cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

RestructuringTo prevent the rumour mill growing it is important that communicationis timely, and reaches each of the chosen communities at the agreedtime. Start–stop–start again communications do not help either. A continuingflow of communication will engender more confidence in thechange process.Implementation processThe complexity of the restructuring task is often underestimated.Timescales are often not met. Staff directly affected by the change andpotentially facing redundancy are subjected to undue stress because thewhole process takes too long to complete.Managing people’s expectations is key. If you announce a plan, it needsto be adhered to, or changes to plan clearly communicated.Supporting mechanismsIn order to make the restructuring as smooth aspossible and ensure that the new structure gets upand running quickly, a number of support mechanismsneed to be in place.Visible managerial supportA key response of people going through theprocess is that their management was often ineffectualat managing change during this period.This is not necessarily the manager’s fault. Manyexperience having to go through a selection process for themselves, manydo not seem to get adequately briefed as to the nature of the changes, andsome either lose their jobs or get appointed into new positions and so donot or cannot provide the necessary support through change.Management styles across an organization can also be variable. Oftenthere is a reduced management visibility at these times rather than anincreased visibility.People can see a restructure as just that – a change in structure, ratherthan an internal realignment that would help them and the businessfocus on, for example, their customers and with a different way of doingthings. It is the role of the manager to translate the purpose of the restructureinto an understandable and viable way of doing things differently.207