Cultural Readiness

Implementing major changes require CulturalReadiness.

When you find yourself in deep winter conditions and have to wait for the proper ChangeManagementEnvironment to arrive, it is also a busy time to grow roots, concentrate in SelfManagement for starters.

If initiatives are implemented "before its time", then the entity goes into a CultureShock. And it can be a NearDeathExperience.

see TheHeartOfChange and CultureIsTheManifestationOfLeadership

• Note TheHeartOfChange calls for creating a sense of urgency, but at the same time caution about creating panic.

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Beware of TheManagerIsTheProblem syndrome

(more to come..Don Harrison article on CSF being Middle Management buy-in.''

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CulturalReadiness UserStory

See 2003 HP chairman address to CIOs at http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/cioforum/2003/transcript.html

• At the time HP and Compaq were being merged as a single entity. As at 2005 She has been dismissed with a fat payout, but the speech is still worth reading.

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Resources

2000 book "Getting Your Shift Together : Making Sense of Organizational Culture and Change" (ISBN 0-9673248-0-7 )

ChangeManagement Sweet Spot at http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/mod_print_view.cfm?this_id=162551&u=sibson&issue_id=000034313

Social Contest and Culture Change collection of pages at http://www.globaltester.com/sp2.html

Work in Progress

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QuickQuestions

Q Does this approach to Supply Chain Management cater for the social aspects of an organisation? For example the politics of an organisation. We have encountered a great deal of resistance to a SAP implementation because the employees were not fully consulted and perceived the implementation was enforced from above. How do we get everyone on board when implementing SAP in a large, well established organisation with a deeply entrenched culture of doing things the "old" way? by 132.234... from question in SupplyChainManagement

• note the description in the source page said this of Supply Chain Management: "an approach that examines the company in the context of the "world" around it, from suppliers to customers"

A The SocialDynamics that exists in an organization is a crucial concern for any ChangeManagement exercise. Quite often "Middle Management" need to engaged to communicate the impetus for change, and to consolidate feedback from the frontline (and backoffice) operational staff so the majority of affected people can feel their contributions are valued. In situations where segments of the affected organization will have to take a "bitter pill", then the communication process need to start early. Transparency of the ChangeManagement process is a very step to building trust. There may be some lessons one can learn from strategies adopted by military, in building trust of the frontline soliders.

It is also important for management at all levels to be more sensitive to HumanBehavioralPatterns, e.g. Ways to expedite the FiveStagesOfGrief may be applicable for some people caught in difficult situations.

From a reluctant contributor. This question could have been overlooked by more experienced managers within this community.

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CategoryManagement