Two factors influence change fatigue and burnout, yet are often overlooked when implementing multiple change initiatives.
They are:
- organizational change capability
- operational capacity for change
The good news is that when you know and build your change capability and operational capacity, you can implement multiple changes without burnout and change fatigue.
Continue reading below, or click the link to watch the video.
Organizational Change Capability vs Change Capacity
So, what is change capability and operational capacity for change?
And why do they matter?
Your organizational change capability is the knowledge and skills that everyone in your organization has to navigate change. It encompasses the level of readiness for each individual change initiative and change overall.
Operational change capacity is your organization’s change capability, coupled with its ability to implement a single change with minimal disruption to daily operations and without compromising future changes.
To have strong operational change capacity, you need strong change capability. Your capability influences your capacity. Without both, it’s unlikely the new behaviours and activities will stick.
Developing Change Capability
Developing your organizational change capability requires leaders, managers, and employees to have the knowledge and skills to create and maintain an environment that harnesses their innate change capabilities. Then, enabling the time and space to foster an environment that builds readiness and treats change as an essential element of organizational life.
The result? The people in your organization feel prepared to handle and navigate change. Change isn’t something to fear.
When Capability Matters – the Case of a Reorganization
One of my former clients came to me after launching a significant reorganization that wasn’t achieving the intended results. Employees and leaders were confused, and work stalled.
Their reaction and the reason for reaching out were related to change management training.
On the surface, training might have helped.
However, for any training to make a difference, leaders first needed to understand the current change process from both leaders’ and employees’ perspectives. They also had to assess and comprehend their organization’s capability to implement the necessary changes for the reorganization.
And that’s what we did for this organization. We engaged employees and leaders in the change capability assessment process.
The Change Capability Assessment: Not another survey
The change capability assessment is a guided conversation process. Through these conversations, participants explore the core change and leadership capabilities necessary for healthy, sustainable change.
The process helped the organization gain a clear understanding of what was derailing the reorganization and the underlying reasons. As the employees and leaders participated in the conversations and worked through the assessment process, stress levels and conflict decreased. They identified core strengths within the organization that could support and enable change.
They also identified barriers and challenges that were limiting and leading to the conflict and confusion people experienced with the reorganization. Conflict and confusion decreased.
The leaders, with the employees, identified actions they could take to achieve their intended outcome and support future changes.
Every Change Either Builds or Sabotages Capability
Organizational change capability doesn’t happen all at once. It happens over time with each change your organization undertakes. Whether it’s a small change that may never hit your radar as a change initiative or a large transformational change, you have the opportunity to build your capability.
Before you launch and push your employees to take on another change initiative, ask yourself:
What is our organization’s capability to complete the change journey?
And if you’d like an experienced guide to help you along the change journey, book a Change Strategy Call with me today. Let’s explore how a guided conversation can create the foundation for successful, sustainable change.
