A second method of classification is to identify stakeholders as falling broadly into three categories: 1. key individual players 2. key groups within the organization 3. key external players and influencers. You can sub-categorize these groups: Key individual players Change sponsor: the director, senior manager or person who initiates and drives the change and who, in most cases, is willing to take overall accountability for the success of the change programme. Promoter: the person(s) promoting a particular kind of solution to address given problems. OD project manager: the person responsible for the performance out- comes from the OD project. Change agents: staff assigned to specific roles to facilitate change and support line management in the process, based on their enthusiasm for the changes the OD project brings and their available skills. Targets: users of the changed design, including those who expected to benefit from it in other business areas. Champions: natural supporters or enthusiasts in the business who can become opinion leaders in generating support for the proposed changes coming out of the OD project. Support players: those whose functional support is required for effective implementation of the project but who do not have direct accountability for it or a strong stake in it. Key groups These comprise mainstream employees whom the proposed change will directly impact and whose jobs and performance standards will be Organization Design:The Collaborative Approach 118 changed as a direct result of the change process. In most organizations, these include: Senior management: This group is usually the board or an executive body, which is responsible for organizational performance. Members make key decisions. Their sustained and mutual commitment will be required to endorse the changes required and to maintain energy within the OD project. Change owners: This is the management group which is ‘buying’ the change. It will have an operational impact on their business area – generating most performance improvement. You need to understand fully their needs, expectations, and preferred ways of doing things as you implement your OD project. Line management: This is the intermediate management group between top management and employees. Ensure their wholehearted support for the project as it is critical to your success in the short, medium, and long term. Employee representatives: This group represents the interests of the non-managers in your organization. It may be through Works Councils or through Trade Unions. Whichever representative body you have in your organization, you must involve it as a partner in your OD project. How far you involve it depends on the nature of your business and the interests of the representative body. At a minimum, members of this group act as a useful focal point to give information about the task ahead, and help you avoid pitfalls. (This can be done either formally or informally or both.) Ideally, you should include members of your employee representative group as part of your project team. Specialists: This includes those groups who may be responsible for policy, design, planning, technical specification or functional control of various aspects of the change, for example information technology (IT), finance, recruitment, training and development. Support: This category of staff includes those who support the key operational groups, for example secretarial staff or facilities management. They often wield power in their role of gatekeepers for other stakeholder groups. Managing Stakeholders 119 The two classification methods mentioned above work in most projects, but there are other types of categorization possible. For example, it may be preferable to identify key internal groups according to their business division, level of management, skill areas, location, or roles in the OD project. Key external stakeholders What constitutes an external stakeholder will vary according to the size and scope of the OD project. For some organizations, planning major organization design change without involving suppliers as stakeholders is inconceivable. For others, a broader view of the likely impact on third party groups is sufficient. If you work with outsourcing agencies or in a partnership or alliance with another organization, consider what role they play as stakeholders in your project. Such organizations could be either internal or external stakeholders. Which category you put them in depends on the nature of the changes your OD project brings about. However, the following comprise the usual list of key external stakeholders: ■ Customers ■ Owners ■ Shareholders ■ Suppliers ■ Strategic partners ■ Contractors ■ Consultants and advisors ■ Competitors ■ Government agencies ■ Local community. Once you have categorized your stakeholders gather information about them in order to do an informed analysis. You can gather the informa- tion in various ways including desk research, workshops, interviews, and surveys. One-to-one interviews are most effective with senior management and external stakeholder representatives. Workshops are often the best way to gather information on key internal stakeholder groups with a large number of people. Organization Design:The Collaborative Approach 120 You will find that with major OD projects, the concerns, interests, and objectives of different stakeholder groups are frequently in conflict. Different levels of detail may be necessary for different kinds of stake- holder analysis, depending on the characteristics of the organization, the information readily available and the nature of the proposed changes. For example, an organization with hundreds of suppliers may require only a high-level review of them as a group, whereas one with a strong depend- ency on a number of key suppliers may need to treat them differently. You must update the stakeholder information and classification peri- odically during the course of your project. This is because stakeholder positions usually