Whether it is your wardrobe, friends or your job, things change all the time. With change being the most constant element in this world, adapting to change could be easy or turn out to be a tough task in hand, especially when an organisation undergoes change.
Mergers and acquisitions, new business models or restructuring of the company, not only affects the functioning of the firm but its workforce too. Manpower, the core of most organisations especially in the knowledge industries, should be assisted during transformation in the company to adapt to change and inturn function effectively.
“Unless you have great talent you can never challenge change and turn it into an advantage,” said Pranesh Anthapur, COO, Yahoo! India R&D during a panel discussion “Managing Change from Human Capital Perspective” held recently by Natural Search, a multistream IT company. Mr Anthapur added, “If you don’t manage change successfully your best employees will leave, hence organisations should  make key employees and leaders their partners.”
Talent, which cannot be altered at the click of a mouse, is the most difficult thing to change. “For change to be effective, there is a need for change in abilities, rewards/recognition and the new system is accepted with excitement and not fear,” said Ranjan N Acharya, Senior VP, Corporate Human Resources Development, Wipro. Change Management connotes different things at each level in the organisation.
For an employee: He needs to accept change and move on.
For management: They need to deal with it and also promote it.
For chief executives: They should actively promote and champion the change.
In this fast moving economy, organisations are witnessing high growth and change in business models. And this is certainly percolating to the employees too. While some adapt and move on quickly, a few stubborn individuals resist and cling on to the past, affecting the processes and functioning of a firm. Speaking on managing change, Nandan Nilekani, CEO and Chairman of Infosys Technologies said, “We try to inculcate in our employees, that change is inevitable in business and likewise in personal life too.”
Adapting and learning new ways is essential for employees and organisations to be successful, and for this, effective communication is important. As a famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt goes: “Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!.’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.”
“Change in large companies is difficult, as it takes a lot of effort to communicate. You have to keep all the channels open and cut through all the layers in the organisation to deal with it,” explained Mr Nilekani.
Change, that comes with no warning may be after years or the next morning. Some changes are sudden but many others are gradual. But one must be able to catch this wave of change by being alert of the first signs of change.
Besides being alert, experts say that individuals especially leaders must be able to anticipate change even when things are going the right way.
According to Mr Nilekani companies which can anitcipate and adapt to change do well compared to others. And finally, one should not fear change but embrace it and look at it as an opportunity to learn from.The Panel discussion was organised by Natural Search as a part of its Annual Day celebration.