The Challenge of Change in the Government

 

We adore change - as long as the change is made by other person and we don't have to change ourselves.

I speak frequently on the subject of "Change". Whenever I ask the audience: "Is Change inevitable?" or "Is Change good for us?", the response is almost unilaterally that Change is here to stay. People in the audience always nod their head in agreement when I mention that in today's world - "Change is the only constant".

But when I talk about the change that is washing up on their organizational shores, they become slightly more serious, and even become quiet. In an organization, change could manifest in several forms – embracing a new structure, process or policies, adopting new technologies, moving operations to a new geographic location or completely realigning your product portfolio.

The absence of change could lead to organizational obsolescence and ultimately may be to its demise, and on the other hand, the implementation of change if not done properly could lead to organizational disintegration. Neither of the above scenarios – the death of the organization or its disintegration is desirable. These options could be avoided and a seamless change in an organization could be implemented by following some of the guiding principles of leading organizational change. 

               Change fails more often than it succeeds.

According to the Change management guru - John Kotter, it fails more than 70% of the time. The three top reasons that change fails: Too much complacency, lack of vision and absence of leadership thrust. I have been advising a lot of organizations on managing change. The best of the organizations understand the need to manage change. They plan and more importantly devote time and resources to manage the process of change. The worst plunge into it, and then much later through the implementation realize that the change effort isn't going anywhere. But then more often than not it's too late to salvage the situation, and end up losing a great opportunity.

I am currently supporting a change management effort for a massive digital transformation for one of the high performing ministries in the government. The good thing is that Change Management has been included as an integral part of the technical project management. Rather than coming at the end of the project, this is running concurrently with the project. Its early days to predict the success of the change management, but what can be said confidently is that the approach is right. Our challenge is to draw out the leadership to lead this effort and communicate with the stakeholders about the need for change.

The most redeeming feature is that the government has realized that the huge resources being put to such initiatives like digital transformation can only be optimally harnessed if they are supported by a well designed and structured change management process.

The Author is CEO & Founder People Sculptors.  Shaping People. Building Companies

 Author : Sidharath Tuli

The Millennial Mind - Youngsters prefer to be on their own

 

Recently I came across a report by the Bentley University: “The millennial mind goes to work. How millennial preferences will shape the future of workplace”. The report sheds light on some very revealing findings. But what I found most interesting was the fact that the millennials view career success differently than their parents did? Rather than striving for CEO spot, 66% of the millennials would like to start their own business and 37% want to work on their own.

According to Fred Tuffile, Bentley’s director of Entrepreneurial Studies, the answer is simple: “Millennials see chaos, distrust of management, breaking of contracts and bad news associated with business.” The report mentions that from Facebook to Tesla, millennials have plenty of positive entrepreneurial role models to look up to. He goes on to say; “While they know their chances of creating another Facebook are low. They do think it’s fairly easy to create a cool startup. Millennials are realising that starting a company, even if it crashes and burns down, teaches them more in 2 years than sitting in a cubicle for 20 years. 

Millennials are realising that starting a company, even if it crashes and burns down,  teaches them more in 2 years than sitting in a cubicle for 20 years.  

In India, we read news everyday how youngsters are opting out of cushy corporate jobs and preferring to join startups or become entrepreneurs themselves. The success achieved by the founders of  Flipkart, Ola, Snapdeal or Paytm has made headline news and inspires youngsters to do something on their own. The new age India is ready to break away from the typical career paths, to take a chance, to follow their hearts, and this is clearly evident from the hiring trends being witnessed in the country.

A budding startup ecosystem, challenging assignments, fundings, and an associated coolness quotient are attracting a lot of talent towards the Indian Startup space. A recent infographic in Economic Times showed that more and more people are opting to join a startup. In 2014, 84.8% of young job seekers were willing to join the Startups, which in 2015 has inched upwards to close to 89%. The number one reason why people are opting to work for startups is the opportunity to work on latest technology.

Startups and ecommerce companies were the top most recruiters in 2014 at the IITs. Also a lot of students at IITs were either declining jobs or skipping the recruitment process due to their growing interest in entrepreneurship. Unlike earlier years when Engineering graduates preferred to gain job experience in the industry before starting their own companies, many graduates now prefer to pursue their own dreams through their startups immediately after graduating from college.

This scenario is so different from about 2 decades ago when youngsters only had the option of being Doctors or Engineers or if you were a non-science student to become a chartered accountant or a teacher. You were idolised if you had a government job.  The scenario began to change with the liberalisation in the 1990s, and the advent of large private companies and MNCs thereafter. Slowly and steadily with the changing times, having your own startup started to gain social acceptance.

Today, role models like the Bansals of Flipkart, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal of Snapdeal and VVS mani of Just dial have demonstrated that you don’t need to spend decades toiling at someone else’s company and learn an industry before you can become a success in your own right. The bottom line is that creating a Startup is becoming a socially acceptable alternative to getting a job or going for a MBA after graduation.

The Author is CEO & Founder People Sculptors.  Shaping People. Building Companies

 Author : Sidharath Tuli