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A technology organisation had to come to terms with some very radical “right-sizing” as part of a restructure that had been announced some 18 months earlier. The news had had time to sink in with most staff, but its impending implementation dredged up fear, resistance and even hatred of the management team.
The restructure would see staff numbers decrease dramatically.
A survey was conducted to determine how staff felt about the restructure. The survey revealed many were concerned and harboured feelings of fear, resistance and mistrust towards management.
In such a hostile environment, care had to be taken to ensure the energy being expended was channelled to the most positive outcome for all concerned. For this reason, Emerge Consulting was engaged not only to assist the employees to maximise their personal outcomes from the process, but also help them cope with the personal impact of the change.
Organisation-wide half-day workshops were conducted comprising 20 people at each over a four month period.
Executive leadership team workshop provided strategies and tools to assist in managing themselves through the change and in creating a supportive culture for staff during the transition.
People leaders workshop was designed to enable managers to manage themselves and lead their teams through organisational change effectively, minimising the potential ‘performance dip’.
Operational staff workshops provided tools to allow them to take control of their own feelings about the process they were participating in and also to help increase their personal resilience and manage the change.
The outcome was such a success as managers and staff who’d attended encouraged their colleagues to attend which meant that additional sessions were scheduled to meet the demand. In addition, additional programs to further upskill managers and staff are being held in 2015.
Evaluations conducted with the staff reinforced that participants rated the program to be of extreme benefit. Staff were motivated to take ownership of the impact of the change process to them and to take action (rather than complain) to set them up for success with future employment prospects.
