old ways of doing things. Address conflict as it arises and create an open forum for communication where workers can simply deal with interpersonal conflict. www.eap4u

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Strategies and Methods for effective implementation of change in the workplace.

Change program Health Check

Create tension• Is there a clear and compelling reason for

adopting this change program?• Is the objective data needed to convince

the skeptics available?• Do people feel the urgency to change?

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Harness support• Do we know what the motivators for each

stakeholder group are?

• Does the senior executive team support the change?

• Are all the stakeholders engaged in the change process?

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Articulate goals • Do stakeholders take ownership of the vision

and goals?• Are people involved in the devolving the goals

to lower levels of the organization? • Are performance measurements and reporting

systems set up?

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Nominate roles • Are change management and new

operational accountabilities clear?• Are the right people selected for the right

roles?• Are project management principles and

methods being used?

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Grow Capability • Is the training plan sufficiently scoped

and adequately resourced?• Are teams being developed and

supported for high performance?• Is support in place ensuring transfer of

training to the workplace?

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Entrench Changes • Are performance results reported and success

celebrated?• Are rewards and recruitment systems aligned

with the change objectives?• Do managers and supervisors lead by

example?Source: www.businessperform.com

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Managing Resistance or Acceptance to Change

The is need for a Process of Change in an Organization In their book “Blue Ocean Strategy”, W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne cite four hurdles that face a manager trying to institute broad change in an organization. The first is cognitive-people must have some understanding of why the change is strategy or culture is needed. The second is limited resources - Changing an organization will require shifting resources away from some areas and towards others.

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The third is motivation – ultimately workers have to want to make the change.

The fourth hurdle is Organizational politics, a subject that no organization is prepared to discuss yet it is part of the way they get things done!

W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne quote one manager who complaints “In our organization, you get shot down before you stand up”.

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To overcome those hurdles, they suggest a “tipping point” approach to management. Start with people who have

disproportionate influence in the organization. Get them committed to change, failure that, get them out.

Once they are committed to change, shine a spotlight on their accomplish so others get the message.

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Second, look for ways to get people to experience the harsh realities that make it necessary to change. E.g. requiring managers to take calls from disgruntled customers

Third Look for ways to redistribute resources towards “hot spots” i.e. activities that require few resources but result in large change.

Move away from “cold spots” or areas with large resources demands but relatively low impact.

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Finally, W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne advocate appointing a highly respected insider who knows who is fighting you, who is supporting you and what you need to do to build coalitions and devise strategies for change.

There is also need to create a task force after identifying employees strengths and consider creating new groups with a tailored mix of talents. e.g.

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Mix employees with different experience levels.

Young team members may provide energy and optimism

Veterans may provide insight from past experience

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For brainstorming, Consider creating a plant packed “green” room or exterior garden where workers can spend an hour a week with nothing but a blank pan and pencil.

Allow flexible schedules, few meetings, and interdisciplinary project teams

Allow people to work from home at times.

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For teamwork, eliminate exclusive looking private office suites and assign everyone work stations in close proximity to jump – start communication.Create amenities like office gym Appoint a Change Agent to lead or guide the process of a change in an organization. In every situation where change is required, some person or group must be designated as the catalyst for change.

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Change agents can be members of the organization or consultants from outside the organization.

A consultant from outside may be more suitable for a complex lengthy change programme. Outsiders with no vested interest in the organization are often more likely to be confided in, listened to and able to form objective judgments.

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The Advantages & Disadvantages of a Change in an Organization Advantages• Depending on the leader, an organization led

by a flexible leader does well with crisis management. Whether a natural disaster occurs, or there is unexpected violence in the workplace, a change-oriented leader responds to the unexpected happenings in step, and implements necessary measures to deal with the crisis.

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• A change-oriented leadership responds well to valuable input from workers or members of a group. If employees or members of a group see an area where change would advance their productivity, a change-oriented leader is ready to try a new way of doing things.

• A change-oriented leader is always ready to adjust focus to meet new demands, such as for a new product or service.

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Disadvantages• When leaders are making frequent changes

in policy and practice, employees can get confused.

• If there is not frequent clarification of new goals and ways of doing things, members of the group can become frustrated and disillusioned by too many changes.

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• Also, because a group's goals are often intertwined, the decision to make a change in one area to improve the chances of meeting one particular goal might undermine the achievement of another goal.

• Being change-oriented demands that a leader be well tuned into all the goals of the company, so that she/he can be wise about changes and understand their implications before making them.

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The Case of Postal & telecommunications regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ)

POTRAZ became operational in Year 2001

Statutory Body established by the Postal and Telecommunications Act [Cap 12:05]

Dual Regulator (Posts & Telecoms)Self – Financing

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• POTRAZ is in the process of implementing change of its performance management system. We are changing from using the Balance Score Card to the Results based management system (RBM).

