It is common in the workplace to hear statements from leaders about change. Statements like: change is a constant or the only thing that is constant is change. The doom and gloom of change has had a negative connotation for quite some time. Organizational change doesn’t have to be negative, painful, or even disruptive if done right from the start. The goal of his article is to explore different strategies that can be used in a transformational change strategy. The point of view will be from a consultant working within a higher education organization. These strategies to be examined will be search conferences, top-down and bottom-up, experimental, quality, and lead / lag. The goal is to understand these strategies and how they can be applied in a higher educational setting.

Search Conferences

Search conferences are a great strategy to use as a consultant to gain a strategic understanding of what the long-term vision of the organization could entail or become. Emery and Purser (1996) define search conferences as the use of open systems theory, which is a viable system visible to all. In essence, it is transparent and has nothing to hide. The goal of a well-conducted search conference will have all the right decision makers in the same room who have the ability to provide valuable information. When organizations use search conferences to help with strategy, the organization leaders who attend the conference are asked to evaluate three main areas of the organization. These areas are environment, system and integration.

The first phase is the environmental assessment. Conference leaders and consultants will ask participants to take a hard look at the world around them and the changes that are taking place that could affect their organization. Also, what are some of the desirable outcomes for the organization to build on in the future? As the participants begin to think of all the desirable outcomes and actually begin to create a roadmap in their head for the strategy, the second phase will be implemented.

During this second phase, participants are asked to examine the past and how the organization got to where they are today, analyze the present, and dream about the future of their system. For example, a consultant might ask participants what is unique about their culture or what has shaped their identity. The aim of this phase is to help participants explore their own internal environment and see where they come from.

The third phase is the combination of the first two phases or an integration of systems and environment. Emery and Purser (1996) define this phase as a place with solid planning and action with operational plans that align with a desirable future. This is the phase where strategic plans are drawn up with all participants in the search conference. Examples of successful search conferences include school reform, water quality planning, the juvenile justice system.

As a consultant, this type of transformation strategy can be very helpful when working with many decision makers or even external stakeholders who can provide input. This type of transformation strategy looks at the organization as a puzzle and brings problem solvers together to put them back together in a more robust way than before. In the field of education, there are many stakeholders who might want their opinions to be heard, but due to the internal nature of higher education, not having the outsider involved would be the best recommendation for focus and objectives.

Focus on quality

Total Quality Management or TQM has been a transformational strategy since the 1980s Beer (2003) explored why TQM programs do not persist as a transformational change strategy in organizations. What they found was that patience and top-down leadership are to blame for the failures of TQM initiatives. For example, when a CEO and senior leadership decide it’s time to make a change, they can delegate responsibility to a small task force for implementation. What happens, according to Beer (2003), is that these small working groups dissolve before the transformation is complete or they only tell the top leaders what they want to hear and do not reveal the truth for fear of the consequences. The main problem is that leadership wants immediate impact and results and with the implementation of a TQM change strategy, speed is not an option. Also, due to the top-down strategy of leadership and then delegation of tasks to a work group, there is little incentive for employees to make changes, as senior leadership does not appear to be sufficiently trained to work on change. with your employees. This can create resistance to change and can damage the trust factor of leadership. If senior leadership at all levels is not vested in TQM’s transformation strategy, the behaviors and actions of the organization will not align and the new culture will not adopt any new policies or behavior.

Consultants working within the TQM model within higher education must understand all the rules and regulations associated with higher education. This is a great model when used correctly and can really streamline the process for large remote learning schools that have many campuses globally and nationally.

Experimentation

This is a unique transformation strategy where leadership can mix and match strategies to find the right fit for their organization. Macintosh and Maclean (1999) claim that organizations cannot successfully change with the one-size-fits-all mentality that most models implemented. The authors used the example of Newtonian laws in which systems cannot exist unless there is equilibrium, but since change is not equilibrium, change with a combination of different systems to create a new system that presents equilibrium for the organization. . For example, organizational learning is a fairly new field of study and can, but can be used, in this case. The example will indicate that the equilibrium of an organization will present itself as a static or routine institution, but this can be dangerous as innovation will fall causing the extinction of the organization. By using organizational learning and questioning the current strategy, the organization can throw the organization into an imbalance and then can develop a new system within the organizational learning paradigm that is best suited.

A consultant must be careful when working on this type of transformation strategy. There need to be predictable plans and outcomes that can be measured during the state of disequilibrium; otherwise, a state of chaos could result from which the organization cannot recover. On the other hand, this could be a beneficial transformation strategy by taking the organization out of static and routine and developing a new system that can redesign its own identity. Also, this kind of transformational change can be a good option if there are many different avenues to be explored.

In addition to experimentation, during this type of transformational change, a consultant can use the lead-lag strategy as a comparison and contrast to see what is working and what is not working within the change. If a certain strategy is leading the way while the other is lagging, the lagging strategy will be cut off. According to Breja, Banwet and Iyer (2010), whenever the objective of the strategy is to achieve the organizational objectives, a pattern will emerge that will in fact help the transformational change and will provide information on a strategy that is congruent with the organization.

Conclution

With all the strategies, models, and concepts of transformational change in the corporate world, it’s hard to believe that some organizations believe in one-size-fits-all models. Consultants can provide support and guidance, but the leadership of the organization must be held accountable for the success of the transformation. Through research conferences, top-down TQM and bottom-up experimentation, a transformational change strategy can be found for any organization as long as that organization has the patience to carry it out. If successful, the change can be straightforward and can provide incentives to both employees and stakeholders. Although change is constant, it does not have to be pessimism and doom.

References

Beer, M. (2003). Why TQM Programs Don’t Persist: The Role of Management Quality and Implications for Leading a TQM Transformation *. Decision Sciences, 34 (4), 623-642.

Breja, SK, Banwet, DK and Iyer, KC (2011). Quality strategy for transformation: a case study. TQM Magazine, 23 (1), 5-20. D

Emery, M. and Purser, RE (1996). The Search Conference: A Powerful Method for Planning Organizational Change and Community Action. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.

MacIntosh, R. and MacLean, D. (1999). Conditioned emergence: a dissipative structures approach to transformation, Revista de Gestión Estratégica, 20 (4), 297.