Jodi
Hello.
I recognise what you describe: I see it in my local government clients in
the UK. My most recent client set about re-structuring from a CEO and 7
directorates to a CEO, 2 Directorates and 12 middle level service
managers. And the whole thing was conceived and put into place in 3
months.
You note I haven't included the word planned. There was so little it
transpires, and now the 12 middle managers, first line managers and group
supervisors are trying, in words akin the the Dance of Change, "unpack and
translate" the ideas of the CEO and his cohorts into a working structure
that the coalface staff can live with. They too, are suffering from the
confusion that inevitably occurs after change takes place, and especially
when so many staff have not been included in the preparation for change,
nor involved in planning how it will happen in their sections.
We have one or two excellent examples of adoption of LO ideas in govt
circles in the UK. Next week I am attending the annual conference of the
British Deming Association, and the Assistant Finance Director of perhaps
the best example will be talking about how her department adopted such
ideas, along with Deming's use of PDSA etc to bring about many examples of
small scale continuous change. I know that some of these improvements
were done by groups of 2 or 3 admin staff: I have seen the PDSA plans and
Control Charts on the walls.
I will produce a resume of her talk and post it on this list at the end of
next week.
In the meantime, I recommend a reading of William Bridges' "Transitions"
which explained very clearly how staff are driven into such low morale
situations. Perhaps part of your work could be to use Bridges' ideas to
enlighten your management as to what happens to folk when they are faced
with very severe changes, i.e losses, in their working lives.
Roy Greenhalgh
--Roy Greenhalgh <rgreenh@ibm.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>