Consumer support for sustainable products and practices is growing worldwide. “Going green” will soon be a necessary cost of doing business.
It’s no longer enough to meet minimum legal compliance for environmental standards. A true competitive advantage lies in influencing economic recovery with forward-thinking sustainability practices.
Corporate Social Responsibility vs. Bottom Line
Some executives think they must choose between the largely social benefits of developing sustainable products and processes vs. the financial costs of doing so. This is a myth.
Becoming eco-friendly lowers costs because companies end up reducing what they use. In addition, the process generates additional revenues from better products and enables companies to create new businesses.
Evaluation of the AKBAR model
There are 2 quite different streams of thought that have shaped the practise of change management.
(1) The engineer’s approach to business improvement with the focus on business process.
(2) The psychologist’s approach to understanding human responses to change with the focus on people.
The single biggest reason for the astonishingly high 70% failure rate of ALL business change initiatives has been the over-emphasis on process rather than people – the failure to take full account of the impact of change on those people who are most impacted by it.
Closely allied to that reason is the lack of process to directly address the human aspects of change.
In my view their ADKAR model reflects the BPR background of Prosci and the engineers approach to business improvement, this is quite apparent in the language and tone of their description of the model and with their emphasis on management and process alone.
The clear strength of the model is that provides a useful management checklist of the phases of the transition.
The weaknesses, in my view, are as follows, the ADKAR model:
(1) Fails to distinguish between “incremental change” and “step change”
If the change involves any of these following factors then it will definitely need to be handled as a “step change” and treated as a specific initiative that sits outside of business as usual. The factors are: complexity, size, scope and priority.
The ADKAR model is, in my view, suited to incremental change and is an effective management checklist. But it misses out far too much to be fully effective in a step change initiative.
(2) Fails to distinguish between the roles and functions of leadership as well as management
Whilst the very definitions change management and project and programme management emphasise the management aspect [and of course this is important] much of the cause of the 70% failure rate in change initiatives is directly attributable to a lack of leadership… Leadership that sees the bigger picture – that ensures that people will follow – and the discipline of a programme management approach provides the tools and processes to facilitate that.
A step change initiative needs to be led – and it needs to be seen to be led.
(3) Ignores the need for leadership to address the emotional dimension
The transition between stage one of the ADKAR model – an awareness of the need for change and stage two – the desire to participate and support the change can be massive – especially in a step change.
One of the main points that William Bridges makes in his book “The Way of Transition ” is that transition is not the same as change. Change is what happens to you. Transition is what you experience.
Many thought leaders in the world of change management and change leadership are now speaking vociferously about the importance of the emotional dimension of leadership and the need to address the human dimension of change.
So to summarise, in Bridges’ own words: “A change can work only if the people affected by it can get through the transition it causes successfully.”
Green Hiring
Recent research suggests three-fourths of U.S. workforce entrants regard social responsibility and environmental commitment as important criteria in selecting employers.
People who are happy about their employers’ positions on these issues also enjoy working for them. Thus, companies that try to become sustainable may well find it easier to hire and retain “green” talent
Resource Author Francisco R. Higueras
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