Organizations must innovatively come up with changes if they aim to keep themselves competitive. The industries within which organizations operate are quite dynamic; hence organizations must strive to keep up with the pace or be rendered obsolete. However changes are often met with resistance; therefore this paper examines the steps to be taken, who is responsible for change and timelines that must be observed for effective outcomes.
Action Steps
Within John Kotter’s change model eight actions steps must be followed to facilitate successful change. Additionally, measures should be instituted concurrently and continuously to enhance the possibility of the best outcome, and the measures should affect the change process (Kotter, 2016).
The first step involves developing a sense of urgency which is a critical step, which should come ahead of all other action steps. This is because it helps excite individuals to be part of the upcoming change process.
The second step involves building a guiding coalition, which means putting together a group that will empower and leads the change effort. This group must equally be combined with all other employees of the organization to reinforce the first process, which is creating a sense of urgency. It is necessary that the team put together falls in line with the traditional hierarchy (Rajan & Ganesan, 2017). This group, as well as other senior members of staff and members of the human resources department, are the critical members charged with the adoption continuum. This group is aware of the importance of their positions towards the effective communication of change and are equally interested in the modification. The HR department, as well as the rest of the leading team, must be on board with the desire and need for change (Kotter, 2016).
Thirdly, the team necessary to push forward the change must then institute the formation of the strategic vision and initiatives which will help propel the change effort forward which is then followed by the fourth step, where a volunteer army is enlisted which is tasked with moving the rest of the employees towards the right adoption direction.
The fifth step is to enable action by removing barriers within the change system or structure that pose threats. Dealing with these issues beforehand helps to eliminate the chances of failure if the change plan preemptively. This is then followed by a sixth step which involves generating short term wins for the change project. At this stage, it is necessary to produce, track, evaluate, and celebrate volumes of both major and minor accomplishments. At this stage, the AIDA chart is essential to keep track of the small wins. The chart is necessary since it helps monitor the commitment towards the adoption of the change and helps detect they are contributing to the shift or letting it happen. A responsibility chart may also be used since it makes all members responsible for tasks issued (Kotter, 2016).
The seventh step is to ensure and sustain acceleration towards the completion of the change implementation. This means there must be increasing credibility towards the need for change and alignment towards the new vision. Where acceleration cannot be sustained, individuals are more likely to be demotivated, resulting in a slowed change process. Finally, in the eight-step, the group must institute the change. This demands that the key members must then articulate the connections between organizational successand the new organizational behaviors and ensure they continue in the same trajectory to a point where such actions are strengthened enough to be used as a replacement for old habits (Rajan & Ganesan, 2017; Kotter, 2016).
Contingency, Change Measurements and Change
The change will not always go as planned; hence processes must be kept as flexible as possible. Contingency implies having a backup strategy should the initial process run into problems. On the other hand, while utilizing the DICE model, an organization will measure its change against predetermined standards to help evaluate and adjust as necessary. DICE stands for; duration, integrity, commitment, and effort. Finally, having a communication plan in advance helps with communicating all small changes in the right manner. A wrong approach to change communication may result in failure (Kotter, 2016).
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