Understand what organizational change is

Many businesses undergo intense change in response to times of crisis or to adapt to a new culture, making organizational change an important and detailed process.

Organizational change is driven by several factors. For example, adapting to market changes, the emergence of new competitors, business expansion, changes in structure or management, among others.

Even if they are planned or come naturally, changes can impact productivity, results and even interpersonal relationships.

Is your company undergoing an organizational change? So, check out this post and see the tips to succeed during the process.

Changes can have repercussions on the company’s day-to-day activities, regardless of whether the cause is strategic, cultural, technological or human.

Usually, organizational change happens with the aim of establishing improvements. For example: a company controls the entry and exit times of employees manually and every month HR spends a lot of time with the calculation and closing of the time sheet.

So, managers decide to automate the process and implement a digital time management and control solution .

Employees will have to adapt to the new way of marking time with the use of cell phones, computers or tablets and some may have difficulty adapting.

In this case, before making the resource available, the best solution would be to offer training to show the benefits that this technology will provide for both parties, in addition to teaching them how to use it correctly.

A situation like this shows that, no matter how good the intention, the manager needs to consider that positive or negative consequences may arise.

Therefore, the ideal is that every organizational change is preceded by planning to achieve collective engagement and measure the results.

Learn about the 4 types of organizational change

Organizational change can happen for different reasons, such as the need to improve inefficient processes, update work resources or improve interpersonal and leadership relationships.

Additionally, there are four types of organizational change that can benefit your business. See what they are:

1. Evolutionary

As its name suggests, evolutionary change aims to evolve the company’s strategy with the improvement of the product or service.

Often goals and purposes are set to be achieved during the year. From there, actions arise to resolve differences and gain competitive advantage, seeking to improve results.

2. incremental

Incremental organizational change is one that includes some improvement in both business processes and structure.

Incremental change usually happens more often, naturally, and is well accepted by employees, as it causes a positive effect. For example, the implementation of a time management software .

3. Revolutionary

Is your company going through an unsatisfactory phase and needs a major revolution to overcome the moment and stay in the market?

Revolutionary organizational change is one that causes changes that impact all stakeholders and stakeholders.

It may involve new product/service proposals, partnerships, a new management model, market and team changes with the hiring or firing of professionals.

4. Transformational

Transformational change is about changing something, such as processes, structure, or staff. It is usually performed in crisis scenarios or when there is a new positioning of the company in the market.

Due to the great impact of this action, careful planning is essential to carry out the changes, since it will affect different areas: employees, leaders, products or services.

Examples of organizational change

Organizational changes happen for several reasons, such as changing roles or a drastic change, such as market repositioning. See some examples:

• adjust the goals according to the directors’ expectations and the market reality;
• increase results with the integration of related sectors;
• automate activities using technology;
• gain competitive advantage from stimulating innovation and new ideas;
• change the strategy to occupy a new market more prone to business;
• reorganize work teams with the admission or dismissal of professionals.

See how to manage organizational change

To succeed with organizational change, it is necessary to plan and monitor the results of the new practices carried out. Only then will it be possible to find out if the strategic objectives are being achieved, right?

Organizational change management involves a few steps. Certainly, if you manage to follow them, the negative effects will be minimized or may not even exist.

1. Diagnosis

The first step to succeed with organizational change is to make a diagnosis of the business to identify what are the dissatisfactions with the team, management or work routines.

The SWOT matrix is ​​a good tool to understand what are the problems to be solved from the identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats existing in the company.

2. Objectives

Every organizational change happens for a purpose. Therefore, the motivations must be clear from the first moment so that the tactical plan is well aligned with the purpose.

It is interesting to involve leaders and managers to discuss together what the purpose of the action is, for example, change the management model, improve sales or service provision and, consequently, the results.

3. Planning

Once the objective has been defined, you must plan the entire organizational change, define the implementation date, the action plan and the metrics that will be monitored.

Remember that it is essential to anticipate risks and anticipate solutions to difficulties that may arise.

4. Communication

Direct and enlightening communication is critical to effective organizational change.

Talk to employees, explain what is being planned, ask questions and make room for suggestions. Take the opportunity to reassure the team and show the importance of what is being proposed.

5. Engagement

It is not possible to make an organizational change without employee engagement. Therefore, it is worth thinking about actions to motivate them to adapt to the new rules aimed at improving activities.

To do this, encourage trust by showing the benefits of the changes that will be made and create a channel or define a responsible person so that they can answer their questions. Upon realizing the benefits of change, employees will feel motivated to cooperate.

6. Implementation

After carrying out the previous actions, it is time to carry out the evolutionary, incremental, revolutionary or transformational change that will affect the internal and external environments of the company.

7. Follow-up

There is no point in implementing changes if there is no follow-up, especially during the initial period.

The metrics defined in the planning phase are of great importance at this stage. Only then will you know effectively if the change was successful and if you collaborated to reach the main objective.