• The new version of the Strategic plan builds upon the Strategic planning process undertaken in May 2012 and was reviewed in line with the Results Based Management system being implemented by the Government of Zimbabwe.

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• This Results Based Strategic Plan sought to communicate POTRAZ’s vision, mission, key result areas, goals, impacts, outcomes strategies, major programmes and projects and direction to its employees, clients, stakeholders and partners.

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• It also established a road map of the strategic results, programmes, projects and activities that POTRAZ will focus on in the medium term. The initiatives from this strategic plan will be assessed to see if they are achieving the anticipated results.

• The strategic plan will be used to inform POTRAZ’s budgets, performance contracts and annual work and performance monitoring plans during the plan period.

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How did POTRAZ do it? • Selected a team of 46 participants from Officer

Level upwards and went for strategic review.

• An external consultant who is an expert in the RBM system was appointed to lead the process and train the group on RBM.

• The group spent five days at some place away from the office.

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• On return and after the training, the Heads of Departments and their respective team members proceeded to finalise the Departmental Integrated Performance Agreements (DIPA) and Performance Monitoring Evaluation Framework (PMEF) which were signed off by the Acting Director General.

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• By the middle of 2013, The RBM was used to assess performance for the Heads of Departments and all Direct reports as a pararrel process because the RBM had not yet been fully cascaded to the rest of the workers.

• A year later, this January 2014, the team

had to break away for a retreat to check on progress of implementation of the RBM.

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• The Strategy review was also meant to comply with a change where Government decided to role out RBM to all public sector organizations.

• The Government of Zimbabwe introduced the Zimbabwe Agenda For sustainable socio-Economic Transformation

(ZIM ASSET) in October 2013 – December 2018 “in pursuit of new trajectory of accelerated economic growth and wealth creation”.

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• ZIM ASSET was crafted to achieve sustainable development and social equity anchored on empowerment and employment creation. It was signed off by His Excellency our President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The Office of the President and Cabinet will play a leading and coordinated role as overseer of the implementation process to ensure attainment of set targets.

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• We took the necessary steps to revisit any changes to our Strategic Plan document so that it would align with the ZIM ASSET.

• We managed to work on our Strategy document as a team of Officers and managers, the same team that had been involved in crafting our Strategy for 2013 to 2018.

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• We also came up with a Strategy Team comprising of selected individuals from various departments whose Term of reference as agreed will be to:

• Review and finalise the strategy document • Communicate/ Disseminate any changes • Quality check• Produce the final strategy document • Custody of Final document to be centralised for

distribution purposes as and when need arises

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In order to work effectively and more efficiently, the team also agreed to

• meet weekly on Fridays to finalise the document

• Submit team assignments by Mid-March

• Submit DIPA and PMEF by Friday the 21st February 2014

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• Frequency of meetings there after – Quarterly on Fridays

• Besides Reviewing our strategy document, the Head of HR and Manager Finance have been selected to attend training of trainers (TOT) for RBM so that they in turn also train some employees in POTRAZ and other parastals.

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• The Strategy change was spearheaded by current Acting Director General and this made implementation easer and buy in much better for the rest of the Team.

• Involving an External facilitator resulted in objectivity in the manner the change process took place.

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• The Head of Human Resources took advantage of the situation as a change Agent to have a Team building Workshop back to back with the RBM training.

• Prior to that, it was so difficult to get the

team together for a team building workshop.

• Results are still to be felt because we are still in the process of implementing the change.

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• So far the buy in has been very good and the team building workshop produced soccer players that POTRAZ was not aware of.

• The team building workshop brought employees closer together because everyone was at some stage playing at a level playing field.

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Recommendation/Conclusion

Having articulated some issues to do with what Change is all about, the reasons for change, challenges to do with change. One can simply summaries that, change in an organization requires. Involvement of people affected by the

change

Buy in from the top management

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Communication, communication communication.

Appointment of Change Agents OR Teams

Allocating Resources both Human and Financial

Implementation

Monitoring and Evaluation.

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Conclusion

I quote ‘’It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change’’Charles Darwin

‘‘Change is not change until it changes’’. Julie Madondo

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References James A. F. Stoner and R. Edward Freeman: Management fourth edition Alan Murray, published by Harper Business. “The Wall Street Journal Guide in Management” Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe:” Zimbabwe Agenda For sustainable socio-Economic Transformation (ZIM ASSET)Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe: “Postal and Telecommunications Act [Chapter 12.05]”Kottler International.com Curtis W. Cook: Phillil L. Hunsaker (2001) “Management and Organizational Behaviour” Third EditionJames F.Cox, III: Michael S. Spencer (2000) “The Constraints Management Handbook”, The St. Lucie/APICS Series on Constraints Management www.ehow.com/waymanaging-change-workplacewww.ehow.com/waywww.businessperform.comwww.Bnet.comwww.ehow.com/info

THANK YOU TINOTENDA