Have you ever wondered why organisational change doesn’t go as well as you hope it will?

I certainly have. So much so that about ten years ago I wrote a white paper on The Evolution of Organisational Change. I re-read it recently to see if I should update it and to my surprise I really don’t need to.

Organisational Change White Paper

The only thing I probably need to replace is Gen Y with Gen Z.

I stated that Generation Y have greater expectations of their employees and their priorities are around purpose and lifestyle balance. This has amplified since Covid with a greater number of employees expecting and demanding greater flexibility.

I also talked about the exponential growth in technology which has resulted in far easier access to information, making it significantly harder for leaders to have an impact. A challenge that is even more relevant today.

When it comes to organisational change, I used the analogy of hardware and software. Each new version should bring a better way of operating by offering enhancements and fixing bugs of the past.

Types of Organisation Change

After 30 years of being involved in organisational change I have seen it all… the good, the bad and the downright ugly!

Version I – The Rollout

This is very much a one-way, cascade down approach. When it came to values rollouts, companies would print the new values on coffee mugs or mouse pads (remember them!) and tick value rollout complete.

Version 2 – The Roadshow

This takes the form of the Executive Leadership team conducting a few town hall meetings around the various company sites. This is more of a two-way collaborative approach when it is implemented well. Unfortunately, I still see roadshows consisting of the ‘are you on the bus or off the bus’ speech.

Version 3 – The Real Thing

This approach adopts the art of storytelling and collaboration to communicate the change. It also uses both traditional communication channels as well as new technology and social media platforms to share and source stories.

I was pondering if there needs to be a version 4 considering the increase of Gen Zs in the workforce. But I think a lot of organisations are still operating on version 2 and should focus on the need to upgrade to version 3… urgently.

Need Help?

This is where I can help. If you need to upgrade to version 3, I can guide you on how to effectively use storytelling. This will ensure your upcoming organisational change (new strategy, new values, digital transformation, merger, etc) has a greater chance of success.

If this sounds of interest, you can have a read of the white paper here and then set up a time to discuss how I can help.