Change and Longevity

      For the past several years we have been raising questions about the assumptions on which “change management” efforts in organizations are based, because the models used by practitioners of traditional change management have not been particularly successful. We see a number of reasons for this:

• They have tended to approach change management as if it were a one-time transition process intended to take the organization from one steady state to another steady state.
• Change management is often an “afterthought” practice, applied after the change has been decided on and begun by senior management in response to important needs. This sequence can ignore major opportunities. 
• It is thought of as an extra expense that has to be in the budget because of anticipated “resistance” by employees and others to the change.  Its cost, therefore, becomes a major consideration for management, and is closely watched, because it looks like icing on the cake.  (After all, shouldn’t people “simply do their jobs?”)
• Change management efforts are frequently reduced or terminated well before their effects can be durable, often because the consequences of the change and the opportunities it presents are not fully understood.  The fiscal and time costs involved in continuing are, therefore, seen as lower in priority than ongoing operations.

      Steady states are, in most cases, temporary and illusory, particularly in today’s complex and ever-changing world.  From that point of view, a serious investment in long-term preparation for changing conditions is essential to the survival and enduring prosperity of companies.  Even apparently simple organizational changes often turn out to have far more complex consequences than were generally expected.  Frequent, disruptive change is more and more common in businesses, governmental agencies, and other organizations.  Our proper task, therefore, is to prepare client organizations for frequent change, and to help them through the instances of change that may be especially difficult for them.

      At its best, then, change management functions as preparation for major changes in the future as well as the present.  It’s a set of approaches to strengthening the agility, the internal resilience, and the peripheral vision of the organization. A defined change problem in the present should be thought of as an opportunity for long-term organizational enhancement.  Preparation for the particular change to be managed is an investment in the company’s longevity—if done right, it enhances the organization’s capacity to adapt successfully to (and eventually help shape) its market, mission, and environmental conditions.

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