Managing Transitions

By this stage in a change effort, if you have been following the Ten Tasks, much of the organization's population has been involved in one way or another. The last few months have probably been dedicated to establishing the new design, planning its implementation, and staffing it. The work to date has specified clearly what is necessary to preserve the integrity of the new system and set the minimum critical specifications for the organization. Now it is up to the people to work out the details in a way that brings the intended structures, processes, and cultural objectives into being.

The Work of Task IX .

Most of the work of implementing the new designs and enabling the new business models will come naturally as the organization and its work units "get on with business." However, there is always the opportunity for divergence, and contingencies always arise while the organization is still in flux. In the early part of this transition phase, you will have to maintain a disciplined, well-organized process so that the transition doesn't "drift."

Because the actual people, responsibilities, structures, and processes vary from organization to organization and from work group to work group, this chapter simply presents sets of questions to be answered by the people in the specific situations. The objective is to stimulate thinking and collective discussion about issues that are
important to the effective operation of a high-performing organization. People should discuss the issues from three interdependent perspectives: "How does this relate to the overall work system that my work unit is in?" "How does this relate to my specific work unit?" "How does this relate to me and my personal responsibilities, performance, and goals?"

Some of the questions in this chapter will be very relevant to particular jobs and work units; some may not be. Sometimes it will be important for a group to reach a common understanding on the issues raised; for other questions it may be less important. People will also have to add their own questions, rephrase what is asked,
or set additional topics for discussion when appropriate. Some of the answers to the questions will have been addressed in whole or in part by the design effort to date. These answers must be provided to the people to help keep them on track. Most of the answers provided by the design will require further development. All of the ma-
terial passed on from design will need creative decisions to apply it to the specifics of actual work situations.

Work groups must exercise judgment about how much effort to put into developing a common understanding and a group consensus on the answers to the questions in this chapter. They can tailor the material they cover, the issues they address, the timing and pacing of their transition work, and how they go about it. This will depend on how much design has already taken place at the work-unit level and how much change is being undertaken in the organization's structure and processes.

The goal of this task is to have people in the organization engage the change from a very practical level: "How do we make this work?" Every person's role is to make the overall system perform. This work should be approached as a new beginning with increased performance. Organization members will have to figure out how to address the required changes and how to open up the dialogues required to reach high performance. Remember that the goal is high performance, not just implementing a design.