How can you identify when an organization needs change?

- Opportunities for growth. - Renewed focus on innovation to stay competitive. - Recognition of potential to enhance organizational culture /employee engagement. - Embracing change as a chance to revitalize the organization /reinvigorate its mission and values. - New market opportunities or emerging trends. - A proactive stance towards change as a means to foster continuous improvement and long-term sustainability. - Declining performance /financial indicators. - Employee disengagement, increased turnover, or morale issues. - Declining customer satisfaction, or loss of market share. - Outdated processes or technologies hindering efficiency. - External factors (regulatory changes/competitive pressures). - Inability to meet strategic goals.

Recognizing the need for change in an organization is key to staying competitive and innovative. - Declining performance metrics, such as sales or employee engagement, signal a need for review. - Changes in market or industry trends indicate the necessity for adaptation. - Employee feedback, including concerns and turnover, can highlight internal issues. - A lack of innovation suggests a potential loss of competitive edge. Staying attuned to these signs ensures that an organization remains dynamic and forward-looking. Is your organization ready for change? Share your thoughts on how to effectively identify and respond to the need for change. Let's explore strategies for organizational evolution.

Identify appropriate diagnostic tools to identify the root causes of issues. For example, the Eight Lenses (Hodges, 2017) or the 14-S (Hodges, 2022) can be used. Dialogic tools can also be used such as Appreciative Inquiry. Tools to help identify root causes include the Ishikawa model and the Problem Tree Analysis. Data from using such approaches needs to be analysed and findings shared.

There are many indicators that a company can evaluate to determine if a change is needed including: -Evaluating internal and external survey results, what is the feedback from internal and external customers? Are your customers satisfied with your product or service? Is their outlook optimistic? -Tracking KPIs, are results matching projections and/or does that data match the strategic roadmap of the organization? -Employee turnover and retention, are you retaining top talent? Do people see a future in the org? If the answers to these questions are not positive, chances are there is a need for change adoption and some strategic intervention may need to begin depending on the severity and frequency of the issues found.

En un contexto incierto como aquel en el que vivimos hoy en día, es imperativo para las empresas comprender que están en constante cambio y abordar la gestión del cambio como un elemento estratégico fundamental para su propia supervivencia. Las organizaciones necesitan trabajar su capacidad sistémica para anticipar, prepararse, responder y adaptarse al cambio exponencial y a las adversidades, de manera que no solo logren sobrevivir sino también prosperar en estos escenarios. Las organizaciones deben ser capaces de evaluar su propia capacidad de adaptación ante contextos no solo complejos, sino de caos.

Cualquier cambio que necesitemos realizar debemos trabajar en 3 niveles diferentes: - A nivel organización con una mirada estratégica - A nivel equipos con un enfoque de experimentación - A nivel personal a través del acompañamiento Y ¿cómo lo podemos hacer? - Aplica un método empírico que facilite la gestión del cambio. Al ritmo correcto, de nada te sirve correr, si las personas, no están preparadas para caminar - Moviliza a los equipos para que colaboren en generar soluciones creativas a los problemas. Involucrándolos en el cambio para que lo hagan suyo - Realiza formaciones prácticas donde los equipos aprendan a través de sus propios problemas. Aplicándolo en el día a día de su trabajo

Concernant les types de changement, ils peuvent également être appréciés en mettant l'accent sur les éléments impactés par le changement. Par exemple : - Changement organisationnel : on change la manière dont l'entreprise est organisée, ce qui a des impacts sur les opérations - Changement culturel : la culture d'entreprise évolue et intègre des nouveaux modes de fonctionnement - Changement digital : on change d'outil informatique ou bien on numérise les méthodes de travail

Change is always related to the people within the company. All the described forms are a result of it or a tool to create the change. If you don't start with people? Might as well not start at all.

Change comes in various forms: incremental, transitional, and transformational. For each type of change, the approach varies. Incremental changes are about fine-tuning, while transitional ones involve adapting to a new landscape. Transformational changes are about revolutionizing and innovating in ways that reshape the entire organization.

