Time for a change? Call an expert

The establishment of Auckland's Super City will provide council managers with a major challenge. Photo / Richard Robinson

Throughout the recession many organisations, commercial and not for profit, have taken the opportunity to make changes to their business - to streamline resources, focus on core business or look at possibilities for growth. Done well, this can be very constructive. Done badly it can be disastrous for the business and all who work in it.

John Butters, of John Butters and Associates, Human Resource Consultants, said change management was largely about helping organisations and managers to focus on the people side of change and help the change to succeed.

With every big change, Butters said, come insecurity, grief and resistance. If there have been redundancies, the people left behind will be feeling an amount of grief for the people who have gone. All this means that inevitably there will be a dip in productivity.

"What getting a change manager in can do is to help reduce that dip and resistance and to try to maintain a level of engagement of employees, so that productivity remains."

Butters said there were strategies that help reduce the drop in productivity. "Change agendas distract people. If communications are not two-way and clear, rumours abound and this causes employees to constantly discuss what's going on rather than focusing on work."

Butters said often managers were not equipped to help their employees through change. "Often managers are qualified in their particular occupation and don't manage change every day. So, they rely on human resource or change advisers to do the work of management. However, staff need their managers to be active through the process. A change manager can coach managers through it and help them develop an in-depth knowledge of the process of change."

Butters said most change managers would coach senior management about how to plan for change and how to implement it. "It's about having different tactics and responses for different people at the different stages of change.

"Some staff members will adapt easily, others will end up in shock when they hear the first announcement of changes that are afoot and won't be able to really listen to what's happening. It's possible that they'll miss the message and context of it and immediately jump to the conclusion: 'Crikey, I'm going to lose my job ... what do I tell the family?' rather than giving the organisation feedback that's been asked for."

Butters said managers needed to realise that it was their role to build trust.

"What they say must be followed through into action. There's a problem when there's no connection with what's said and done. The best change managers will ensure that there is a connection.