Strategies For Managing Change - Do Or Die? How to Survive the Recession

Of all the strategies for managing change, in the current climate the only one that really matters is staying in the game. So the only current certainty is that there is no certainty. This really does mean change. Forced change. Reactive change. Planned change. And given the 70% failure rate of ALL business change management initiatives to deliver the promised benefits - getting it right is now business critical.

In a business context, organisational processes, behaviours and cultures evolved for a fixed and static environment have a very limited effectiveness in the fluid reality that we are currently experiencing.

Survival of the most responsive

Charles Darwin famously said that: "It's not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones who are most responsive to change"

Survival depends on continuous change. For your organisation to survive and prosper in this climate your feedback processes and behaviours need to be aligned to the reality of your market environment - or you die.

In a recent interview, business guru Edward Lawler said: "...we shouldn't think of change as aberration anymore, we should think of it as actually dynamic stability, because it is stable, because we can anticipate it, therefore, we ought to be ready for it..."

But in reality it's even harder than that. It's not just about catching up with what is changing all around you; it's about doing it faster than your competition.

So in a very real sense your survival and success in business life isn't merely based on your ability to simply change - survival and success is based on your ability to change faster.

So how to survive this recession?

A very good place to start is outlined in the principles of the Prosci AKBAR model- and here they are in summary:

- Awareness of the need for change
- Desire to make the change happen
- Knowledge about how to change
- Ability to implement new skills and behaviours
- Reinforcement to retain the change once it has been made

But the blunt reality is that continuous change is hard work and deeply unpopular . People get change fatigue and resistant. They are understandably resistant to the personal effects of the recession - especially fear of uncertainty - especially job security and financial security.

The good news is that one of the best strategies for managing change - one of the very best ways of mitigating these issues and risks and surviving in a recession is to use a programme management approach to change - because:

(1) It is holistic and takes the wider perspective.

(2) It focuses you on addressing issues and aspects that otherwise get overlooked.

(3) It addresses the people impacts and issues arising as a direct and indirect result of your change initiative.