The Hindu Business Line : Little steps to change

The key to successful change is people, believes Jerald Jellison. A Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California, Jellison has worked with business professionals across the world helping them learn practical techniques to manage and implement change. The author of several books including Managing the Dynamics of Change, published in 2006, he has developed the J Curve model of change that takes managers through the five stages of the change process.

Jellison will be in India in mid-November to lead three workshops being organised by Strategic Human Resource Management India Pvt Ltd, the subsidiary of the US-based Society for Human Resource Management. The workshops, to be held in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, are structured around the themes managing individual and organisational change, the dynamics of change and conflict management. “Participants will learn practical tools they can apply immediately to make the value of change and innovation a key part of the organisation’s DNA,” he says. In an e-mail interview with The New Manager, Jellison talks about steps to help individuals and organisations manage change, the J Curve model of change and issues facing HR professionals. Excerpts from the interview:

Indian businesses are grappling with tremendous change and managing this process of change can be a challenge. How can change management be implemented, especially in older organisations?

Leaders need to get as involved with the process of implementing change as they are with strategic planning. The best business strategies often fail to produce the promised results because managers do not remain engaged in the day-to-day activities of the execution process.

By investing a little extra time and energy at the beginning of a change, managers can often get the most resistant of individuals to try the new way of doing things. Once people experience the benefits of doing things the new way, they embrace it.

Some managers make the mistake of trying to change too many things at once and they actually create resistance. It’s better to space the change initiatives out in time. Focus on one initiative; then focus on one project within that initiative; then focus on the first phase within that project; and finally focus on the specific actions people should take. When the first initiative is well underway, you can launch the next one.

How can a business help individuals with the change process and reduce the trauma that may accompany organisational change?

Even the oldest of dogs can learn new tricks. The key is not to rely on simply telling people they should change, but actually helping take the first steps of change.

The change must be communicated in the “ground level” language of the specific actions people should take. Too often, managers talk in 40,000-feet generalities (e.g. think outside the box, innovate, be entrepreneurial, teamwork, commitment and so on). The generalities are the language of strategy; implementation requires detailed descriptions of the first steps people should take.

Rather than telling people what those ground level steps should be, managers can follow the “ask, don’t tell” rule. When you are tempted to tell people what action they should take, stop and ask for their ideas about how to proceed (“How do you think we should do this?” or “What ideas do you have about how we could do this most efficiently?”)

Since people are often afraid of changes, it’s important to reassure them that it is acceptable to make some mistakes during the learning process. Many people fear the worst and think it will be disastrous for their career if they make any errors. Managers need to stress that we learn from mistakes, and to help people focus on what they learned and how they can use it to improve.

Could you tell us a bit about the J Curve model of change and how it helps organisations manage change?

When individuals go through the process of change, their performance follows a J curve. Because they’ve been doing things one way for a long time, performance often starts at a relatively high level (Stage 1). When a major change in policy and practices occurs, individual and organisational performance can drop precipitously (Stage 2). Next, the performance drop levels out, but it is far below where we were and where we want to be (Stage 3). As people learn how to function in the new system, performance begins to improve dramatically (Stage 4). Finally, performance surges above the level at which we started (Stage 5).

A regular pattern of thoughts and feelings are associated with each of these stages. At stage 1, fear is the dominant feeling and people are often doubtful the change will be a success. Getting people to go over the “Emotional Cliff” between stages 1 and 2 is the greatest challenge. When performance drops in stage 2, people have a strong urge to go back to the old way of doing things because they think the new way will never work. Stage 3 presents the greatest challenge for managers and they must motivate people to keep working on the new approach despite the apparent lack of progress. When the performance curve rises in stage 4, people gain confidence in the new way of doing things, confidence in management and confidence in their own abilities. In stage 5 the new way becomes the only way to do things.

Managers can learn to accelerate the process of change as well as to minimise the disruption associated with change. It’s possible to turn the J curve into a check mark.

What do you think are the key strategic issues facing the HR function?

The challenge for HR professionals is to gain the knowledge and experience to participate fully in key decision-making processes. While representing the interests of the people who work at a company, they must also give voice to other interests critical to the company’s success.

What are the changes that the HR function itself needs to make today?

HR professionals need to develop a wide range of technical skills. They need to spend time in different functional areas outside of HR so they build knowledge and credibility. They need to learn how to communicate with other managers, so they can bring their unique HR perspective to the decision making process.

What are the key HR issues for a workplace with a large number of young employees?

Keeping young employees fully engaged with work is a critical goal. With other companies looking for talent, HR professionals must help frontline managers create opportunities for young people to assume more responsibility. Young people want to be heard and they want upper management to seriously consider their suggestions and ideas.

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