Transformational change has an effect on all phases of an organization from the front line employee, facility staff to the external business development team. Even though these positions might not be directly related to the overall business and delivering goods, they are essential in the overall business performance and can have an impact on the large scale change that might be happening within the organization. In this exercise, internal and external stakeholders will be addressed and how they are affected by transformational change. In addition, human resources will be explored in relation to personally policies that can either harm or help the change process. Lastly, organizational culture will be addressed as a performance link to transformational change. The organization that will be examined will be an education corporation and the viewpoint taken will be that of an organizational development consultant.
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Internal and External Stakeholders
Leadership needs to take into account stakeholders when looking to create a shift in organizational culture through change. According to Marino (2007) organizations are getting more and more stakeholders involved in the change process as a potential focus group or even a think tank for ideas to discuss successes and potential ramifications of change. Upon entering an organization, consultants will need to have a game plan when working with leadership in relation to what has been tried, implemented and has proven successful. In addition, consultants need to have a timeline, given by leaders, as to when these tactics have been used. For example, when was the last meeting for the internal stakeholders and what was accomplished? In this instance, the consultant can gain a lot of information from leadership, such as the questions and answers that were given by stakeholders, the agenda of the meeting and what was covered and according to Marino (2007) mission and vision statements, updating or core values and goals.
Whether leadership is dealing with internal or external stakeholders, it is important that there is a central vision in place and that everyone understands what steps are necessary for improvement and the reasons why they are important. Keep records of all information given will also help the organization with learning but also a detailed record of what has been tried and used in the past.
In the organization that is being reviewed, multiple focus groups and social media questionaries' were sent to stakeholders within the organization as well as external customers and vendors. It is this writers interruption that these actions are used to gage the temperature of the culture surrounding the organization to see if it is right for the change or any future changes. What has been observed is that change has been happening so the temperature of the stakeholders must have been right.
Human Resources Personnel Polices
Depending on the change or organizational shift, human resources will need to complete some updating of their systems. Whether it is an addition too or a merger within the corporate structure or a deletion of a department, human resources will need to be accountable for any changes that are made. As a consultant, identifying the needed changes that will affect the human resource system in response to change is a key component while, according to Edgley, Huisman (2011) keeping in mind the employee and human capital component of the organization Duberly and Burns (1993) explored how organizations change and how it affects the human resources system. At a micro level of change, traditional human resources policies should not be affected and could continue to compliant the change within the organization. Larger changes will have significant impact, for example, training policies, long-term strategy or anything within the macro organizational level could change the dynamic of the organization cause policies to change and/or shift. Consultants will need to be able to address these macro changes and help brainstorm solutions to these areas affected.
Higher education is continually in flux with new rules and regulations. The organization that is being studied has made many macro level changes Team management that include organizational learning, training and culture. For example, human resources has released many different leadership modules, that when used, can help professional grow individual employees. This is an example of a positive change at the macro level.
Organizational Culture
There has been some talk already concerning organizational culture and its effects on transformational change. In this writer's opinion, if culture is not addressed during the change process then change will almost certainly fail. Zabid, Sambasivan, and Azmanwani (2004) explored organizational change and found that change is a very unique process for each organization but there needs to be an organized culture established. Employee attitudes can be difficult to change if there is no trust in their leadership and many factors can affect change such as size of organization, internal and external factors and initial movement forward. Culture, according to Zabid, Sambasivan, and Azmanwani (2004) is values and beliefs of the organization and its members. If these values and beliefs are disrupted during a change process, resistance to change could be in the future. As a consultant for an organization, completing a cultural assessment would be a very first step to analyze whether or not the organization is ready to change and ample communication has taken place. Cameron and Quinn (2011) provide an assessment that could be used called Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument or OCAI. This assessment can help determine what kind of culture there is and based on those results, work with leadership to provide steps to create a comprehensive change plan.
Within the organization being assessed by this writer, change is not measured it is assumed among stakeholders both internal and external. This writer has plans to utilize the OCAI assessment in his department to help gage the temperature of the culture and provide solutions to internal issues. Though this will be on a department level, this assessment could do wonders once the exposure has been given and solutions that work have been identified.
Conclusion
Zabid, Sambasivan, and Azmanwani (2004) sum up this exercise by stating that change is a movement away from the present and a movement toward the future. The very meaning of change means to do differently or to alter. Organizations will need to be accountable for all phases of their transformational change such as stakeholders, human resources and organizational culture. Bringing in external consultants can help bring an unbiased opinion to leadership to help execute these change transformations. Without addressing each of these phases, organizations will find it very hard to lead a successful transformation.
