8-Steps towards CHANGE!!

"When you want to grow and prosper… You need to change. When you feel you are not happy anymore, you need to change."

These are the common advice that we can hear when a situation or a difficult situation or an unpleasant situation happens to a certain person. There was one situation when one of my co-employee went to my office and asks for an advice. She asks me about what she needs to do because she is not happy anymore with one of her endeavor. According to her, she love what she is doing but then she could now feel the pressure surrounding her and that she is currently battling between quitting or going on. I know what she feels and I can really relate unto her agony right now. I have been into that situation also, when I am happy with what I am doing but then the people surrounding me, the competition is right there trying to squeeze you up. When I was in that situation at the end I quit.

When I was assigned to share the topic Organizational Change Model and I was searching for the true essence of the word change I came to realize that one person (in the field where I am in) will think of things like changing things, change job, change direction or everything is because also of the things that is happening in his/her surroundings are changing. One person is encouraged to change because everything in her surrounding is vastly changing as well. According to my research these are some of the common reason why changes happen in an organization:

•       change in business conditions

•       change in managerial personnel

•       deficiency in existing organizational patterns

•       technological and psychological reasons

•       government policies

•       size of the organization

The field where I am in is in the field of technology where almost everything is changing without even you knowing it. Where in every few seconds the techie thing that you are currently holding is now a history, the 8-Step model of organizational change that our group had shared was a model that had made me realize that in an organization or a simple group that you belong it is very important that there should be a systematic way to follow in order for a certain change in paradigm or change in process will be successfully embraced by the people who might be involve in the so called change.

In the organization where I am in right now, the term change is nothing new to us. Almost every month there are changes. The things that we do right now might not be the things that we might do in the next few months. According to the model of organizational change formulated by Kotter, these are the essential steps that the organization should undergo to achieve the desired result for change.     

The first step to take is to Create an Urgency. I think this is a very good starting step. It is very important that the leader of the organization should have the skills of increasing or giving out a very encouraging reason for the people involve to really appreciate and understand why there is a need for a change. Then if you think that everybody had understood your reason for change, take the next small step of

Creating a Powerful Coalition. Of course in an organization you cannot just simply change and manage everything… You will need PEOPLE! who will really WORK for the organization. As a leader of a big team you need to also identify inside your team or organization who are your potential leaders + managers. After you have identified your possible mini LEADERS + MANAGERS you are now ready to

Create a vision for change.  What I mean about Vision here is not the vision of the whole organization but only your vision statement for change alone. Need not to change the organization’s Vision. But of course, your Change Vision statement must be aligned with what your organization really want to achieve.

According to Kotter “What you do with your vision after you create it will determine your success. Your message will probably have strong competition from other day-to-day communications within the company, so you need to communicate it frequently and powerfully, and embed it within everything that you do. Don't just call special meetings to communicate your vision. Instead, talk about it every chance you get. Use the vision daily to make decisions and solve problems. When you keep it fresh on everyone's minds, they'll remember it and respond to It.” and that is the 4^th Step Communicate the Vision.

The 5^th Step is to Remove the Obstacles this is my favorite part. hehehehehe….

Next if you reach the next step you might as well be at the 6^th month to 1 year of the implementation of your desired change. Create Short-Term Wins .I think these is very true in every aspect of our lives. We need to jot down what do we want to achieve in a week… in a month… meaning we need to identify things and set our short term goals so that we can assess ourselves if we are moving forward or BACKWARD!

Kotter argues that many change projects fail because victory is declared too early. Real change runs deep. Quick wins are only the beginning of what needs to be done to achieve long-term change. Launching one new product using a new system is great. But if you can launch 10 products, that means the new system is working. To reach that 10th success, you need to keep looking for improvements.

Finally, to make any change stick, it should become part of the core of your organization. Your corporate culture often determines what gets done, so the values behind your vision must show in day-to-day work.Make continuous efforts to ensure that the change is seen in every aspect of your organization. This will help give that change a solid place in your organization's culture. It's also important that your company's leaders continue to support the change. This includes existing staff and new leaders who are brought in. If you lose the support of these people, you might end up back where you started.

And that’s how Kotters 8-Step Model can change your organization for a long term basis. As a finale words… Don’t change for the sake of changing… "CHANGE BECAUSE IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO."