A Guide to Organized Change

Based on the book “No More Darn Buzzwords” by David Chaudron, Ph.D.
Visit the Organized Change website or buy the book here

Beyond the Buzzwords
Perhaps the most asked but least answered question in business today is, "What can we do to make our business survive and grow?" There are hundreds, if not thousands, of techniques, solutions, and methods that claim to help businesses improve productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction. Business executives can choose from a long menu of buzzword-laden programs-Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, Customer Satisfaction, Re-engineering, Teambuilding, and on and on. We're left feeling like hungry shoppers in a supermarket-faced by so many brands, sizes, and varieties that choosing just one becomes almost impossible.

To get started, organizations need to look beyond the buzzwords and focus on the general principles underlying organized change. This section of the Business Process Management Solution Center is designed to give you a framework for coping with organizational change-independent of buzzwords or the latest management fad. Only after this broader perspective is gained should you attempt to shop for a "buzzword program" to implement.

The Levels of Organizational Change
The most fundamental choice facing your business is one completely overlooked by many businesses: At what 'level' of change should we begin?

There are four levels of organizational change:

LEVEL 1 - Anticipating the future
LEVEL 2 - Defining 'core competencies' and goals
LEVEL 3 - Re-engineering processes
LEVEL 4 - Incrementally improving processes

Where do I start?
The four levels share many of the same goals: increasing customer satisfaction, doing things right the first time, developing greater employee productivity, etc. But despite the similarities, these levels differ in the methods they use to reach these goals.

Levels One through Three involve looking at 'big picture' elements-analyzing the marketplace, out-sourcing, buying/selling subsidiaries, conducting 'out-of-the box' thinking, and making substantial changes in the management and support systems of the company. Companies that use these methods tend to have a high desire for change, require risk-tolerant management, need relatively few constraints, and must have substantial consensus among management about what to do. These companies are often found in fast-moving industries, such as electronics, information systems, and telecommunications.

On the other hand, companies that use mostly incremental tools (Level Four) believe they only need modest change, with little risk and many constraints. Some mature industries, such as military and aerospace, are naturally incremental in nature. In others, bolder change might be required, but management in these companies may lack consensus on what changes to make, so the safest course seems to be to make very few.

Even Level Four organizations may want to conduct strategic, Level One, planning exercises even if they believe that incremental change is sufficient to solve their problems. By comparing their own internal processes with external benchmarks, management can get a better idea of how much change is really necessary.