Change Management in the 21st Century

Change Management for the 21st century must adaptchange.
to meet the needs of a challenging economy and aResearch has also shown that sustained change
workforce that is very insecure. Most businesses andmanagement initiatives have been the result of
organizations have been faced with the challenges ofcreating engagement and passion in all employees
cut-backs, lay-offs, and down-sizing, which has led to aregarding that change. This passion and engagement is
general insecurity and fear among most people stillnot produced when people are told of the benefits that
employed of any hint of change within an organization.the change will bring to the business or organization.
The challenge then for leaders is to create a positiveEngagement is produced when staff learn of the
environment for change management using differentbenefits that will be brought to them, their family, their
techniques and methods than have been usedcommunity or their world. In other words, in the 21st
previously.century it is important to recognize that "what is in it for
In the current climate of employee uncertainty theme?" is a reality that must be addressed prior to
success of sustaining change within an organization isdiscussing what is in it for the company.
dependent on the passion and engagement of allIn a holistic approach of implementing sustainable
employees within the organization for successfulchange management initiatives it is critical that the
change. To that end there are some steps that canultimate result of the change have a benefit to more
effectively reduce the 80% failure rate researchthan the profit margin of the company. Staff must feel
shows occurs in organizations attempting to implementthat the change will benefit their immediate community
change initiatives. In the past, the vision of what aof co-workers or a broader group and that it is
change would produce was the first discussion itemimportant enough to make the effort and sustainability
that appeared on the check list for changeof change worthwhile.
management implementation. This has now takenA recent Gallop Poll showed that employees who are
second place.engaged and passionate are 86% more likely to have
The first and most important item is identifying thebetter customer service numbers, there is significantly
need for change and communicating that need to allless staff turnover, staff are 70% more likely to be
employees in the organization. This is a deviation fromhighly productive and a company is likely to be 44%
the past practice of only including employees directlymore profitable. These numbers alone make
affected by an initiative in the initial discussionsimplementing change management with techniques
regarding implementation of change. The reason forthat create passion and engagement in employees
including all employees from the very beginning is veryvaluable to a successful business.
simple. All employees are affected by change withinThe steps for implementing holistic change
an organization, whether it is directly or indirectly andmanagement initiatives begin with clearly identifying the
because of the current insecurity felt by mostneed for change and clearly communicating that need
employees in businesses it is important that theyto all employees in face-to-face meetings that allow
become as passionate about the need for a change,them to share questions and concerns freely and
and engaged in sustaining it, as those employees thatopenly in a non-threatening environment. We will be
are directly affected. In addition, it has been learneddiscussing other steps to creating successful and
through research that change management initiativessustainable change management initiatives in future
have frequently failed because employees not directlyarticles.
affected by the initiative reacted negatively to the