Replying to LO24862 --
Hi Roy,
Culture is one of the toughest hurdles to take in terms of changing. Well
literature enough on this (Schein, Sackmann, Hofstede etc.) In fact
communication is the only way to influence culture in the positive sense.
Of course there are some instruments that will help. For instance in the
first example overcome resistance from clients, champions and sponsers:
encapsulate the from the start. Make them part of the problem. Use their
ideas to set up the change project.
I used this tecnique often, encountering IT departments at the client.
They often resist any change, because it can affect their position of
expert within the company. A way of resisting is often to ridicule remarks
of another person in the group. If this happens I take the remark
seriously and ask the person who made the remark to help thinking on the
solution. Importance on people staff and investing in people can be made
"harder" than just communication. You can set up a business case of hard
figures to indicate the costs: what will happen if you don't invest in
people (knowledge loss, retrain people, less quality for the customer,
etc.). A well accepted instrument to measure the organziation is the
balanced scorecard. For properly getting the people side in it, you will
have to add a fifth perspective: human resources. I have published three
article together with PeopleSoft on this topic here in Holland.
Kind regards,
Gijs Houtzagers
principal consultant HRIS and employee benefit systems
email: G.Houtzagers@inter.nl.net
Tel: 31 (0)20 6386467
Cellphone: 31 (0)6 22 934 676
Check for (free) white papers on HR, HR instruments and ICT solutions:
www.inter.nl.net/users/houtzagers
> Are Ian's questions related to the global situation or are they related to
> the UK business climate (culture). Personally being UK based, I can
> identify with the questions but I would like to hear whether the same is
> true in other countries.
--"Gijs Houtzagers" <G.Houtzagers@inter.nl.net>
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