Breaking The Rules, Pushing the Limit: Change Management

Change is a constant so say some wise people. One cannot deny that changes are taking place every second of the day; the environment is changing, governments are changing, ways of doing business are changing, the world economies are changing and your company is changing.

With so many changes going on, it is not surprising that someone soon came up with the mind boggling concept called Change Management (CM).

What is CM exactly? A system of managing change as most of us are being told. A concept that all blue-eyed MNC hailed as the mechanism of control over what is happening in their organization.

To find out more about the new popular concept, we sent our Busisness Analyst Wan Na Be to interview a visiting management Guru, Professor Cha Nge Ma Nag from the University of EMENT.

Excerpts of the ‘Live’ interview follows:

Wan Na Be : Professor Cha, CM has very much been a western business philosophy, in your opinion, would this philosophy of managing and controlling change be applicable in Asia?

Professor: I admire my western thinkers for their courage in their attempt to control changes. Mother Earth is going thru tremendous change. In reality, change is an ever moving body of events, it is fluid, never a constant.

Wan Na Be : By your definition of change is never a constant, what are your perspective on CM then?

Professor : Well, as change is never a constant, you can’t really manage a moving body of events. You can have all the concepts in theory but to be able to manage and control, it is not possible. Take for example, environmental change in the atmosphere, when the earthquake happened on 26th Dec and the tsunamics wiped out thousands unexpectedly, there was no way of managing nor control the change that was taking place beneath the ocean. The most sophisticated warning systems can at best alert you but you cannot manage nor control the body of moving events.

Wan Na Be : So what you are saying is that we cannot manage change, if so how then would you suggest addressing the changes that are happening around the world and in companies?

Professor : The Asian perspective of CM is one of respect. If you take the word Change Management, there are 2 components involved. One is ‘Change’ which I agree with my western counterparts, that changes are taking place everyday. The second word ‘Management’ is where I differ. It is correct to say that in an environment of change there must be some form of management and control but just what exactly should be managed? The changes? But how do you manage a non-constant? That leaves only one other component to the concept that can be managed, the people. Therefore in our University, we teach our Post Graduates Entrepenuers that in every situation it is the people that you can and must manage, not the events.

Wan Na Be : So in essence, you are saying that the Asian perspective of CM is the management of the people, can you share of any kind of business experience to support your view?

Professor : Yes, of course, we were commissioned to do a survey of the Change Management group of a medium MNC. The CM group was handling a tremendous load of changes happening every week and spent many good hours in meetings and making sure the changes are being recorded, approved and accompanied with proper paperwork. The pressure to make sure that all the changes were managed was well.. quite absurd and it was making the CM group grumpy and stressed up, very unhappy people.

Wan Na Be : What did your team recommended to the MNC?

Professor : It was a very simple solution that we proposed based on our concept of CM. First of all, one must recognized that whether you manage or control the change, you cannot stop it from happening and the effects that it will have. Second, if you are going to get the same net effect, whether you manage or not, then why try to control what you cannot stop. This is the concept of respect. Once you have this respect, then the third component falls in place ie, managing the people.

Wan Na Be : Can you explain more about the third component.

Professor : The third component is the people. If the people can manage themselves around change then the changes become a normal acceptable body of events. I give you an example: Say, your Chief Editor today tells you that he is going to make you Front Page Business Director next summer. How would you react?

Wan Na Be (grinning from ear to ear) : Well, I will be happy and I suppose I will have to do better than now.

Professor : And how are you going to do that?

Wan Na Be: Probably turn in more articles and get a wider viewership.

Professor : Precisely, you will chase the carrot he is dangling before you. You are already trying to manage a change that your Chief Editor has planted in your mind.
So you want to make sure that you do better articles and get wider recognition so that you can control the end result of the change.

Wan Na Be blushed sheepishly.

Professor : But are you really in control? From now to next summer, you will try to manage the events leading to the ‘promised’ change. But what happens if he decides not to appoint you? Can you do anything about it? What happens to all the ‘work’ put in by you to manage and control the outcome?

Wan Na Be (heart dropped, jaw also dropped) : I suppose I cannot do anything and all my efforts will be wasted. I will be dissppointed.

Professor: But you can manage your feelings and deal with the disappointment, right?

Wan Na Be : Yes, I guess that is the only thing that I can do.

Professor: Herein lies the strength of the Asian perspective of CM. You don’t manage the change, but you manage the people ie. yourself. And if companies embrace this concept into their environment then they will have happier staff instead of stressed and disgruntled CM groups meeting to talk or approve changes and constantly being tripped by the amount of crazy bureaucracy of processes.

Wan Na Be: So what was recommended to the MNC? And what are the effects on the CM group?

Professor: We recommended a Policy of Non-Interference. See, what will happen will happen, just deal with it when it does. Now the CM group has time for coffee breaks, they are more relaxed at work and changes are no more viewed as something to be alarmed because now, everyone in the company doesn’t interfere in whatever is happening in the organization. I believed that in your wise society you have a term for it – ‘Just Don’t Care Lah!’


Reported by The Wind Blows The Other Way Too