Why is change management a rare skillset
Change and adaptability are inevitable challenges for the companies on a daily basis. Yet, the management often fumbles, when it comes to real, large-scale and more fundamental business transformations. According to one study, 60% managers admit(!) they do not posses the change management skillset. So why companies cope with some changes — and get stuck with others?
The companies are organized and staffed to process repeating, more or less routine tasks. That’s the division of labour theory’s fundament, as founded by Plato in 375 bc and honed to perfection by modern era organization management masterminds.
Thus, the finance department runs the books and pays invoices, marketing department promotes the products and services, sales department searches for new prospects and closes the deals, operations department processes the customer requests and keeps the wheels turning, while IT department does their magic, etc.
Although these departments need to deal with new and unexpected tasks occasionally, they can manage them once they fit into their skillset zone and once they have the staff to execute it.
The problem however arises, when the transformation overflows the organization’s capability.
For example, when you ask operations managers to improve some process efficiency by 5%, they will find the solution. But when you ask them to improve by 50%, they will be stunned and say it cannot be done. This is not necessarily their fault — because they were selected and hired to effectively maintain the current processes and execute their daily agendas smoothly. And this applies to any department, not just operations! And don’t be fooled: even if there are positions tasked with some innovations, like product managers, they are still operating within some boundaries…
When presented with a truly challenging change, the employees do not possess the necessary skillset nor actually have the spare “thinking time” beyond their daily duties. They can execute some changes quite well, but the management should be aware of their limitations and choose the tasks wisely.
The more substantial transformations require therefore a specific skillset, which is very different from the “maintenance” skillsets. And we just learned that the companies are not staffed for that.
For a company, it is not very practical to have the change management experts on the payroll continuously either. The need for substantial change management arises occasionally and passes once the transformation is accomplished and turns into “business as usual”.
The best solution is to hire a change management expert just for the duration of the project or business transformation challenge. The benefits are evident:
Bringing the change management skillset into the organization.
The experts brings know-how from similar past projects, which speeds up the project and avoids pitfalls.
Getting a fresh and unbiased view from the external expert.
Creating dedicated resource, while preserving the capacity of the teams for daily tasks.
Contracting the expert only for the necessary time is financially smart.
Ʃ | Change management is a rare skillset in modern companies, because they are organized, staffed and skilled to effectively execute relatively routine tasks. When a substantial business transformation need arises, the employees do not have the necessary change management know-how nor the spare time beyond their daily tasks. The company’s top management may therefore hire a change management expert for the duration of the change project, benefiting from an unbiased view and experience from similar projects elsewhere.