Ingredients for change

Why is change so important? What are the ingredients for change? Why is there a huge resistance to change? These were some of the aspects covered by BS RAO, Exec Vice President  FranklinCovey, SouthAsia,

Excerpts:

Change is a great challenge for some people, but not for others. If you look at Apple Inc, they claim to be recession proof and they are ready to adapt the change before their customers are even thinking of change.

What is Change management, each one has a different opinion. I don't know what I am today, but I know that I have to move from A to B, B can be a position you want to reach tomorrow or down the line in a couple of years. ‘Change Management is a structured approach to transitioning from a current state to a desired future state'.

Why is change so important? It is important to be competitive in a given time; I need to be constantly innovating. If you look at fortune 500 companies in the past 60 years, many have not survived to be in the Fortune 500 list, they did not survive because they did not change with the time to accommodate the needs/expectations of their customers.

What are the ingredients for change? We need to be aware of why the change is needed, be aware of what is happening around me. Should have the desire to support and participate in the change. The Knowledge required about how to change, and have the ability - to implement new skills and behaviors, and then the reinforcement, to sustain the change.

Why is there a huge resistance to change? Surveys show that, when the top management talks about change, the immediate reaction from 90% of people is to wonder, what am I going to loose. The Human brain immediately looks for discomforts.

One of our clients in the past, who wanted to change and innovate, decided to invest in new software so that they can win customers, he was told that his ROI is going to improve by 80%. My first experience was with an insurance company; their response time to customers was 7.1 days to get back with a proposal. They wanted to improve their response time, and go back to the customer in one day. So when we implemented this new software, employees of the insurance company resisted and wanted to go back to the comfort of their old software, they did not want to change. This is the common challenge across the globe. It is ideal to prepare people towards a change and their benefits and never be forced upon them. I have been experiencing the discomfort people have towards changing the operating system from the familiar Microsoft XP to Microsoft VISTA. Successful change management requires a large commitment from executives and senior managers, whether the change is occurring in a department or in a complete organisation. 

Discoveries about the Human brain regarding change: Brains are networks of associations. Even if you look at learning to drive the first time, how much struggle you need to go through. But once it becomes practice, you do it without thinking. Though it takes time to learn, what we learn becomes hardwired. It takes time to shift from Right hand driving in India to change over to Left hand driving in USA. Human brain resists change as well as take time to accommodate the change. No two human brains are even remotely alike, even if a couple of people are working together under a leadership. Each one thinks differently and acts differently until their understanding is clear under the Leadership.

We think in the form of Maps, every thought we have is a map connecting many associations across the brain. We create millions of new maps every second, some are short term, and some become a part of us. Active brain is 7% and passive brain is 93%. What is hard wired comes back from the passive brain. The more we focus on any hardwiring (Habits), the more we deepen that hardwiring in the brain. If I want to get rid of an old habit like smoking, the more I think about quitting, the more difficult it gets. This is the main reason our perceptions are created by our existing hardwiring. It is easier to develop a new habit than to get over the old habit.

Why is it that many people discontinue their new initiatives such as the New Year resolutions, whether it is working out in the Gym or wanting to write a book etc. How many people actually go ahead and carry out their resolutions? New brain maps are very gentle and we need to make them hard wired to continue the new initiatives.

B S Rao comes with  22 plus year experience in IT industry and worked across the globe.  In India and globally  Rao had implemented large system integration projects which are in size of INR 25 Cr to 100 plus million projects in various vertical markets.     Rao is currently working with FranklinCovey  and designated as Executive Vice President; the company is USD 1.45 Billion company operating in 147 countries.   Rao is also holding President position of International Coach Federation, India chapter and highly passionate on Coaching, Charity and volunteers towards unleashing the potential of every individual.

He was speaking at a Panel discussion organised by Businessgyan and TASMAC on the topic "Change Management"

Compiled by consulting Correspondent, Mangal D Karnad for Businessgyan

Issue BG98 May09