Every culture has its own timelines and traditions for New Year. But, common to all is hope for a new beginning and resolutions for improvement. Unfortunately, while aspirations and goals for organisational change may begin hopeful, they are often quickly dampened by scepticism. Through our work at SRI Executive, we have seen the impact of change scepticism and fatigue and how this can stunt the progress of global development organisations in a rapidly evolving world.
A lot has been written already about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on organisations, along with the rise of hybrid working, the promise and pitfalls of artificial intelligence, and the fear of economic slowdown. Yet, these challenges are only a fraction of the compounding challenges faced by global development organisations. In the last year alone, we have grappled with the implications of new global conflicts, a deteriorating climate crisis, unmet SDG milestones, shifts in funding patterns, growing calls to change old ways of working, and a continued need to shift more power to the countries and communities most impacted.
Employees in global development navigate the urgencies of delivering critical humanitarian aid or tackling global health challenges even as they face increasing workloads, stress and risk of burnout. Leaders in turn acknowledge that making progress through constant crises and fatigue is one of the biggest challenges they face. Like everything else, there is a snappy business acronym for this too: VUCA – volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.
But the constant organisational change is not without reason. As organisations grapple with dynamic external contexts, they must adapt from within to meet evolving needs and progress on critical goals. Despite the frustrations faced by organisations undergoing change, reframing it from a challenge to an opportunity may yet be possible. But first- we must understand what we’ve been doing wrong.
A growing body of research on New Year resolutions suggests that most are doomed to fail within a few weeks. There is one key reason - change does not happen in the short term but through consistent actions over a long period. The same applies to organisations. A change management effort squeezed into two months and conducted externally, without employee engagement and ownership, will likely fizzle out, leaving confusion and dissatisfaction in its wake.
In our experience of working with 300+ development sector organisations and supporting them through changes in strategy, organisation development, governance, and transitions in leadership, we have developed best practices that create conditions for sustainable and lasting change (and on the flip side, common mistakes that hinder the same). These interrelated learnings and lessons are encapsulated below.
Lesson One: Communicate and Collaborate
Change processes are often messy and complicated, and securing employee buy-in can spell the difference between success and failure. In our experience, this is best secured through the twin principles of communication and collaboration, so employees across the organisation are equipped to answer the following questions:
WHY: The driving spirit of any work in an organisation is its strategy, which states what it wishes to achieve and how. Change management is most effective when a clear link between the organisational mission, vision, values, and proposed change activities is communicated across the organisation. Employees must know why change is being pursued and how it can help realise the organisational mission and goals.
HOW: A pre-requisite for effective communication around ‘why’ is for organisations to conduct the initial strategy-setting process (and subsequent change management) in a consultative manner, with guiding principles informed by company values. It is essential to take the time to secure employee input (and build buy-in) across levels and departments throughout strategic (and change management) processes, not just at the end.
WHO: Circling back, the importance of continuous communication during a change process cannot be overstated. In our experience, communication is most effective when honest, acknowledging both benefits and challenges and providing space for feedback and course correction. In addition to traditional communication and engagement channels, it is also important to cultivate ‘champions’ from within the organisation who are invested in the change process and can support their peers in navigating it.
Lesson Two: Create dedicated time and resources for change
Restructured divisions, shifting roles and responsibilities, even redundancies. These phrases commonly associated with organisational change understandably create concern amongst employees. Organisations must support employees in navigating change, and a key part of that is creating dedicated time and resources to invest in holistic change processes.
INTERNAL INVESTMENTS: Given the challenges associated with change management, it is helpful to review foundational systems and processes to ensure they can support change. For example, the communication and collaboration required for change management are only possible in an organisational culture that enables candour and fosters employees' empathy, trust, and psychological safety. This requires developing and investing in holistic, cross-cutting change initiatives that also strengthen organisational culture.
Change initiatives must be agile and integrated- they should not operate in silos without considering interlinkages across levels, departments, or geographies. They must also go deep to address root causes, not just symptoms. For example, organisations can invest in processes that serve as ‘barometers’ to check the organisational temperature, but also use feedback and learnings for course correction. In addition, recognising the energy required for employees to learn and adapt during change, organisations should celebrate ‘quick wins’ to sustain momentum, but also invest in ongoing mental health support, as well as team bonding and initiatives that provide positive experiences to employees and ‘fill their cup.’
EXTERNAL INVESTMENTS: The second type of investment is towards external support and expertise. These include training and certification programmes for employees whose job descriptions have shifted, leadership coaching for leaders facing decision fatigue amidst overlapping crises, and consulting support to help manage the complex, multi-layered changes underway. As mentioned before, however, dedicated time (and realistic timelines) are imperative, even with external support. Treating change management as a series of tasks to execute in a compressed timeline is unlikely to yield the results needed. Creating change is a marathon, not a sprint. It is helpful to build in time to learn and course-correct.
Lesson Three: Start planning for change in good times, not bad
There may be many of you for whom lessons one and two would seem obvious.
Of course, we should communicate and collaborate! And of course, we should invest time and resources - but these are often limited. Especially when dealing with the very conditions that create the need for organisational change!
The third lesson then, addresses the most common limitation organisations face in implementing best practices. Many organisations start change management processes when dealing with a crisis, or in reaction to a challenge. However, our learnings indicate that such a time may already be too late. ‘Fundamentally, organisations should change when they are strong’ says Dr. Seamus McGardle, Executive Co-Chair of SRI. ‘This helps create an adaptive culture that is open to learning and evolving and takes change in its stride.’
As we enter 2024, it is worth reminding ourselves that creating change - both within our organisations and in the world - is often hard. But it is surely a hard task worth doing!
And there may be no time like the present to start...