L&D

1. Learning and Development L&D CHAPTER 15 Tackling challenges of change

2. THE PURPOSE OF THE CHAPTER To explore challenges of change facing organisations, and their implications for L&D activity. • KEY THEMES • Managing organisational change • Organisational change: the unfreezing process • Organisational change: the transition period • Organisational change: ‘refreezing’ • Change agent tasks for L&D professionals

3. TYPICAL BARRIERS TO THE SUCCESS OF ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE • ‘Skilled incompetence’ that prevents unlearning and new learning • Rigid organisation structures that work against adaptability, flexiblity, innovation and cross- boundary working and alliances • Lack of horizontally and vertically integrated HR strategies • Lack of expertise or credibility of HR professionals in identifying and responding to challenges of change • Lack of effective business partnerships between those professionals and line managers

4. RESEARCH FINDINGS ON CAUSES OF FAILURE IN CHANGE INITIATIVES • Failure to appreciate both the complexity of process issues associated with organisational change and the difficulty of managing these successfully • Lack of change management expertise • Preoccupation with hard outcomes of change and failure to assess the implications of soft outcomes for the organisation • Lack of sufficient evidence-based or research-informed professional practice on the part both of line managers, trainers, developers and other HR professionals • Lack of attention in management research to evaluating strategies for change, especially through longitudinal studies carried out in different organisational contexts • Divergent views in the social sciences about how to conduct research into organisational change

5. CIPD RESEARCH RECOMMENDATIONS ON HOW TO ACHIEVE EFFECTIVE CHANGE MANAGEMENT • Holistic organisation-wide change • Effective project management • Employee involvement • Effective leadership • Extensive communication with external stakeholders • Internal and external change management experience

6. Change management at Kia Motors • A new business strategy put organisational development at the heart of plans for change. • An HR programme focused on the key drivers of employee engagement in change: • senior leadership • employee understanding of, and belief in, the company’s direction • line management behaviour • involvement and consultation • understanding of key business issues • training and development • – through major initiatives relating to: • leadership development • internal communication • employee recognition

7. Contextual factors affecting the transformation programme at ‘X’ Police Force • The Force’s previous training record • The institutional factor • Sponsorship of the leadership development programme • The political context • The structural and sectoral contexts

8. BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAM • Get team leadership and membership right. • Agree a clear purpose for the team. • Ensure connections to bigger ‘movers and shakers’ outside the team. • Agree achievable, noticeable results (with appropriate measures of success). • Ensure understood and agreed ground-rules for collaborative working. • Provide intensive up-front team-building for the whole team, in team tools and in team planning and group skills.

9. ENSURING THE EFFECTIVE WORKING OF ALL CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAMS Build the right structure for cross-functional working, preventing problems of communication and control. Ensure selection, promotion and appraisal criteria that highlight the importance of cross-functional collaboration.

10. TASKS FOR L&D PROFESSIONALS TO AID AND STIMULATE CHANGE

11. ‘The Seven Cs of change’ (CIPD, 2006) 1 Choosing a team 2 Crafting the vision 3 Connecting organisation-wide change 4 Consulting stakeholders 5 Communicating 6 Coping with change 7 Capturing learning