Managing For Survival

The primary objective of this one-day seminar is to provide managers with the concepts and techniques needed to ensure successful transition from traditional organizational behavior to a new culture which focuses on continuous improvement and to clearly point out why traditional approaches to managing change haven't worked in the past and won't work today.

A case study is presented in which a sizeable multi-national company is facing serious competition in the United States. As the CEO ponders how to go about solving immediate problems and at the same time beginning to build a foundation for fundamental organizational change the participants are asked to grapple with the complex issue of who should be accountable for solving specific problems cited in the case. Through discussion the stage is set for an in-depth look at a changes strategy which will avoid the major pitfalls.

One of the major pitfalls in implementing change is the lack of a detailed strategy once the top management of a company has been energized by outside forces. As a first step towards this plan the participants explore the old axiom "people resist change" and discover that people also accept and even institute change in their lives all the time.

Since employees do resist change under some circumstances but readily accept change under other circumstances, a consideration of these circumstances lead the participants to develop a set of criteria for designing a change strategy that will succeed. Participants then examine a proposed strategy and test it against their criteria.

Recent research (as well as past research) has shown that failure to implement fundamental change in organizational behavior after years of effort can most often be traced to two mis- steps: (1) failure by workers to use new techniques on the job after learning them in the classroom, and (2) asking staff groups to implement the change program. The participants examine both of these problems and, first, learned what managers can and should do specifically to get full application by subordinates of newly learned techniques after they've attended formal training. Second, they learned two principles of line-staff accountability which when followed assure the avoidance of several heavy costs, including the failure of change initiatives. Finally, the participants re-examine the early case study, apply the two accountability principles and learn that the seemingly complex problems of "who's accountable for what" is generally simplified.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This seminar is designed for senior managers, middle managers, supervisors, team leaders, and heads of staff.

PREREQUISITE

This course has no prerequisite.

MATERIALS

You will receive a course binder containing a copy of the presentation slides.