Research undertaken by the CIPD since 1998 has shown that the pace of organisational change and development is accelerating, with large companies undergoing a major change every three years, whilst change also happens on a continuous basis. With this growing complexity, the ‘hard stuff’ of organisations – structure and so on – needs to be integrated with the ‘soft’ – culture and the like. Organisational structures develop to reflect the changing nature of the results and performance required and the changing needs of the customer.

Organisational development and change must involve the people - it must not be imposed upon the people

You cannot impose change - people and teams need to be empowered to find their own solutions and responses, This can be achieved through facilitation and support from managers and tolerance and compassion from the leaders and executives. Employees need to be able to trust the organisation.

The responsibility of the process tends to fall with the senior management team, and the responsibility of this role is to facilitate and enable change. It is especially important to understand the situation from an objective standpoint (to 'step back', and be non-judgemental), and then to help people understand reasons, aims, and ways of responding positively according to employees' own situations and capabilities.

This role requires an "independent" and "non-judgemental" facilitator, and  it is at this stage when an executive coach/consultant is essential to manage the change process.

The most effective use of a coach is when the company incorporates the coach into its strategic initiatives.

Organisational development and change management entails thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation, and above all, consultation with, and involvement of, the people affected by the changes. If you force change on people normally problems arise. Change must be realistic, achievable and measurable. These aspects are especially relevant to managing personal change.

Basic Development and change management principles - precise approaches will vary according to the circumstances, but will broadly cover the following stages:

• Understand where you/the organisation is at the moment.

• At all times involve and agree support from people within the business (environment, processes, culture, relationships, behaviours, etc., whether personal or organisational).

• Understand where you want to be, when, why, and what the measures will be for having got there.

• Plan development towards above in appropriate achievable measurable stages.

• Help members of the organisation to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to solve problems by involving them in the change process.

• Promote high performance including financial returns, high quality products and services, high productivity, continuous improvement and a high quality of working life.

• Communicate, involve, enable and facilitate involvement from people, as early and openly and as fully as is possible.

• Deliver the change

• Evaluate (measure the effectiveness of the intervention).

These principles can even be applied to very tough changes like making people redundant, closures and integrating merged or acquired organisations. Bad news needs even more careful management than routine change. Hiding behind memos and middle managers will make matters worse. Consulting with people, and helping them to understand does not weaken your position - it strengthens it. Leaders who fail to consult and involve their people in managing bad news are perceived as weak and lacking in integrity. Treat people with respect and they will reciprocate 

A change that entails new actions, objectives and processes for a group or team of people, is by utilising "workshops" facilitated by a coach as they are an ideal forum to achieve understanding, involvement, plans, measurable aims, actions and commitment. Workshops are very useful processes to develop collective understanding, approaches, policies, methods, systems, ideas, etc.

Our workshops are highly interactive, ensuring maximum input from the team and will flush out issues and areas of potential resistance.

Client testimonial:

Finance Director, Thomas Cook - 'In merging two Airline finance teams and introducing new staff, we needed to start to build a single team focus and at the same time actively encourage an open and constructive sharing of ideas.

With Jaqui's help and facilitation, on the day, we delivered an event where the members of the new team really engaged with each other, began to share what was important to the success of the department and started to identify with each other as "one" team.

We found Jaqui's ideas and role in the planning and delivery of the event invaluable. It was a great success and is still discussed now some months after the event.

To find out more please click here to contact us.