change over time as the implications of a project become clearer. In addition, other stakeholders can emerge as the pro- ject proceeds. For each stakeholder group decide what is going to be the best tech- nique and approach to use to increase their level of commitment to your OD project and its outcomes. Commonly used techniques include: ■ Running change readiness workshops: These are held before the OD project is up and running, to help identify the extent of your organization’s capability for and willingness to change. ■ Revising performance measures: This is a sensible way of ensuring that you align key performance indicators to what the OD project is trying to achieve. This technique is based on the principle that ‘what gets measured gets done’. If you think through what people need to get done and implement measures of this effectively you can elicit the desired behaviours for the new environment. ■ Develop change agents: This technique is one of identifying stake- holder groups and individuals who can play a key role in driving through change with their consistent commitment to and enthusiasm for the change. If you slowly build these up group by group to a critical mass, change agents can help others in the organization understand and accept the change. ■ Adopt a stakeholder: Using this technique requires you to have each member of your organization design team ‘adopt’ an important stakeholder. The adopter then takes on the responsibility of commu- nicating with ‘their’ stakeholder regularly about the project. This pro- vides valuable feedback and warning of when stakeholders might be feeling particularly uncomfortable about the change. Managing Stakeholders 121 ■ Deliver quick wins: This is a very popular technique for generating commitment to an OD project. People usually start to feel committed to the change when they see visible gains from the change early on. ■ Recognize those who are trying to jeopardize the change: You need to keep your antennae tuned to use this technique. Often people become disaffected with OD projects if they are not part of an implementation team and thus feel excluded from what is going on. In other cases people may resent having to take on more of the workload from their colleagues who are working more directly on the project. Once you recognize the signs of resentment, tackle the issues and take appropriate actions. Supporting Personal Change The main barrier to employees and other stakeholders welcoming your OD project tends to be their fear of how the change will affect them per- sonally. Resistance usually results from people feeling wary or scared about what the change will mean for them. For example, will their job change? Will they lose their job? Will they need to work harder in the changed environment? Most fears result from a loss of power and con- trol over the job, uncertainty about what is going to happen next or indeed loss of the job itself. If you can identify and allay or confront these fears as early as possible into the project, and pay attention to new fears as the project proceeds, you will get people involved and improve your chances of making the change work. Concentrating on the employee groups – at a simple, almost stereo- typical level, you can categorize their fears as follows: Senior managers: Members of this group are afraid the project will fail or that the promised outcomes of the change are not achievable. This would have a knock-on effect on their organization’s credibility, particu- larly if they are in the sponsor role. The nature of their job means that sometimes they feel distanced from the work that is going on and wonder what is happening. Middle managers: These stakeholders tend to be fearful that their jobs will go, reduce in scope, or get bigger and less manageable. Most change programmes have significant impact on middle management. Organization Design:The Collaborative Approach 122 You may recall the ‘de-layering’ that took place in large organizations in the 1990s usually affected the middle management group the most. Front-line employees: This group fears that they may lose their job because of the OD project or they fear that their role will become more complex or less enjoyable. Front-line staff tend to be the most overt resisters of change perhaps because they feel they have the least power to influence it. The change curve (Figure 7.1) is a helpful way to describe the typical emotional cycle that people go through when faced with change. When you first moot the idea of changing something, there is often a numbed or shocked feeling as people block off what is happening. As the numb- ness wears off, people start going into denial, often refusing to believe that the change will happen or be implemented successfully. As you communicate more detail about the change, people tend to start worrying about what it means for them and what is going to happen to their jobs. As the change gets underway, people generally start to feel more con- cerned. This is usually quite an unsettling period, where uncertainty is Managing Stakeholders 123 Numbness Depression Search for meaning Testing Acceptance of reality/letting go Low Start of transition Transition is over Internalization High Denial Your self esteem Time Figure 7.1 Stages of change high and people are depressed about the future. Once in the thick of change, where the inevitability of change is accepted, people feel at their lowest. This is because change, even when positive, is not without its complications. When people are ready to move on from this point, they start testing the change – how it will feel, and what it will mean for them. This tends to lead to some kind of association of personal meaning about the change and finally to internalization. That is when the change becomes a part of the ‘norm’. Although everyone knows that life is change (the only certainty is that life is uncertain) often people are fearful because they have not been reassured about what is going on and/or they feel their anxieties