Revitalising the Organisation

If only . . . we knew why our organisation still lacks vitality, despite the changes we've made to our strategy, structure and systems.

Many organisations are very good at introducing new business strategies, constructing and peopling new organisation charts and introducing new processes, systems and procedures. Unfortunately, the rapid and sustained improvement in organisational performance that these are expected to bring often doesn't materialise, causing disappointment and frustration.

Within the organisation as a whole, this often leads to the view that senior management has lost direction rather than clarified it; that it has reorganised simply because it had failed to make the existing organisation work properly; and that it has replaced well honed routines with chaos and confusion.

This pattern occurs time and time again, as organisations confuse the intellectual and physical aspects of the process (such as the strategic, structural and system aspects of change) with the psychological and emotional impact that these have on people. In general, expertise in strategic management, system development and project delivery usually means that the former take place when the plan says that they will. In contrast, as Bridges points out in Managing Transitions, the latter changes take place much more slowly - and much less predictably.

Given this, how can leaders restore the vitality of their organisations during and after major changes? And can these dysfunctional effects be avoided in the first place?