Rate of change and HRM

As rate of change in the company increases, what does HRM do differently? What do leaders do differently?

We are finding today that organizations are not going from the 'no change' state to a change or transformation initiative. They are all changing all the time. What differs is the rate of change and how it's affecting different people, teams and the company.

In some new research that we've been doing with clients and in the leadership pulse, we are learning that the rate of change lens is important for understanding anything from employee engagement to why people leave the organization to productivity and sales. Rate of change not just change is the critical factor in understanding your organization.

Knowing that, here are a few tips on managing in a world where rate of change continues to change on a frequent basis:

* What has to go fast ALWAYS is your ability to listen. Create fast processes for moving communications from the employee to management NOT just from management to employees.

* Focus extra attention on those pockets of the organization that are in the 'hot seats' - where change starts or where change is really fast.

* Measure rate of change, not just at the company level but at the employee at team level.

* Look for gaps in rate of change metrics. We find that the most disengaged people are those who feel their rate of change is different from the rate of change of the people around them.

Let's CHANGE change management while we're at it. Many of the models of change management were built in the 60s, when we had time to grieve the loss of the old and build toward the new. That's not the case today.

More on the CHANGING of change management in the next blog.

Tell me about your firm's rate of change and what's working and not working in the way it's being managed.