Completing a Change Process In the final stage, the transformation slows down on its own. How long does a major change take? It's hard to know. We've found that people in the midst of an organizational transformation frequently declare that they are halfway through the process after a year or so. We've also found that those same people -- after two years and three years -- still judge that their organizations are halfway through the process. Perhaps this is like asking Christopher Columbus how far he had to go to India when his expedition was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Surely he felt he was halfway there because, when he reached the Caribbean islands, he thought he had arrived. Maybe transformation takes much longer than we expect because we discover possibilities we never dreamed of along the way. Once your organization has experienced the acceleration that follows Critical Mass and the slowing that marks the point of Natural Limits, you will know for sure that it's time to bring the transformation project to closure. The transformation runs out of gas when the organization has exhausted its capacity to change. Even if you find this happening while the outside pressures for change still exist, or before you have attained the vision, the best course of action is to allow the organization to stabilize and regain its resilience. In a year or so, if necessary, you can begin the transformation process again to adapt to remaining pressures from the outside world. Management skills are more valuable than ever as the transformation comes to a close. Once the change reaches its Natural Limits, the organization vitally needs the skills of good solid managers to bring order to the chaos. Surprises subside. It's possible to plan and schedule again. Projects get back on schedule. Stabilizing operations is the name of the game. Old systems which have been running parallel with new ones can be taken off line. Great efficiencies are realized. People sense that the storm has passed; they can turn their full attention to their work. Their new skills are maturing and their anxieties are melting away. The organization is once again serving people as a shock absorber; it's no longer jolting them. Curiously, about this time, people begin forgetting that they've changed. New work and new relationships feel natural and normal. They are proud of their accomplishments and they are proud of what their company has become. Some are so protective of the new methods that they argue against improvements or changes. Restore stability, but don't go to sleep. "Good is the enemy of best. Best is the enemy of better." (Slogan from Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award winner, Milliken & Company) Most organizations that face having to make a radical change do so because they became arrogant with their successes and closed themselves to new ideas. Organizations stabilize on their own; they don't need help. Unless there is a clear strategy to keep growing and improving -- to keep adapting to pressures of the outside world -- the company may settle into a course that guarantees the horror of another transformation in the future. Change in the world has been accelerating throughout the 20th century. It's a short step from believing you're the best to believing there's no room for improvement. Watch out. "No Sweat" is bad for business. Install a process for continual organizational renewal. Perhaps the greatest gift of the quality movement to organizational life is the technology of Continuous Process Improvement. While it does not create a needed transformation, this approach stresses constantly finding more effective ways to do the work of the business. It is founded on the belief that a program of disciplined, incremental change is not only more profitable than periodic radical transformation, it allows a company to create the standards that others strive to beat. More traditional scientific management focuses on getting better and better results while still using essentially the same processes. Continual Process Improvement thrives on the ideas and initiatives of the people who do the work. Milliken & Company, the 1989 Baldridge Quality Award winner, received about 800,000 OFI's (Opportunities for Improvement) in 1993 from its nearly 14,000 employees. Most of these ideas were implemented. A traditional management group would choke on so many ideas and approve only a few. At Milliken, an employee discusses the idea with the work team s/he's assigned to and, for the most part, goes back and implements the Opportunity for Improvement. There's nearly no "chain of command" when it comes to improving the way the company does business. The order of the day is "Just do it." Stay Awake. You must consciously plan -- and diligently implement -- new systems to keep your company alive and awake after it stabilizes. Make this part of your change plan from the beginning. Good intentions and strong commitments just won't make it happen. The "OFI" system is the way Milliken keeps itself from dozing off after its radical transformation in the late 1980's. Constant incremental change is a way of life there only because the plan for the new Milliken included this process. Requiring every employee to produce one opportunity for improvement each month may not be the way to go in your company. If not, improve on the idea and find a better way to keep people focused on the way you do business. After the transformation, it's clear that both technical and human aspects of your company have radically changed. To set your organization on the path to continual improvement, be sure that you keep on attending to all facets of the business. Just as production and distribution processes must stay in a constant state of low-grade change to keep up with the world, so must your social systems and business processes. How is the company's relationship with its employees changing? How are management structures changing? How are communication patterns changing? The real leverage for improvement over the decades is not in radical transformation, it's in incremental changes that build and build upon themselves forever. A hundred or a thousand tiny changes are far more powerful than one great one. The people of the company must remain in that central role of "the changers." Because if they find it more rewarding to defend their work methods and the processes they use in their jobs than to improve them, you company has gone to sleep. It may not wake up in time for another transformation. © 1993, 1998 ChangeCraft™ When you are finished
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