Change Management: it’s More than Attitude

Impact on Social Systems
Few utilities, however, have expanded the same energy dealing with the social systems of their organizations. Because of the furious pace of technology deployment, traditional communication and training programs have proved less than optimal in preparing employees for the changing work environment. Instead, utilities have embraced various employee improvement programs intended to “teach” empowerment, leadership, creative thinking, and other traits needed by the new business. These programs, however, have not generated the expected results.

Reasons for Failure
There have been volumes written on why organizations fail in their attempts to transform themselves. Perhaps none summarize it better than John P. Kotter, a Professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. In his latest book, “Leading Change”, Kotter lists eight errors that many organizations make. They are as follows:

Allowing too much complacency.
Failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition.
Underestimating the power of vision.
Under-communicating the vision.
Permitting obstacles to block the new vision.
Failing to create short-term wins.
Declaring victory too soon.
Neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture.

Kotter’s discussion of these points and his resulting recommendations are required reading for anyone interested in effecting change within any organization.

Within the specific environment of utilities, we have seen two other common mistakes that we would like to add to Kotter’s list:

Failure to appreciate the resistance to change.
Failure to involve unions in the guiding coalition.