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Leading in a changing environment
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai last year announced the government's vision and Dubai Strategic Plan 2015, highlighting how Dubai will become the city of the future.
The plan, launched under the theme 'Dubai...Where The Future Begins', sets out a strategic approach that focuses on developing the emirate's most dynamic economic sectors.
Against this backdrop business is booming attracting prominent international organisations, enhancing the growth of regional companies and expansion of small firms.
Leaders know that evolution in business is a prerequisite for growth, that opportunities for expansion and growth inevitably bring major change.
But in today's economy, with faster communication and knowledge acquisition, we often have limited time to manage the complexity of changes that are occurring around us.
The challenge of managing change is highlighted in 'McKinsey Global Survey 2007' (1) with feedback from 1,300 executives, who acknowledged the 'intensifying battle for talent' and concern about a shifting centre of economic activity - when managing growth at different stages and change across the organisation, were key issues.
Closer to home, input from DBM Arabian Gulf's 2008 Regional HR Survey demonstrates that for over half of the 121 organisations providing feedback, managing resistance to change and dealing with all facets of change itself were major concerns.
This article will focus on the leader's role in a changing environment, sharing DBM's experience and discussion with senior decision-makers on how they maximize the opportunities in leading a rapidly expanding company".
Preparing team members
There is a consensus that preparing team members for changing new roles is a priority but one that can easily be overlooked. Even an experienced senior manager can struggle to find his /her feet' when they move into a challenging 'stretch' role with research showing that 40-50% of new hires fail within the first year (2).
There are costly implications for the organisation; we know this will impact the performance of direct reports, peers and superiors which is on average 12-13 people.
For the HR Director of an international company where 50% of employees had less than two years service, actively supporting individuals moving into new roles became a priority.
A practical solution was encouraging new managers to compile a 'transition plan', which took into account the needs of their key stakeholders. The partners of newly joined expatriate managers are offered support when they first move to Dubai with a 'partner career coaching' programme.
For the HR Director this reinforces the time and investment in the recruitment and selection process during a time when retention of new talent is key.
Overcoming resistance
We are creatures of habit and disruption or rapid change can quickly take away the feeling of ‘being in control', placing us firmly outside of our comfort zone. In this situation 'resistance to change' can be a normal reaction to the process.
A person's view of the alteration determines whether resistance occurs. To prepare for this, try to put yourself in the other person's shoes - will they see the change ahead as a challenge or exciting opportunity?
If perceived as a challenge, open resistance is easier to deal with than hidden or covert reactions. For the CEO of one Project Design Company this meant inviting a disgruntled senior manager to join the 'Change Committee'.
In doing so, he risked giving the long standing manager a platform to air his grievances but this was outweighed by creating an environment where hidden concerns were debated openly.
His plan worked and by the time the committee was disbanded at the end of the project, the disgruntle manager had become a spokesperson for driving change forward.
Focus on culture
A rapidly growing organisation can be a powerful distraction impacting on all aspects of the operation. It times of evolution, if the company culture is ignored there is a real danger the results will be ultimately unacceptable.
Company culture can be used to provide a way for employees to understand important decisions. Here leaders have a crucial part to play in keeping the history alive by sharing stories and celebrating success, acting as a powerful role model for all to see.
The Senior Team of an FMCG organisation honoured company values and a culture of 'transparent and open communication' by sharing news with a functional team that by the end of the year, due to a global restructure, their positions were being transferred to another region.
At this time unless new positions were found in Dubai they would be given three months notice and a redundancy package.
Feedback after the announcement illustrated that after the initial shock the function team appreciated the openness of the communication and the longer period of notice this had in effect given them.
Measure and review
At the end of a 'Managing Change' programme it can be valuable to ask the group for anonymous feedback on questions such as: 'I understand my role in this change process and how I can contribute to the success of the organisation'.
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