Unlocking The Potential – Harnessing the power of your people

The speed of change in business has accelerated tremendously over the last decade. Epitomised by the pace at which the global financial crisis (GFC) descended on us, there’s no arguing the dynamism of the current business environment, worldwide. One important message to come out of the recession is that continuous improvement and the pursuit of business excellence are vital to any organisation’s future survival and success.

In order to achieve and maintain competitive advantage, many organisations are increasingly turning to change programmes. Any such programme must of course give due attention to business processes, tools and technology; but these alone are insufficient to secure long-term gains. Ultimately successful and sustainable business improvement depends on behavioural change.

The individual may be the smallest component in a change process, but they are also the most important. As any manager will know, changing the behaviour of individuals is not always an easy task, and it is often this, which presents the greatest barrier to change. This change, however, is fundamental. Put simply: if an individual won’t change, the organisation can’t.

How, then, do we get people to change; to integrate with new process and tools? The answer is simple: education. But whilst the answer may be straightforward, education presents a significant challenge to organisations and few do it well. This is where external consultancies can play a role. They have knowledge and experience, which can help change attitudes and inspire people to buy into the new way of working. However, you cannot rely on external consultancies to make the change for you; sustainable improvement needs to come from within – lead from the top and cascaded down through the organisation by internal change agents; the key people at each level of the organisation. Successful education therefore requires that the consultancy firm transfers its knowledge to the client organisation, so that change becomes part of the culture of the company and not just a short term programme.

Fundamental change in processes and systems must be communicated to, and understood, by the critical mass of employees, because it is they who will be asked to use them, and it is they on whom success depends.

Understanding however is only the first step. To fully integrate people, processes and tools and realise maximum benefits, an organisation has to secure their acceptance and ownership of the new ways of working. Moreover, by involving more internal people in the change process, the benefits can be achieved earlier as the new processes and tools can be designed to better fit the organisation.