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

Gaining commitmentCultural changeIt became apparent that not everyone was dissatisfied with the statusquo. People were a little unclear about the desirability of some of thechanges, and some of the more impractical aspects of the proposedchanges were accentuated. The senior management team by now hadextended the members of the guiding coalition to involve a critical massof 85 ‘strategy leaders’. It was their task to reinforce the need to change,and to develop a clarity of vision that could be translated into tangibleobjectives and behaviours throughout the organization.This translation process occurred over several months, and became aniterative process with all staff. Conversations were had, which set outwhat the managers wanted to see but involved staff at the front linetalking through the practicalities. This process raised some points aboutthe original thinking which needed amending, and enabled staff to get amuch better idea of what was required of them.Breaking the mouldThe transition from the old to the new was effectively dealt with by thegood use of programme management, led by the senior managementteam, and supported by a specially constituted change managementteam. Feedback loops to and from key stakeholders including staff werean integrated part of the process.The generation of a set of values which were translated intobehavioural imperatives, coupled with values workshops with all staff,set a benchmark for the organizational culture. The values helped tominimize organizational politics by encouraging ‘straight talk’. This wasimpressively role modelled by the senior management team and thechange management team, who were open and honest with both goodnews and bad.A key aspect of the new way of doing things was the openness to ideaswherever they came from and the development of an enabling and empoweringculture. Creativity, risk taking and learning were encouraged throughthe co-option of diagonal slices of staff onto change initiative workinggroups and by scheduled reviews throughout the transition period.Self-esteem and performance can drop during periods of change. In asense this is unavoidable – a natural and normal reaction to changeaffecting individuals (see Chapter 1). Key interventions here included273