How organisations adapt to changes

Change comes in two forms; planned or forced. A planned change is that which is initiated by an organization as a result of an envisioned future. Sometimes, sequel to studying the trend in the industry or out of a desire to increase sales, have a better market share or upgrade technology, an organization embarks on new ways of conducting its affairs. When a change is at the instance of an organization, coping with the fallout is not usually a problem because the organization would have thought through the issues and come up with strategies to handle a substantial part of the consequences of the initiative. Changes that are a product of organizational decisions are usually evolutionary.

At other times, change is forced on organizations as a result of happenings they have no control over. This was the case when Professor Chukwuma Soludo, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), decreed an increase of the minimum paid-up capital of banks from N2billion to N25billion within 18 months in 2004. This was a change that the banks neither expected nor had any control over. To say the least, it affected their planning and projections. It even affected the orientation of some of them. The change was revolutionary. Banks that had been controlled by dynasties had to be thrown open to other investors as many banks were forced to resort to raising funds at the stock market to shore up their capital. When that did not take them close to the N25billion target, some of them had to merge to weather the storm. However, while the situation threw up some very strong banking brands, it consumed others to advance their cause.

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Aside from the external pressure to veer off the right course, the leader also has to struggle to rein in his own lust. Having access to power or wealth gives vent to the quest for more. The more power or wealth a leader has the more of the same he wants. This longing for more predisposes him to unethical issues that may dent his leadership.

 

Why change spells doom

More often than not, changes that are forced on organizations either knock them off balance or knock them under. The scarcity of foreign exchange foisted on Nigeria in 2016 as a consequence of the slide in crude oil price had a telling adverse effect on manufacturing companies that depended on imported raw materials for their production to the extent that many companies in the food and beverage industry had to lay off employees. A number of other sub-sectors were equally affected by the development.

Changes, especially external ones, disrupt the orientation of many individuals and organizations because of their inability to adapt to such changes.  A Chinese proverb says that the wise adapt themselves to circumstances as water molds itself to the pitcher. Many people and organizations, rather than adapt to situations they cannot change, resist such situations only to find out much later that they cannot stop them. Others are slow in adapting to the extent that by the time they choose to adapt, they are unable to effectively ensure the required adaptation and this affects their survival. Failing to make the necessary adjustment or making the adjustment a bit late will always impact negatively on organizations.

As observed by Charles Darwin, it is neither the strongest of the species nor the most intelligent that survives but the one most responsive to change.

 

How organizations adapt to changes

Organizations that will last the distance must not only be able to predict changes that are likely to occur, they must also learn to adapt to unforeseeable ones. These are some of the ways companies can adapt to changes.

 

Right attitude to change    

Expecting things to remain the same over a period of time is unrealistic. The human community is dynamic, the business environment is not stagnant, the technology is not static, and even the climate is changing. So, there is no way changes will not regularly occur. However, in spite of knowing this, many do not respond positively to change. The right attitude is to expect change to produce positive effects in spite of the attendant inconveniences. Change is to be seen as a springboard to the next level of operation.

Change is often discomfiting and is thus repelled by many. But those who end up profiting from it are those who embrace it early and prefer to concentrate on its positives rather than the negatives. If the right attitude to change is employed, change is a vista to endless opportunities.

Change really is a new development that is an offshoot of the old. If it looks daunting or fearful it is because it is different from the familiar. Having this attitude will enable an organization to profit from it.

 

Being receptive to new ideas

The normal human being is comfortable with the familiar. That is why people do not want to abandon what they are already used to. They reason that if a particular process has been producing a particular result attempting to change it will be tantamount to courting unnecessary trouble. But great leaders don’t entertain such thoughts. They are cognizant of the fact that the current reality is the nemesis of future possibility. They also know that there is nothing that is so well done that cannot be improved upon. Consequently, they are receptive to new ideas. In fact, they go the extra mile to get new ideas, knowing that doing so opens them up to a world of new opportunities, new inspirations and new approaches to solve the challenges they face.

So, instead of fighting the change or joining others to lament the situation, they welcome the change and study it to see how they can benefit from it. They know that on the flipside of a challenge are opportunities. They do not allow the challenge to rob them of the opportunities on the other side. So, they welcome the change with an unflagging conviction that it will be a window to a new world of hitherto unknown opportunities which would have been lost had there been no change.

 

Being nimble

Many large organizations are not run better than government ministries because of the series of stages that the decision making process has to go through. When a new trend is noticed, it takes forever for the organization to respond to it because a memo has to go from the unit head to the group head to the regional head to the headquarters where the executive management will also go into a series of meetings before a decision is eventually taken. Organizations caught in this web may find it difficult to adapt to changes because by the time headquarters gets down to taking a decision, events may have overtaken such decisions.

In this age and time, organizations must be agile; they must be able to respond swiftly to changing circumstances, the decision-making process must not be encumbered by red-tape. Different strata of management must be empowered to act on behalf of the organization to avoid its being swept away by changes.

 

Creativity

What forced change requires above other things from organizations is creative thinking; thinking outside of the box. The undeniable fact is that old thinking cannot solve new problems. But what most organizations do is to engage in the same old way of thinking even when the situation has changed and that is why many of them fail.

Albert Einstein said a problem cannot be solved at the same level of consciousness (understanding, thinking, enlightenment) that produced it. The import of this is that since a thinking or a level of understanding created the current situation, unless the thinking changes and fresh thoughts are allowed, the same result will continually be produced. Consequently, the organization will fail to wriggle out of the problem and may be drowned by the change.

Essentially, creativity is doing new things or doing old things in new ways. Sometimes, what is required for an organization to position itself for benefitting from a change is just a tweaking of the process, a slight change in the direction or an injection of new thinking. But unless any of this is done the organization is stuck and may not be able to get out of the rut. It is for this reason that those who lead organizations cannot afford to be weak on initiative or creativity. If they lack the capacity, they should not fail to surround themselves with people who are sufficiently endowed in these areas. They should be smart enough to hire those smarter than they are.

 

Ability to change strategy

When the thinking changes, the strategy has to take a cue and follow suit. Just as old thinking cannot solve new problems, old strategy cannot also handle new challenges. So, the organization has to tinker with its strategy and tune it in such a way that makes it suitable for the current reality.

 

Take action

Adaptability is critical to survival of either human beings or human organizations. Change is inevitable, it is unending, but it is not necessarily bad news. It is not a death sentence no matter the form it takes. Those who are usually destroyed by change are those who are so rooted in the familiar that when change comes, instead of adapting to it, they resist it and keep expecting the return of the status quo. That was the mistake of the dinosaur and that is why it became history. Dinosaur was so used to what was that it could neither comprehend nor cope with the new trend when it happened. While a number of other animals adjusted and adapted to the new reality, the dinosaur kept hoping that there would be a return to the status quo. But that never happened and dinosaur never survived the change.

To get the best from a changing situation, take action. Don’t get bogged by analyses, don’t get lost in planning, don’t get stuck on the same spot, take action. As observed by Martin Luther King Jr, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” So, take action that will move you forward. Those who fail to take action are those who are eventually rubbished by change.

 

Last line

Those who resist change are usually swept away by it but those who embrace it are propelled to new realms.