Company Can Flourish If Change Is Made Routine

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Judy Olian
(Judy Olian is Dean of Penn State's Smeal College of Business and is a leading expert on strategic human resources management.)

Continuous change is the status quo in organizations. It's impossible to remain competitive without agitating for change, as contradictory as that sounds. The challenges are not just to routinize change, but also to sustain creative energy without inflicting battle fatigue or burnout on employees.

Here are some tools to embed change into the routines of an organization.

• Hire people who gravitate towards change, and appear to have a track record as drivers of creativity and innovation. In hiring individuals into a firm or unit, descriptions like "needs structure", "defensive", or "protective of traditions" should serve as red flags when considering candidates.

• Build rotations and internal mobility into the cultural fabric of the organization. Donald Schaeffer, a former governor of Maryland and a legendary public administrator, engaged in musical chairs each summer among his cabinet secretaries. Every cabinet secretary was moved into another's position for the summer months, with the benefit of exposing the cabinet members to the issues confronted by their peers, providing them with greater insights into what each did. It also provided alternative lens and perspectives into a particular function, bringing new ideas and collaborative opportunities to the table.

• Hold managers accountable for talent development. Many managers are highly protective of their best employees, and hide them lest they be promoted. However, promotions are a sign of a managers' success, as talent developers and mentors, for which they should be held accountable. Employees should be actively encouraged to volunteer for temporary team assignments to keep their passions alive, and to help them identify challenging opportunities among the evolving needs of the organization. These are key tools for internal organizational renewal.

• Institutionalize orientation to facilitate internal moves. Internal mobility needs to be made easier by achieving quick learning on the new job. New employees and managers should have standard routines for speedy orientation as they enter a new job, rather than being left to fend for themselves. Teams should have routines when they form to quickly socialize new members, and help them rapidly execute their assignments. New or transferred employees might need to shadow managers or peers in order to accelerate the learning curve.

• Keep training vibrant. Make it easy for individuals to reskill, with ongoing short courses in break-through thinking. Create flash exposures to new technologies or new processes, without creating burdensome learning processes. Having to disappear for a two-week program may be a greater juggling challenge than taking three hours to attend a learning workshop in a next-door building.

• Diversity of every form breeds unconventional thinking. The more diverse the workforce, the greater the likelihood of maverick and radical ideas.

• Demonstrate acceptance of rebellious thinking, and of those who constructively challenge the system. If people with radical ideas are shut down every time, break-through thinking will dissipate and disappear.

• Communicate constantly about the drivers and successes of change. Karen Jansen of Smeal's College of Business at Penn State, has found that carefully timed events and announcements directly impact the continued momentum for change.

Change cannot be sustained without reinforcement. It must be routinized through a variety of selection processes, managerial accountability, and operating routines that systematize innovation despite battle fatigue. Over time, you'll attract people who thrive on change and who naturally sustain it. That's a ticket to competitive advantage.

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REPORTERS & EDITORS: For more information, please contact Wyatt DuBois in the Smeal College of Business Media Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or wed112@psu.edu .

Penn State's Smeal College of Business offers highly ranked undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, Ph.D., and executive education opportunities to more than 5,500 students at all levels. Featuring academic departments of accounting, finance, marketing, insurance and real estate, management, and supply chain and information systems, the college is also home to major research centers such as the Center for Supply Chain Research, the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, the eBusiness Research Center, the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Center for Global Business Studies, and the Center for the Management of Technological and Organizational Change.

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