Change
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Macro’s senior management involved too. While Graham says the company likes to keep its approach to change simple, he hits all of the points that psychologists suggest. “We communicate a sense of urgency, as well as the benefits of the suggested change, and a vision of how it makes Macro better,” he says. “Then we break the change process down into smaller pieces or quick wins, and try to involve a representative from all groups affected to deliver the change.” These cues will be familiar to anyone who has been through a change management programme elsewhere in the world, but the fact is there are some regional differences that go beyond the wide variety of cultural backgrounds that can be found here. Any change programme has to consider how these will play out when it is being designed and delivered. “One of the things we found is that you have to make the ideas tangible,” says Marjola Rintjema, lead consultant for communication and change management at Willis Towers Watson. Rintjema was involved with a relocation project for a client in Bahrain. The business found it hard to appreciate the difference having a change management programme around the relocation would make: the solution was to undertake some role playing and experience a first day in a new location, where they didn’t know anything about their surroundings. “They had to play it out and then we did the same scenario again, but this time we’d given them some information,” says Rintjema. “Things like role playing and making it tangible work very well.” While the involvement of top management is important, Rintjema believes it is critical for businesses in the Middle East; because of the fairly hierarchical nature of regional organisations, people buy into change more quickly if it comes from the top. Leveraging personal relationships can also move change along, and Rintjema recommends you undertake stakeholder management around who knows who, and who can initiate critical conversations. “You have to make sure your leaders fully understand why the change is important and ask them to support the change visibly and make it personal, so that people see the boss is really buying into this,” she says. She cites the example of a client in Egypt going through a sensitive grading and salary structure change. The CEO decided to handle the communications himself, to allay any fears and reduce the chance of mistrust creeping in. He has gone through a series 20
People Management Middle East
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CHANGE – one step at a time Create a strong change model. Know what you have to go through, follow clear steps and analyse who it will affect, and how. This helps create a line of sight to your goals and gets everyone on the same page.
Design the change effort so that you can get some visible early wins. This is critical once the initial push has happened and energy around the change starts to drop off. People need to see meaningful progress in a short period of time – that is what will maintain momentum and energy. Understand what motivates your people, develop empathy and make sure the design of the change programme represents that. It’s easier to get people moving in the right direction if there is something in it for them too.
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Create a clear and consistent story to explain the change. People want to feel like their organisation knows what it is doing, and a clear message that is easily explained will help to build confidence.
Align the reward system with the new behaviours you are looking for. There’s no point pushing for change if people’s old habits still find reward in their day-to-day work.
Ensure top management is involved and buys in to the idea. Any large change simply won’t work unless they are on board. Many organisations fail here, especially when the change is driven by HR. Build capability and confidence to support the change. Timely training, plenty of time to practise and pilot programmes will all help better prepare people to execute the changes effectively.
Listen. Change programmes can be daunting, and if people are losing their jobs it can be even harder. Giving people the scope to vent and to share their worries helps takes the heat off and demonstrates caring.
of town hall meetings and has been the face of the change, making himself directly available to employees to answer concerns as they arise. “He is trusted and fairly new in his role,” says Rintjema. “People trust him because he’s a guy who walks around and knows many people and has been with the company a long time. Now that they are linking the change to him personally, there is suddenly much more credibility for this project.” Rintjema also pushes for key stakeholders to be involved at an early stage, even when the natural inclination is to go to people with a finished plan. “That is usually not the right way because, like everywhere, people like to be involved,” she says. “They like to understand what is happening and they don’t want to be told one day in advance that everything is going to change.” This can take a lot of persuasion, but changing work habits is no easier for senior leaders than for anyone else. Beginning a conversation about what needs to happen and what the objectives are is a good place to start. The alternative is to wait for change to be done to you – and we all know how that feels.
Learn practical strategies to help your organisation manage change with the Organisational Development and Change (2nd edition) toolkit from the CIPD. Revised to reflect the complexities of change in a modern business environment, the toolkit covers themes including resilience, dealing with 24/7 change and the importance of understanding leadership capabilities and styles. For more information, visit bit.ly/CIPDtoolkit