While we recognise the importance of the managers' role in successful transformation, we often neglect the fact that change adoption needs to happen at the core of the organisational workforce - the front-line employees. Too much focus and trust might have been placed on our managers' ability to lead, that we lost the ability to notice why transformation and change management are failing.
According to McKinsey & Company's latest Global Survey on Transformation Success, organisations' ability to improve, turning around performance and organisational health is no better than they were a decade ago. The results of the survey provided insight that for transformations to have a better chance of success, companies need to devise better people strategy, more consistent communication, and take another look at how they can better involve front-line employees to obtain their buy-in. In simplicity, an organisation's successful transformation depends very much on everyone knowing their specific roles and having the know-how to carry out their responsibilities. This means that managers play a vital role in engaging and coaching their employees, communicating impending changes and relating why they are taking place. In companies that underwent successful transformations, employees at every level and role tended to be more involved and engaged, especially at lower levels of the organisational structure.
*Respondents were participants who chose "Very Engaged" and "Somewhat Engaged". All others were excluded. Source: McKinsey & Company
Moreover, the larger the company, the less likely front-line employees are going to be observed to be engaged in transformations. In the McKinsey survey report, only 45% of the participants at larger companies (i.e. at least $1 billion in revenue or more) said front-line employees were engaged as compared to 58% in smaller organisations. The matter is significantly worsened when line managers are ill-informed or loafing around. Only an abysmal 3% of respondents reported success of transformation when line managers and employees are disengaged.
Managers need to be better trained and prepared to coach employees
There are a wide range of change management certification programmes that companies can send their managers to, to gain knowledge of best practices and structured methodologies to achieve their desired transformational change outcomes. Yet, despite the importance of taking actions to communicate with employees and engaging employees, only 23-37% of managers and supervisors undergo certified programmes in change management, as reported in Prosci® 2016 Best Practices in Change Management Benchmarking Report.
CMC partnership delivers the full range of Prosci® role based change management workshops. In particular, the Prosci® Managers Workshop is a one day workshop aimed at equipping managers with the skills and techniques to lead change initiatives, coach employees, and regulate the impact of change on themselves. Participants are introduced the Prosci® ADKAR© Model and taught how to apply it to deliver successful transformation.
You might also be interested in the Change Management Maturity Model Audit...
Looking to understand how your organisation's change management maturity can be assessed? Or do you need to see how an assessment of organisational change management maturity contributes to your business case for investing in change management? Download our free guide to learn more.
