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Managing Change For HR Leaders and Managers A probable HR Leader is the one who perceives the iceberg before the rest of the team members witness it and instils confidence in others to deal with forthcoming glitches

By Pramod Parkar

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Change! the only constant that challenges people. Each time there is a change we need to deal with, it is certain to disrupt our frame of all that we routinely manage. When it comes to employees, it has a very large impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the way work gets done. Change drives Resistance!

The challenges in the current generation of Human Resources Management are growing with the complex environment of business demands today. Almost every HR manager is faced with rapid changes that they need to implement and facilitate with their employees. The need of the hour is a deep understanding of how change management can support the implementation of change.

Research states that barely 20 per cent of change gets implemented, and the as high as 50 per cent of change implementation struggles due to poor sponsorship and lack of leadership involvement. The key cause of this is that most often Change Gets Installed instead of being Implemented!

Change brings with itself a gamut of leadership challenges -- Having a better knowhow of what exactly lies ahead can prepare the HR managers for dealing and tackling with the change.

1. Handling Every Battle with Patience

With great power comes great responsibility. But when we talk about change management in an organization we know that with great change follows great resistance. HR managers have to learn to tackle and handle it patiently and learn to manage resistance. The best way is to set qualms to rest and provide the more unenthusiastic team members with faith, as assurance is often contagious. Don't allow doubts to be a roadblock in the course of change, instead emerge a winner with your endurance and positive guidance.

2. Managing conflicts

Real leadership is when HR leaders talk to team members, aiding them comprehend the challenging part of the change. Be alert and vigilant to come up with constructive challenges when a conflict arises.

3. Dealing with setbacks

During a change management, turmoil and disorder are a normal part of the course of events taking place. Potential leaders need to keep their morale high while deciding if the setback is a grave failure or something that can be fared. Expecting hindrances is the first step to being prepared for them, but the second stage is recognising the most perplexing parts of the alteration in advance.

4. Safeguarding the Team

Your team should be rest assured that in times of sudden crisis situation, you as their front-runner will always have their back and will stand by them. It's imperative for HR leaders to create a culture of collaboration for shared benefits for the smooth functioning of the organization.

5. Look Ahead

A probable HR Leader is the one to perceive the iceberg before the rest of the team members witness it and will instil confidence in your team to deal with the forthcoming glitches. Inspire them to think critically and ask queries as a part of the procedure. Noticing worry before it can occur, or at least having an answer ready in advance, will go a long way toward showing you're the right spearhead for the job.

Change Management is Hard Skill

People struggle with managing their tasks and invest almost 22% of their productive time prioritizing. Whenever a change is introduced, this 22% grows to as high as 40%! The key cause is that whenever change is introduced, people face disruption in their routine. With disruption comes irritation, anger, frustration and more, and all these emotions are an outcome of the fact that change needs human beings to manage implementation. Whether you consider a technical or technological change, a process change, or even people change, all of this brings in disruption to routine.

Change management is a 'Hard Skill' and one of the most critical skills in modern day management today. Unlike project management, wherein a team works on how a process or technology needs to be planned and installed, change management is all about 'How People Who Need To Implement The Change Need To Manage It'.

PCI Model

One of the most tested and successful change management model is the PCI (People Centred Implementation). This model deals with the entire cycle of how change implementation needs to be implemented. What is key is the fact that people do not want to change unless they are made to realise that 'They Cannot Stay Where They Are, And It Is Imperative They Consider A Change'. 'Don't fix it if it isn't broken is a philosophy that human beings are comfortable with'

Most organisations face a huge challenge whenever they need to make people believe that they need to embrace and implement required change, and the PCI philosophy supports a change manager leverage value through the entire 'Change Curve' till change is successfully implemented.

As a HR manager, the best move is to include a well laid out change management training plan. If the manager can identify key people in various levels of the organisation dealing with people and change, then an effective change management learning session will support creating resources within the organisation. This can be a great support to connect key change agents to carefully and plan fully drive change whenever required.

Considering the dynamism of business today, it is almost certain that the organisation is bound to face changes often and as a HR leader, it will be imperative that the team has capable members who understand the process and implementation journey with change.A typical organisation faces a significant challenge created by the projects it runs, whether they are focused on cost reduction, process redesign, mergers, restructuring, or a large IT implementation. It can be difficult to capture the value of all these activities simultaneously.

Realm of Change Management

However, the greatest trouble is getting employees on board to embrace the alteration each project brings with it. This is the realm of change management - aiding people accept new behaviours, accept and take possession of change instead of battling it. The way change is being implemented is as significant as the plan or solution you are trying to implement. Effective scheme operations hardly come from purely practical project plans that do not take into account the human dynamics of change.

Nearly 90% of UK executives surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in their report 'Organizational agility: How business can survive and thrive in turbulent times', ranked organizational agility as vital for business success. The same report highlights that the research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggested that agile firms grow revenue 37% faster and generate 30% higher profits than non-agile companies. Organizations that lack agility and can't adapt, can suffer more than ever before from:

  • More adaptable competitors beginning to dominate
  • Business performance deteriorating rapidly
  • When deterioration occurs, recovery being tougher than ever before
  • The engagement of employees becoming more difficult
  • The term 'change fatigue' becoming part of regular conversations inside the organization

HR Leaders need to build change management capabilities across the whole initiative, safeguarding that change management is backed and functional efficiently on all change projects.

Personal or professional talent, skill and experience, know-how, and devotion-- if you bring all of these to bear, you are sure to offer your group the sureness to move forward in a positive direction. A leader faces whatever challenges with improved questions and even better solutions. Building Change Management capability is a vital ingredient for business success!

Pramod Parkar

Director, Edify Consultants Pvt Ltd

Pramod Parkar, 49, is a dynamic and energetic Behavioral skills trainer. He has over 30 years of experience, He has spent over 12 years training and facilitating in the areas of Business & Leadership Training Programs. He has had successful stints as a Corporate Professional and as an Entrepreneur.
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