have not been taken into account. Your task is to help people to accept the inevitability of change without fearing it. As not all change will result in a positive outcome for all individuals, one way is to help people develop confidence that they can handle whatever comes along. To reduce fear help individuals come to terms with and mitigate whatever it is they feel they are losing. Do this as part of the OD project but recognise you may be able to draw on other resources to help people transition into the new environment. For example, if your organization has an Employee Assistance Programme or an Occupational Health Department you could approach these for help. For you to be successful in your project you must get the majority of the stakeholder to the point where they have internalized the change. You may find that putting new business processes in place is a much simpler task than getting people to use them effectively. This is often the outcome of a poorly managed transition from the old to the new. The ‘grey’ time between doing things the old way and doing things the new way can be the most difficult part of any change experience. Consider and agree your strategy and tactics for helping stakeholders initially understand the impact of change and then think about what has to happen to make this change acceptable to them. In many instances, it will be a case of listening to and talking with people. For example, on larger scale change projects 1:1 sessions, group review meetings, or informal discussions can all help progress the change. Note that the process of undertaking stakeholder analysis is important in two ways. First, you can choose to involve several people in gathering Organization Design:The Collaborative Approach 124 information about the stakeholders and then analysing it, which will increase their involvement, and interest in the project. Second, each contact with a stakeholder (either individual or group) is an opportunity to convey messages about what is going on. Take care to ensure consistent messages if a number of people are gathering information. Trust and Risk Taking As your project starts up and gets going your role is to enable the stake- holder individuals and groups to move from the current state to the future state trusting that what they are moving into will bring benefits. They must be willing to take the risks that will go with making the change. Geoffrey Bellman (2002) discusses aspects of trust and risk related to change projects in his book The Consultants Calling. He notes that ‘you cannot eliminate the real risk present in change work. Building trust can make risk more acceptable, but it will not make risk go away.’ You can do a lot to increase the stakeholders’ ability to trust in the project and be willing to take the risks that go along with it and Bellman discusses these in some detail. The following two lists are adapted from his discussion. To develop trust: ■ Be open about the change project and about yourself. ■ Encourage stakeholders in your project to talk to others who have been through similarly sized and shaped projects. People will learn from others’ experience. ■ Discuss other change projects that you have worked on or been involved with. Show that you are applying your learning from these into this project. ■ Learn about the specifics of people’s role and involvement in the proj- ect. The more you understand where they are coming from, the more you will be able to help them move forward. ■ Show stakeholders that you are sympathetic to the way they think and feel about their role and the part they play in the organization. ■ Find out what they think needs to carry forward into the future state and why. Managing Stakeholders 125 ■ Demonstrate your belief that they can create a successful future state that they will be motivated to work in. ■ Point out how you are trying to help stakeholders achieve a successful outcome to the project. ■ Remind stakeholders that you are all working for the success of the organization. ■ Encourage stakeholders and be supportive especially when they seem to be struggling. ■ Offer input and feedback without criticism. To make risk more acceptable: ■ When you see risky situations point them out and help stakeholders deal with them. ■ Be a model risk taker showing stakeholders that you are willing to take risks yourself. ■ Voice your doubts and fears about the project as well as your hopes and dreams for it. ■ Show that you are not fearless but that you are able to handle your fears – teach them how to do this if appropriate. ■ Follow through on all the commitments you make to them. ■ Model the behaviour you want to engender in the stakeholder groups and in the future organization. For example, if you want more openness, then be open. ■ Share responsibility for getting work done. ■ Help stakeholders recognize that changing is a process and progress will come one step at a time. ■ Prepare stakeholders to mitigate risks by planning, taking planned actions, and staying focused and on track. You may find yourself in more than one dilemma as you try to build trust and a risk-taking environment. Some examples of these (framed as questions) are: ■ How do you work with stakeholders who may be rivals or have com- peting interests and different objectives? ■ How do you re-design for profitability without sacrificing your interest and concern for your people? Organization Design:The Collaborative Approach 126 ■ How do you maintain your own sense of integrity if you have to work on aspects of the change that you do not agree with? (For example, redeploying people, or making them redundant.) Handling dilemmas is another of the skills you have to deploy – particularly in relation to the stakeholders and their responses to the change. It is a good idea to do some work with your management team and key stake- holders on managing dilemmas. The exercise below is an example of one used successfully with stakeholder groups in helping them see each other’s perspectives, build trust amongst them, and come up with a solu- tion that they can work with. (It originated as a real dilemma faced by a department head.) Instructions 1. You must all agree on the same solution. 