Change Management

Change Management

At the Ultimate Culture Conference Dr. Edgar Schein said that the iceberg analogy so many people equate with his three levels of culture is a very poor metaphor. Unlike an iceberg, culture is not in a frozen, solid state.

Instead he used a Lily Pond as an example of culture. So as a leader when you look in the pond, what do you see staring back at you? 

Culture is a shadow of the leader. While it’s true that culture comes from human behaviour and experience, it all starts at the top. 

Leaders have a disproportionate level of influence on the shape of culture.

Our Approach

It has been widely acknowledged that roughly 75% of change initiatives fail or only achieve a limited amount of success.

This is down to many reasons, but major contributing factors are; not taking culture into account, poor leadership and not paying attention to the human need to transition the changes being implemented and lack of funding or resources.

Each change is different that is why at NasBon we take an individual bespoke approach to each change programme

Our Programmes
The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress

Research has shown the odds of successfully implementing a large organisational change initiative sit at around 25% to 35% (Smith, 2002, p.26). This is a stark fact that should generate significant concern for every leader. This should not however, diminish the importance of pursuing change when it is appropriate. 

Even so, smaller-scale changes are just as fraught with implementation challenges and susceptibility to failure. The process of instituting change therefore, must be carefully executed by the management team and this begins with an understanding of types of change and the desired outcome. 

Understanding the types of change and knowing when best they apply will aid leadership in determining the correct path to follow.  

Developmental Change

Any organisational change that improves and optimizes on previously established processes, strategies and procedures.

Developmental change improves on previously established processes and procedures and does not necessarily have to be of a large-scale.

While not necessarily being an extensive change, they are the most frequent type of organisational change. Organisations experience these types of changes as incremental improvements in response to a desire to improve efficiencies, address a detected deficiency, or build upon prior success.

Because developmental changes are typically incremental and non-disruptive, they have a lower level of resistance within an organization. Over time, these smaller changes build and produce positive returns to the organisation that may compound over time to being a significant value driver. Failing to respond to the need for improvement may have the opposite effect and represent a loss of efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Transitional Change

Transitional change - Change that moves an organisation away from its current state to a new state in order to solve a problem, such as mergers and acquisitions and automation.

Organisations know that they need to make a change in order to remain competitive in their marketplace.

As such when the organisational leadership identifies the need for a transitional change, the organisational leadership also recognise that they are not charting unknown waters in instituting this change, However, this should not give rise to complacency or see the change as easily implemented.

As transitional changes are larger than developmental changes they often prove to be disruptive. These changes may include mergers and acquisitions or replacing and introducing major new systems and processes.

Understanding that they frequently impact relationships, job functions, culture, and involve substantial retraining is extremely important. Because of the significance of these types of changes, management must proceed cautiously while not becoming stuck in a cycle of indecision that will lead to lost market opportunity.

We at NasBon have extensive experience working with organisations implementing these types of change initiatives both domestically and internationally

Transformational Change

Transformational change - Change that radically and fundamentally alters the culture, core values and operations. 

Organisations do not frequently undergo transformational change. These types of changes are dramatic and fundamentally alter the organisation.

The kind of changes brought about when organisations pursue entirely different products or markets, experience radical changes in technology, or new leadership decides to overhaul the structure and organisational culture, or they may embark on a new mission, vision, or introduce new values utilising a transformational change process.

Being this change is the most pronounced, a substantial disruption to the business will occur, and navigating it will require significant skill and expertise on behalf of the management team.

Which is where we at NasBon are able to help, as we have extensive experience leading change management programmes both domestically and internationally . 
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