Rich,
I would like to give you some support and encouragement rather than
answers to your specific questions. I do this for two reasons,
1. You will almost certainly need it as that kind of change is difficult
at best terrifying at worst.
2. Specific answers will help and giving you support to get a different
perspective on the issue is important.
My support in relation to point 2 is.
- Whilst the government may dictate that the change will happen in a month
the CHANGE will not happen within a month. The change (in terms of the
people, the organisation, the actual work) will not change for a long
time, probably years. What the politicians have done is change/alter where
the top of the line is. Where the work takes place little if anything will
change in the short term. If you do anything it should be aimed at helping
people recognise this point and get on with doing their job.
- At senior levels coping with and dealing with the new structures adds a
burden. Help them to clarify lines of communication, help them to protect
those doing the work at the coal face (by protect, I mean create
conditions that enable them to do as good a job as they can as unaffected
by change at the structural level as possible)
- Where do you get your support from? Make sure that you have a support
group. If necessary create one, internally or externally or both. You
should have no problems creating an external support group with others in
your area. If I was close by I would want to meet regularly with someone
involved in such a large change project (just to swop ideas and
experiences)
- Remember - The change will actually happen very, very slowly.
Hope this helps
Ian Saunders
Transition Partnerships - Harnessing change for business advantage
tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk
--tpians@cix.compulink.co.uk (Ian Saunders)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>