There is general agreement that the past few decades have seen a paradigm shift in business organization. Flexibility and mobility have replaced predictability and stability as core values in today’s business environment. As a young non-profit organization, Leadership Kaua‘i understands the need to establish a strong foundation that has the ability to maneuver through change in order to achieve success.
In four short years, Leadership Kaua‘i’s services have tripled in size from its initial annual adult program to increasing its commitment to three youth leadership/career oriented programs. The organization’s student driven community projects have taken on energies of their own and our alumni base is growing at a strong pace each year. All of this can be attributed to the Leadership Kaua‘i founders who had the insight of natural process, dedicated employees, the willingness of its students and supporters to take action because of their love for Kaua‘i, our founder’s insight, and recognizing the dynamics of change specifically on our island.
Most organizational changes appear to come from above, but they are by no means successfully implemented without the collaboration of all. They succeed or fail, in the sense that somebody has to start “pushing,” although subtly. According to Beer, Eisenstat, and Spector (1992), local behavior will not change automatically because the head office announces change programs, training courses, quality programs, and so on; only the formal organization changes. A different stacking of the building blocks of the organization is no guarantee that the behavioral patterns of the employees in those blocks will change. Keeping the old working methods in place perpetuates the old organization. It is wrong to assume that the formal organization (structure) and the informal organization (work and behavior) are separate systems.
Changing means learning, and the only way this can occur meaningfully is in concrete situations. Change does not result from general attitudes or knowledge, but from the way people behave at work. Because behavior depends on where a person is embedded in the organization (i.e., his or her role), any attempt to change behavior must start by placing the person in a new organizational setting, creating a new environment with different requirements, or assigning a new set of competencies conducive to effective operation.
The following is a six-step plan for changing organizations proposed by Beer et al. (1992):
1. Mobilize involvement in the process of change by means of a joint (workers and management) opinion of the issues facing the organization. Let people explain what they think is wrong and what needs to be done.
2. Develop a joint vision of organizational and managerial requirements that will lead to a strong competitive position. This diagnosis is, in effect, task-oriented medication.
3. Ensure that there is consensus on the new vision; make sure its implementation is understood by all; and ensure that there is cohesion so as to guarantee continuity. This requires three things: Strong leadership from local management, sufficient support from training programs and other areas, and the resolve to replace people who cannot or will not change, after they have been given an opportunity to prove themselves.
4. Expand the change to all departments or designations without exerting pressure from above. Allow each department or designation to “reinvent the wheel” if necessary.
5. Institutionalize the change in the form of formal policies, systems, and structures.
6. Evaluate strategies and adjust them to solve problems in the change process.
On an individual level, all significant change involves giving up something of your former self, and all losses must be grieved. Whenever a major change takes place, we lose something. It may be the loss of a relationship, an office, or a lesson we loved to teach. Even if we want the change, we still feel the loss. A loss that remains ungrieved keeps us stuck in the past, unable to fully commit to the present. This is similar to how people grieve death. We learn something through the grieving stages of: 1. Denial, 2. Anger, 3. Bargaining, 4. Letting go, 5. Acceptance.
Movement through the stages is similar to that of an organization going through systemic change. Progress is not linear, and it is possible for people to become stuck in a stage or skip a stage completely. Some may even work backward or appear to move in circles. In organizations, resistance may come from losses that have not been grieved. In the absence of grieving, the staff may hold on to elements of the old and not be able to fully embrace the new.
The economic downturn is indiscriminate. Every tax bracket, income level, business, organization, community, culture and family has and will continue to feel the effects of this decline. More than ever, there is an urgent need to support local businesses, organizations and one another. As each of us struggle with how we will continue our work, our livelihood and the building of our dreams, we must be mindful that with change, brings opportunity for growth and implementing more efficient practices. Let us remember that the first step in order to succeed at this feat is that we must first be open to the change that can possibly occur. Retaining a positive attitude to organizational change will be imperative in the success of any institution.
• Mason Chock is the executive director for Leadership Kaua‘i and can be reached at mason@leadershipkauai.org