2. You cannot add to or amend the solutions given. Dilemma Three months ago you joined a new department with the brief to make it more effective and reduce the overlap and duplication. You designed an approach that did this without loss of jobs but with a certain amount of re-skilling. You have just come back from an executive briefing where you have been told to reduce your department by 50% within the next 12 weeks. What do you do? 1. Vigorously build a business case demonstrating that the path you planned will deliver productivity gains sufficient to pay for all the staff without making any cuts. 2. Go along with the corporate injunction despite what it means for your people. 3. Involve your people in coming up with a plan to reduce by a certain amount but not by 50% and make the case for that. 4. Resign your position as you feel that working in that environment compromises your integrity. Working through this sort of exercise with stakeholders helps prepare them for the real dilemmas they will inevitably face as the project proceeds. Managing Stakeholders 127 [...]... at the high level setting and monitoring the direction of the project and keeping it on target The second level of team works on the detail of the design It is not usually one team but several small teams each working on a different aspect of the organization What these aspects are depends on the nature and purpose of your design You are likely to have identified these from the work you have done in the. .. thinking This 143 Organization Design: The Collaborative Approach Organization design phase Manager activity HR practitioner activity Creating the high-level design and the detailed design I I I I Initiating the design process Keeping a firm grip on the progress of the design via the high-level and detailed-level teams Intervening and stepping back appropriately Keeping the day-to-day business running I... happening that the pace is being maintained and that motivation and energy are high 144 Phase Three – Creating the High-level Design and the Detailed Design Work with the sponsor and stakeholders, influencing them, converting them, and ensuring you can count on their support Now let us discuss the HR practitioner’s role Facilitate the design teams in their sessions Concentrate on keeping the pace of the project,... iterate as necessary Figure 8.1 Phase three – creating the high-level design and the detailed design Organization Design: The Collaborative Approach Overview During phases one and two of the OD project, you have done the preparation and scoping work you need to do The output of these phases is a well-constructed business case for the change together with a scoping document Phase three (Figure 8.1) starts... there should be congruence Third, compare the way your organization is performing now in terms of workflow and customer experience with the way you want it to perform in the future This is the design gap 137 Organization Design: The Collaborative Approach Develop various structural options that are likely to deliver the work and the customer experience within the scope you have agreed and documented For... deliver the future state it is time to move on to the detailed design Each work stream then does the detailed design for their aspect of the whole design, working independently but in concert To get this started schedule design meetings, and give teams the agreed design, together with the scoping document and a high-level plan outlining the types of actions and outputs you envisage by work stream Figure... objective is to design, for their part of the whole system, the conditions for peak performance workflow in your organization together with an implementation plan that will get you there Their work must align with each other team’s work to deliver a sum that is greater than the individual parts Depending on the scale of your project, it takes between four and eight weeks for the teams to deliver their implementation... between the two states and listing out everything necessary to do to bridge the gap You also consider the structure of the re-designed organization This phase can take a long time and there is the inherent danger of sacrificing your current operation and profitability while you concentrate on the OD project Think how to handle the balance between getting the new design ready to go whilst keeping the business... quantitative dimension, for example the external transactions between your organization and your customers or partners, the internal transactions between your part of the organization and other parts, the current purpose, the core competences, the work that is done and the outputs delivered Then describe it in a soft or qualitative dimension – the ‘touch’ and ‘tone’ of your organization felt by those interacting.. .Organization Design: The Collaborative Approach It also helps them think through the risks that they are willing to take as they propose solutions or try to come to an agreement Useful Tools Tool 1: Stakeholder Analysis, Version 1 Use this to map all those who are involved in or affected by the change as follows: I I I I I Identify the individuals and groups Determine the commitment of each to the . management. Organization Design: The Collaborative Approach 122 You may recall the ‘de-layering’ that took place in large organizations in the 1990s usually affected the middle management group the most. Front-line. will be Organization Design: The Collaborative Approach 118 changed as a direct result of the change process. In most organizations, these include: Senior management: This group is usually the board. change ᭿ Choosing to re -design ᭿ Handling the transition ᭿ Reviewing the design ᭿ Creating the high- level design and the detailed design 4 32 1 5 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Appoint