Make the Change, Know About the Change

The TWC readings and class discussion in week 4 have brought to my attention a few questions and insights, which I would like to share here:

In class, Prof mentioned that in 2001, NIC’s Global Trends Report predicted a highly Euro or American-centric version of world trends. A mere 5 years later, they changed their stance to a East-centric one and wrote about the West to East power shift. I’m sure everyone, including myself, would have largely agreed with both reports when they first came out.

But in a world with so much uncertainty, is attempting to forecast the future a futile exercise? This question got me thinking. On the one hand, it is inevitable that there are many factors- drivers of change- that are extremely unpredictable and over which we have no control over. However, this should not discourage us from persistently keeping up-to-date with the evolving nature of factors that are changing, and how they implicate the current and future global landscape. In order to “make the change”, it is vital that one understands the current contexts in which one operates in, and only then can change be more effectively and easily initiated. Furthermore, even without complete certainty, planning ahead is important in any group or organisation, both for the short and long term. Thus, we should never discount the value of considering and acting upon our predictions of the future.

A second take-away point that I learnt this week through TWC class comes from my reading of the article Herding Cats: Human Change Management. The source stated that ¾ of all change programs fail because employees feel left out of the process. According to the article, the key reason for this is that organisational managements’ methods of motivating employees to embrace change are not tailored to various personalities inherent amongst any group of employees. The insight I gained was that organisations expect workers to change according to their goals. But it should be organisations who first change their methods of getting employees to identify themselves with the direction in which the organisation is heading towards. This will enable workers to own the change being implemented, and alter their job roles accordingly. Ultimately, if employees cannot see the link between their work responsibilities with the organisation’s goals, then there cannot be real change being effectively made throughout the company. For example, rapid and uniformed off-site training does not address the differences between job scopes and learning styles. In effect, people might feel forced and obliged to swallow the new information and skills without being given the opportunity to understand clearly how they can apply this into their specific jobs.