Readiness for change refers to employees’ beliefs, attitudes and intentions regarding the extent to which changes are needed and the organization’s capacity to successful make these changes. (Armenakis et al, 1993) Assessing readiness is a vital part of planned change. Key elements to consider include (but are not limited to the following: - Ghosts of changes past - Willingness to change - Capability to change - Tolerance for ambiguity - Risk tolerance - Resilience - Resources (Hodges & Gill,2015)

I have always followed the teachings of Dr.John Kotter and observed what happens when many of the 8 steps within his methodology are not followed to some degree. Removing barriers to change are key and align to the notion of reducing friction in process and procedures. Often when you hear “that’s the way we do things around here” is a sign that it time to change and implies cultural barriers also. Creating a sense of urgency will never flow if you don’t focus on removing the barriers and ensuring you have capacity that is outcome focused. It’s better to focus on a few things and get them embedded. Boiling the ocean with many complex programs certainly creates a visible change agenda but they seldom deliver.

Nos últimos dois anos, ao trabalhar com diferentes clientes, percebi que a prontidão para mudanças muitas vezes se relaciona mais com a atitude dos líderes do que com a cultura organizacional. Líderes que estão pessoalmente alinhados e comprometidos com a mudança podem influenciar significativamente a aceitação e o sucesso dela. Esta observação sublinha a importância de envolver lideranças no processo de mudança, assegurando um alinhamento estratégico entre suas visões e os objetivos da organização.

by carrying out an assessment of the organization to see where they are and where they aspire to be. There are a number of ways that can assist in this process, they include the use of questionnaires, SWOT analysis Gap analysis, interviews and focus groups amongst others.

Figuring out when it's time for an organisation to change requires a proper assessment of how ready it is for this change. This means looking closely at how prepared and willing the organisation and its people are to welcome this change. It's important to think about things like how much support the leaders are giving because they're key in guiding everyone through the change. It's just as crucial to get everyone involved so the process feels more inclusive and gets more buy-in. Having a clear and exciting vision of what's to come is a real must, to point everyone in the right direction and get them excited. It's also vital to check if there are enough resources and if they're being used properly to make the change happen.

Analyzing the change impact is pivotal for effective change management. This involves evaluating costs, benefits, risks, and opportunities. What are the change objectives and outcomes? Assess the change's value for the organization and stakeholders. Consider costs, resource needs, and potential challenges. Explore alternative options. How will the change be monitored and evaluated? Addressing these questions justifies, prioritizes, and informs the planning of change management. A proficient change manager must adeptly identify when an organizational shift is essential for sustained success.

Don't forget to ask yourself the risk and cost of NOT changing. It's never Bout costs but should be more about what the change will actually bring.

El impacto del cambio no ocurre de la noche a la mañana pero si se nota de forma transversal. La organización comienza a hablar un lenguaje en común y a entenderse. Esto impacta en la reutilización de procesos, bien definidos y que suman a una mejor agilidad organizativa. Estructuras verticales pero también horizontales que dan transversalidad y visión de proyectos y se hitos marcados clave a lo largo del curso. Informes ejecutivos que benefician, dando feedback a la toma de decisiones en comités de dirección y en momentos clave del curso como son los Q. Finalmente , el incremento de beneficios mejorando la velocidad de entrega.

This is driving a need to reframe how change is conceived, agreed and implemented and how people are engaged with transformations because traditional top-down linear models of change, that have had pervasive influence in practice, are no longer as relevant as they used to be. Yet much of the literature on organizational change focuses on designing the perfect implementation checklist or process (e.g. Kotter, 1995). Such models adopt a linear, structural-functionalist view where the role of change agents is to align, fit or adapt organisations through interventions to an organisational vision. Instead there is a need to shift towards a people-centric cyclical approach to change (Hodges, 2024).

Change is evident, especially with businesses now focusing on customers rather than industries. Being quick to adapt is crucial, making the question "When should I change?" irrelevant.

By reviewing alignment to strategy. An organisation has goals that align to creating shareholder or member, community and customer value. How are current products, services, structure and ways of working and even the conditions for culture matching up to where the strategy is, and where it needs to be. Now of course the above focuses on the economic perspective, though there also needs to be consideration for the social and system perspectives, that underpins the organisations performance, success and workplace wellbeing. For example: - Leadership behaviours, self-regulation skills and understanding of how people tick - Psychological Safety - Engagement, Collaboration and Trust - Creativity and work design to enable performance.

When ownership or leadership surrounds themselves with wrong fit people. Not only unfit and obvious culture clash, but the type that have heavy influence on the decision making. This typically affects the type of work the company undertakes, the flow of monies to service providers, and the overall poor results in execution. Which makes for a poor working environment. I won't mention anything to do with employees as that's already been covered above. But before they show signs of employees being affected. These are some of the signs that you can look out for that undoubtedly result in failure. Some can be of epic proportions. My advice, if this quadfecta is familiar to you. It's time to look for another opportunity.