Transformational Change Management in Large Enterprises

Transformational Change Management is a complicated endeavor fraught with a multitude of challenges. Successfully implementing transformational change management means knowing how to lead an organization through significant modifications of company processes, direction, and other critical operational elements. Transformation change leaders are not only responsible for guiding and streamlining these great changes but must also provide substantial support of employee and stockholder morale while dealing with unexpected internal and external interference. Regardless of why the transformation change is needed, management team implementing these massive changes should be involved in proactive adjustments intended to begin promoting transformation to an organization’s direction months or even years before the actual transformation. Reasons for engaging in preemptive strategies relating to a transformational change in larger enterprises include:

• To ensure employees and stockholders these changes are necessary to ensure the continuation of company accomplishments and are not the reactive, i.e., desperate approaches to adverse conditions within the enterprise.
• To allow everyone involved time to understand and assimilate the changes coming to their workplace. Integral to introducing transformational change before it occurs is the ability for managers overseeing transformation change to keep employees inspired, motivated and interested (if not excited) about embracing new objectives.
• To reinforce and improve existing communication pathways so that transformation changes are considered as visionary changes, rather than simply structural, inorganic changes. Endeavoring to align employees and stockholders with the same vision and goals requires managers to be no less than judiciously omniscient and highly cognizant of the feedback they are receiving from meetings, surveys, etc.

Initiation of Transformational Change Management in Large Enterprises

Establishing long-term, effective results of monumental changes that are beneficial, practical and sustainable requires a period of introduction, a period of testing, a period of explanation and a time of acceptance. Management should also understand that employees at all levels need time to discard existing attitudes, behaviors and mindsets before they can feel comfortable enough to move on to new perspectives associated with the change. In many cases, it would be beneficial for organizational change management to consider seeking professional assistance with training, communications, employee engagement and OCM programs.

Creating a strategic flowchart or another diagram that concretely defines the stages of a change process also supports the ability of the organization to implement any future changes involving transformational modifications. The unfolding of metamorphic changes should be perceived as objectively as possible to ensure managers recognize things that work and things that don’t work. Also, remaining committed to seeing all planned changes achieved from start to finish is essential to enjoying a fruitful and stable outcome.

The Burke-Litwin Transformational Change Management Model

Revolving around establishing and defining cause-and-effect correlations between 12 different company dimensions, the Burke-Litwin change model asserts the external environment is the most influential factor instigating the need for transformation change. In fact, the external, or competitive, environment is what forces big business to reconstruct their internal architecture and reform their goals/mission, leadership strategies, and operational methods.

The 12 dimensions comprising the gist of the Burke-Litwin TCM model include:

• External environment
• Plans and purposes (defined by managers and examined about employee and stockholder points of view)
• Structure of leadership (precisely identifies primary leaders/role models in an organization)
• Policies, procedures, and systems (how existing and future modifications will change the enterprise as a whole entity)
• Management protocols (asks the question: how well do managers adhere to current practices concerning interaction with employees?)
• Employee perspectives (work unit climate)
• Skills, Tasks and positional demands (are employees provided with enough information to perform their job as optimally as possible?)
• Individual employee needs and values (explores employee opinions concerning job expectations and satisfaction)
• Motivational levels of employees (are they ready to adapt to and aspire to completion of a transformational change?)
• Performance metrics (how well do the organization and its managers excel in promoting quality, productivity, and efficiency?)

Embedded within this transformation change management model are characteristics managers should have to ensure their organization’s transformation is assimilated and accepted. The ability to impart the importance of achieving attainable goals, to implement projects producing substantial results and to instill a sense of dedication and passion for all members involved with a transformational change are essential characteristics of a successful change management group.

Resistance to Transformational Change and How Managers Can Effectively Reduce Resistance

Instead of viewing resistance to transformation change as negative, management should try to use resistance as a unifying force for resolving conflicts that inevitably occur before, during and after the modification. Cognitive, emotional and behavioral resistance are the three dimensions of organizational resistance that need to be perceived as “feedback” instead of friction. Management involved in transformational changes must find ways to redirect resistance energy into positive dynamics leverageable for streamlining diverging perspectives into converging perspectives.

The Bottom Line

Transformational change management in large enterprises succeeds when managers develop preventive, well-prepared decisions according to the quantitative and qualitative data gathered from past company performance and future expectations. Deficiencies occurring after a change is almost always the result of inefficient use of resources, whether those resources our employees, budget allocations or even professional advisers that can offer deep insight and industry acumen regarding large-scale transformation changes to sizable organizations.

CIOPages.com offers several change management deliverables to manage change. Please contact us if you need any advisory or consulting services help to orchestrate transformational change management.