NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

IN PRAISE OF INDIA'S MOST SEASONED
CHANGE MANAGERS
GANESH CHELLA
Ganesh Chella is a
product of XLRI and has
over 16 years of industry
experience in leading
Indian and multinational
companies including
Cadburys, TVS, Citibank
and RPG and over seven
years of consulting
experience. Deeply
committed to the
development of the
Human Resources
profession, Ganesh
teaches, writes and
engages in research. His
current consulting
practice provides him
with immense
opportunity to make
significant contribution
to the profession and to
his client organizations.
It also provides him with
the opportunity to learn,
experiment and grow as
a professional.
He is the founder & CEO
of totus consulting and
the co-founder of the
Executive & Business
Coaching foundation
India Limited. Totus is a
strategic HR consulting
firm that partners with
organizations across
industries to design and
implement Human
Resource and
organization
Development solutions
that meet their unique
business needs.
Arul has just closed the call. He looks
at his watch and realizes that it is
9.30 pm and there is a lot more in
store for him in the evening. He has
to send out a couple of mails, debrief
his manager about this call and
also find time for small things like
and asking his little daughter how
she fared in her first quarterly
exams in the new school. These are
'however' not the things that are
going to keep him awake that night.
Not his daughter's disappointment,
not the significant changes in the
client's specifications. He was to
have convinced the client to release
two of his more senior resources
from the project to help staff other
needs and more importantly to
conform to the new staffing mix
norms established by the
organization in the interest of project
profitability. This did not happen
since the client turned down the
request. He will now need to try
again. Being a seasoned Project
manager in this large software
services company, Arul has seen it
all. He has now evolved a very
effective coping strategy - he just
does not think about the big picture
and worry himself about all the
future changes and accompanying
challenges. He takes one ball at a
time and manages to field it well.
Welcome to the everyday life of a
project manager in a software
company. If you thought the best
change managers in India are OD
consultants with business and
behavioral credentials and the
ability to deploy multiple tools,
technologies and techniques you
are quite off the mark. The most
seasoned change managers are
actually the hundreds of project
managers who work round the
clock to deliver value and keep the
engines of growth alive.
This article is meant to recognize
their efforts in making change
management an integral part of the
way they live their lives. This
special issue on Change
Management would in many ways
be incomplete if we did not
recognize and honor their efforts on
the ground. Obviously, it is not that
they know it all and do it the best
way but they certainly "DO IT!"
In writing this article I have relied
on my insights gained from
interactions and discussions with
hundreds of project managers and
other leaders in the IT services
Organizations I have had to
opportunity to work with across
several OD and HR consulting
engagements.
IT is all about change
Every mature profession in the
world helps its aspiring members
to imbibe and demonstrate the key
behavioral requirements of the
profession even before they
commence work. Some call this presocialization.
For example, no one
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November 2007 NHRD Journal