References
Cameron, K. S., & Quinn, R. E. (2011). Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. San Francisco: Josser - Bass.
Duberley, J. P., & Burns, N. D. (1993). Organizational configurations: Implications for the human resource-personnel management debate. Personnel Review, 22(4), 26.
Edgley-Pyshorn, C., & Huisman, J. (2011). The role of the HR department in organisational change in a british university.Journal of Organizational Change Management, 24(5), 610-625.
Marino, J. J. (2007). A new paradigm for organizational change: Involving customers and stakeholders in the improvement process. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 30(1), 10-12.
Zabid, A. R., Sambasivan, M., & Azmawani, A. R. (2004). The influence of organizational culture on attitudes toward organizational change. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25(1), 161-179.
The marketing components that used to generate leads -- product, performance, promotion and price --are no longer effective. The tools for selling -- lots of sales calls, lunches, golf and give-always -- are expensive and inefficient. In the 21st century, selling and business development require the following:
* Prospecting Using the Internet
* Relationship Selling
* Network Selling and
* Investigative Selling.
Prospecting Using the Internet
Cold calling is dead. It's not productive. It's demoralizing. It's expensive. Prospecting in the 21st century involves setting the stage for people and companies to find you so that you can solve their problems. Flaunting advertisements and brochures is also a waste. Everyone goes to the Internet these days to find solutions to their problems. Therefore, the successful sales person will have to know how to use the Internet to generate qualified leads. Corporations should have an Internet program, but territory and product-line sales people should have their own Internet marketing program as well. And it's not about having a website, it's much more. This is the passive side of prospecting. This means that sales and business development professionals must set up an aggressive Internet Marketing process for their territory or product so that the people they want to do business with will come to them.
Relationship Selling
The other 21st Century prospecting element is the active side of prospecting. This is where you use professional relationships to find out about problems or opportunities where you can assist. There are so many opportunities for a sales person or account manager to discover within their existing and old/lost accounts. Using professional relationships make this prospecting method effective and easy.
Sales and Business Development people with professional relationships are seen as a resource to protect or enhance buyers' careers. These people will be open to give information and coach you for cross-sells into their business unit, associate divisions and/or other product lines. If you develop professional relationships, these people will give you qualified leads, buy more and more from you, and refer you to others.
Network Selling
However, one has to learn how to use these relationships to get networked to others. There are two focuses for successful selling in the 21 Century:
1. You must spread like a virus in your customers' organizations. I use the phrase - move up and out.
2. You must get to the profit-center leaders, C-level executives, and senior staff of the business units you sell into and develop professional relationships with these people to effectively close sales, cross-sell and be seen as the preferred supplier. Hanging out with the subordinates will never secure your position with your customers.
The only way you'll move up and out and connect with the leaders is by using your professional relationships to network you to others. People with whom you've developed credibility -- your Golden Network as I call it -- will help you if asked. But if they are not asked for a referral and introduction to others, they will rarely offer to connect you with the leaders and others you should be meeting. So you must ask for their help.
To make the networking process productive, what you ask for, how you ask for it, and where you look for help will make all the difference between getting to the right people and getting to useless people for your initiative. This process is Network Selling.
Investigative Selling
Once a sales or business development person connects with a person of value, using his or her network connection, the goal is to convert that individual into his or her Golden Network. In other words the sales or BD person will have to develop a professional relationship with this new contact.
People will consider another individual a professional relationship only if there is something in it for them. So a sales or BD person needs to investigate the critical drivers of their target contact in order to learn what this person values that s/he can deliver. Everyone is different and without knowing each individual's triggers, a sales person will flounder or worst yet, become annoying. But if the sales person can make the connections between the desires and the deliverables, a relationship can be established, and then this new contact will continue networking you up and out until you are connected to the leaders and their staffs.
The process for determining one's triggers is Investigative Selling. It requires knowing the questions to ask and how to ask them. Although this sounds simple, it requires finesse, skill and confidence. Investigative Selling also requires effective listening, and the ability to expose and entice. Both of these are advanced skills never taught in schools and rarely taught in product or sales training. So the successful sales or business development person will have to learn these Investigative Selling skills and be able to take them seamlessly to the street.
The sooner the sales or business development person masters these Internet Marketing, Relationships, Network and Investigative Selling Skills, the sooner sales will close and closing ratios rise.