Tips for Successful Organisational Transformation Journeys

In today’s VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), continuous change at lightning speed has become the norm. This leaves an organisation with no choice but to keep pace with the ever-changing external environment and cope with new, more challenging markets and customer preferences.

Maintaining a status quo is more detrimental to organisational growth and development than venturing into an unknown way of working. No organisation can afford to ignore changes by continuing to work with the same processes, technologies and approaches. It is imperative for organisations to upgrade and transform constantly to remain relevant and competitive.

Changes are a must and the only way to succeed. Studies indicate that hardly 30% change efforts succeed. Humans are hardwired and change triggers a fear response in them. People instinctively resist change. My journey as a transformation leader has been full of challenges and learnings. I have led broad-scale complex transformation agendas to build future-ready organisations. The lessons that I have learnt are exciting and will be useful to organisations in today’s increasingly competitive business environment. Here are a few of the best practices from my own transformation journeys:

1.     Establish the Business Case- Business, as Usual, is Not Sustainable

The most important aspect of the transformation journey is to establish the need. Transformation leaders must put forward a strong business case before key stakeholders to create a buy-in for a significant change.  Change leaders need to present strong reasons and outcomes for the intended transformation journey. I collected multiple data points and industry benchmarks to compare our current state with the best industry-wide benchmarks to gain buy-in from the leadership team and ensure that they were on board. Organisational transformation’s ultimate objective is to impact business outcomes positively and to build future-ready organisations.

2.     Present a Sensible, Compelling, and Robust Vision- Easy to Understand and Echoed by All

A sensible, compelling and robust vision is the key to the success of the organisational transformation. A small section of employees can never implement transformation initiatives alone. When everyone comes on board for the journey of creating a new future together, the transition can become very successful. Complicated words, lengthy vision documents, and management jargons do not help.  These complicate the transition and can create a vision implementation barrier. Therefore, the Vision Statement should be positive, optimistic, and should be easily understood by employees of all levels.

3.     Build a Team of Influencers and Decision Makers – Create an Active Enterprise Transformation Group

My crucial learning from change management is that the transformation leaders must build a robust and powerful coalition to lead the change. The ability to spot influencers and key decision-makers and bring them on board to drive the transformation agenda is critical for successful organisational transformation. Transformation leaders must deeply involve the group in defining the road map and vision for transformation. I always created an Enterprise Transformation Group to lead the change agenda and played the role of the facilitator in the group. The ETG members become the brand ambassadors of the transformation program and they own and drive change.

4.     Communication and Organisational Alignment: Create a Positive and Aligned Communication within the Organization about the Transformation Vision

Transformation is impossible unless the entire organisation is aligned. Dramatize the launch of the transformation vision to invoke the feelings to capture the heart, mind and imagination of all sections of the employees.  Communicate the transformation vision across the organisation using every possible avenue. I would use all existing communication channels such as organisation newsletters, intranet, and letters from the top leadership team members, town halls and departmental group meetings. Positive branding of the transformation vision is the core of successful execution. Taking a bottom-up approach to communicating the vision has always worked for me. Another critical aspect is that the thoughts, strategy and actions of the leaders must be aligned with the transformation vision.

5.     Committed Leadership- Stay Focused on the Transformation Plan

Transformations programs often begin with a big bang but end up losing steam on the way. All transformation programs can lead to short term pains, losses and confusion. How effectively the transformation team can clear the clutter and remove obstacles is another essential key to the success of the program.

In many cases, management loses focus and management’s priorities change, the excitement about the program decreases, and people lose their confidence in the program’s success. Hence, people can get demoralised and give up the transformation efforts. Therefore, the transformation team needs to overcome the issue of disinterest and change of priorities by channelling the natural tendency of fear into focused aggression towards achieving the transformation agenda.

6.     Adopt Agility and Flexibility in Approach - Accommodate Others’ Views and Suggestions

Change leaders must display respect and accommodate others’ opinions and suggestions if they do not deviate from the core objectives of the program. Hearing people’s concerns and suggestions at times is the most acceptable idea which helps achieve overall goals of transformation. Change leaders must negotiate in a way which is non-condescending so that everyone feels valued. This approach would reduce the atmosphere of fear that often comes with change.

I am aware of cases where leaders have tried implementing changes in an authoritarian way, disregarding and disrespecting every other function and department and their leaders. The authoritarian approach very often leads to a complete log jam and break down of the organisation’s core culture. In that case, frustration levels rise so high that people start feeling suffocated and stopped taking initiative. Encouraging an open dialogue consistent with the organisations' goals would take such frustrating interactions out of the picture.

7.     Create Short Term Wins- Prove the Worth of the Plan Backed by Business Results

Regular feedback and communication of progress to key stakeholders must be at the top of any successful transformation agenda. The transformation team must establish a strong linkage between the transformation journey and expect positive business results. In the absence of hard data, the credibility of the transformation initiative will always be in question. Periodically, the specific and measurable quick wins should be presented to the management and communicated across the entire organisation to continue to build the change momentum.

The transformation leaders need to periodically celebrate the transformation journey successes and create cultural experiences that support the vision to keep the change program on track.

8.     Actively Energise Your Employees- Excite, Engage and Empower

The transformation agenda can only succeed with active employee engagement. The more engaged the employees, the higher the chance of success. Transformation leaders must galvanise entire organisations around the transformation agenda to ensure the participation of all employees.

When there is a history of past failures of change efforts, people often grow cynical and do not take initiatives seriously. I drove change initiatives by creating active employee engagement programs, building a strong framework of reward and recognition to support the change initiative. The transformation team needs to ensure that the organisation periodically celebrates transformation journey successes!

9.     Reduce Fear & Uncertainty – Build Confidence and Trust in Your Transformation Leaders

The most significant risk to transformation programs is that the change agent may get undermined and dismissed. Change of leadership has a hugely detrimental impact on transformation efforts and organisation culture. The old establishment gets terrified with the speed of change and a new way of working, triggering strong resistance to change. The resistance is often guided by their reasons and interests such as loss of status, job insecurity, and coming out of their comfort zones. People resist change by creating a climate of mistrust, and they question the relevance of change, the change leaders, the transformation team and their intentions. Complete trust, support and confidence of the management in the is essential to lead a successful change; otherwise, the detractors of change will ensure the failure of a transformation initiative and a well-planned initiative becomes doomed to fail.

Positive and successful transformation efforts are essential to the growth and sustainability of any organisation. Goal-oriented efforts will help organisations embrace their transformation journeys. How has your organisation embraced change? What were your challenges and success stores? Please share them below!

Aniruddha Singh

Group Chief Human Resources

GHCL Limited

asingh@ghcl.co.in