Managing Resistance to Change
Is resistance to change holding your organization back? If so, you're not alone. Consider these research findings:
 A survey of 500 executives concluded that resistance was the main reason why
organizational changes fail.
A recent study found that 60% of the reengineering projects that failed were due to
employee resistance.
The toughest challenge of organizational leaders today is to manage at the speed of change. With the pace of technological advancement
and the knowledge explosion, leaders face tremendous pressure as they attempt to gain support for change. While resistance is always a problem,
it is especially harmful during an economic slowdown. Regardless of how good or
necessary a change may be, resistance should be expected. While preventing resistance completely is unrealistic, the ability to manage resistance has emerged
as an essential leadership skill. This workshop gives participants the knowledge and skills necessary to assess and overcome resistance to change. They will also
learn how to use a variety of tools and instruments, including the Change Opinion Survey™.
Building an Adaptive Organization
The ability of an organization to adapt to changing conditions is essential to success in the new economy.
- Research on corporate culture by Kotter and Heskett has shown that organizations will not be able to sustain excellent performance over the long haul unless they have values and norms allowing them to adapt to a changing environment.
- Collins and Porras boil the extraordinary success of 18 visionary companies down to one key principle: preserving the core ideology (mission and values) while stimulating change in culture, operating practices, goals, and strategies.
- De Geus found that long-lived companies have values that allow them to anticipate the need to adapt and change. Organizations that hold on to outmoded thinking and practices will be left behind by those that are more flexible and nimble.
An adaptive organization is one that modifies business practices in response to the changing needs of its stakeholders: customers, employees, and stockholders. It takes strong leadership to create and maintain an adaptive organization, because practices that become part of corporate culture and tradition tend to resist change. This workshop allows you to assess the adaptability of your team or organization, using the Adaptive Organization Scale™. The Scale is divided into two parts. Part 1: Operating Practices, uses a continuum extending from strongly collaborative to strongly directive to help a team or organization identify how it is functioning currently and how it would prefer to function in the six areas of Decision-Making, Communication, Roles, Structures, Rewards and Leadership Style. Part 2: Potential Barriers, assesses five common obstacles to establishing and maintaining an adaptive culture: Morale, Trust, Conflict, Listening, and Job Security. You will leave with the tools necessary to help your organization become more adaptive.
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