Ricardo Chacon and Avinash Yalamanchili address the key success factors and considerations occupiers and project managers should have.
People and Space Change Speeds – Credits Steve Gale, MBA. London.
Organizational changes can take different shapes such as technological changes, new operational and production processes, human resources methodologies for employee reviews and remuneration, and even the integration of multiple businesses in the form of acquisitions mergers or downsizing. Nonetheless, workplace transformation and change, amongst all, could be the biggest challenge that any organization can go through.
Changing the workplace goes beyond changing the tools we use at work. It usually is a complete environment metamorphosis, which could also come along with rapid expansions or contractions of the company, changes in the business model, shifts in geographical location that affect personal routines (due to the changes in commuting patterns), changes in the ways of working (i.e. switching to unassigned seating), and the perceived loss of personal spaces such as private cabins and personal desks.
Change is not only organizational, but it is also personal
At a personal level, this turmoil of events and changes combined can be perceived as one insurmountable obstacle. However, looking closely, the challenge lies in the fact that people tend to adapt slowly and incrementally, and a workplace transformation can be perceived as a rapid and large change. With that fact well acknowledge, people will be more likely to embrace the change when the expectations are managed in advance and have considered an incremental change.
Even though the situations aforementioned can create extreme resistance from the staff, their real impact will mostly depend on the effectiveness of the change management work conducted at the organizational and individual levels.
Addressing the people-side factors of success
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Along these lines, beyond dealing with internal resistance, any organization will have to address the necessity to achieve a higher probability of success, capture people-dependent Return on Investment (in the form of productivity loss, employee turnover and customer impact), and building an internal change competency and culture, which will contribute to make it much more resilient in the long run. To achieve these results, a successful change management plan and execution should include the following four key people-side factors. The first three have been coined by PROSCI in their Change Management Methodology and the fourth-factor “Sustenance” is a composition based on our field experience in workplace transformation projects.
Diageo Singapore – MMoser Design Associates