Change in Organizations
Introduction
Change agents and managers need to think of the following rules. The rules are commonly known as Rule of thumb for change agents. The rules include, stay alive, start where the system is, never work uphill, work in the most promising arena, don’t argue if you cannot win, play God a little, do not use one when two could do it, do not over organize, innovation requires a brilliant idea, initiative, and a few friends. Load experience for success, light many fires, keep an optimistic bias and capture the most.
Stay alive: A proper coordination and communication between all departments should be effective. Proper communication will reduce the work of the leader but still bring forth fruits (Herbert, 2014). Leaders should not sacrifice all their energy in one matter but delegate duties to the rest of the members.
Stay where the system is: Implementation of this rule has always been a problem for many. Before a change agent kick off the ball, diagnosis of the system should be its priority(Cawsey, Deszca, & Ingols, 2016). The client’s needs should be catered for in any change. Where the customers are not satisfied then the change is useless. Erase errors from the system for the change to be effective.
Never work uphill: A change will face opposition. Tackling the opposition determines whether you are working uphill or downhill (Food and Argricultural Organization, 2012). Working uphill is literally providing an equal and opposite force to those against the change. This approach will consume more energy in trying to outdo others at the expense of the developments in the organization.
Consider having many good ideas, initiative, and a few friends: many hands are better than one. A leader should welcome new ideas always. The ideas should be evaluated and the viable ones put into effect. Secondly, you need to be cautious on of friends you keep close to you. Not all the friends will like to see you prosper or help you move to the top. Business time should not be mixed up with friendship.
Load Experiments for success: Success is not a try and error thing. A change agent should take time to create a prototype model before enforcing the change. If you are in a position of siting some challenges in the prototype then there are higher chances of avoiding them in the final model(Cawsey, Deszca, & Ingols, 2016). Experiments will help you reflect on the operations within the organization to determine where change is essential.
References
Food and Argricultural Organization. (2012). “Water and Poverty, an Issue of Life and Livelihoods”. Water Development and Management Unit.
Trupper , F. C., G. D., & C. I. (2016). Organizational Change: An Action-Oriented Toolkit, Volume 2. London: Business and Economics.
