Supporting communication and the change management process during organizational restructuring
In an organization with more than 3500 employees, the management badly felt the need for a new organizational structure to enable more effective and more flexible operations. This was not the first time the organization tried reorganizations. In the previous years there were several attempts, but the results were not satisfactory, and it dramatically undermined the reliability of the management in the employees’ eyes. Management realized the failure was due to one-sided communication; therefore, they decided to involve OD consultants for implementing involvement-based change management.
Future-shaping workshops were organized, where the expected changes were elaborated with the key opinion leaders of the organization together.
The Organizational Network Analysis were able to support these workshops by identifying those employees who are the key employees and who can provide support for these future-shaping workshops.
We were looking for key opinion leaders according to 4 characteristics:
- Innovators and initiators
- Problem solvers who can carry out the initiatives
- Popular colleagues whose opinions others regard most highly
- Professional reference points who affect others the most professionally
Key opinion leaders were identified with the help of Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) survey. As a result of the employee questionnaire, we found the people who have the greatest impact on others, according to the most relevant organizational values which were identified by the leaders.
These key opinion leaders received an invitation for the future-shaper workshops. As they were not forced to participate, those who accepted the invitation were not only participants anymore, but also „future shapers” themselves. The willingness to change, and the opportunity to be listened to and to be part of the processes increased their motivation and their commitment towards the workshops and the task. They could share their ideas about the new processes, and also complete them with some suggestions. Later they became the „ambassadors of changes”, and so they spread the information and answers other colleagues’ questions or doubts.
Thanks to this concept – involving colleagues into supporting and shaping the processes – we helped the whole organization adapt to the changes with much less resistance, from both the management and the employees’ side. They went through the inevitable changes and built a new organizational structure – while they increased the support of the employees and their trust in the management.
Article by Maven7, creators of the unique Firm Net Online tool for Organizational network Analysis. Find out more:
www.firmnetonline.com/