The Army are desperately attempting to recruit people into the ‘Army Reserve’ (formerly the Territorial Army) but appear to be failing!
Earlier in the year (April to June) only 367 soldiers enlisted, seems okay but with the exception that the target was 1,432! That’s a shortfall of 75%.
In the meantime, coalition government’s defense reviews are looking to reduce regular soldiers from 102k to 82k .
The Defense Secretary commented that they had hoped some of those leaving regular forces would join the reserve. So you lay someone off full time work then are bemused as to why they don’t volunteer to be a reservist?
Although these jobs are completely different to the regular office or factory work, it has similar reflections within business.
This is just another case to highlight where change management is not effectively being managed. What we do know about, is how to handle the emotional state of such difficult predicaments. Emotional Intelligence, as some would refer to it.
Whenever you are about to make difficult decisions that will ultimately affect those within your organisation, it is necessary to consider the emotional effect that this will have.
John P. Kotter created 8 steps for Successful Large-Scale Change. This is just a summary of which Coaching to Success can help develop within your organisation.
- Increase urgency – Generate the impetus of ‘Let’s go, we need to change things!’ Get the positive people around to start spreading the word.
- Build a supervisory team – Create a group that’s commanding enough to lead and work together well
- Set the vision – Develop the vision/strategy for constructive change
- Communicate for buy-in – People begin to buy into the change and this shows in their behaviour
- Empower action – More people feel able to act, and do act, on the vision
- Create short-term wins – Avoid the big one off movement. Build momentum through short successful objectives to accomplish the vision
- Keep it going, don’t let up – Continue to push the smaller changes until the vision is fulfilled
- Make change stick – Tradition and habit may be a resisting factor but the new and successful behaviour creates new habits
Don’t presume that what changes you may be making on one or a few people won’t have a knock on effect to everyone else within the organisation. Distrust can easily set in if not managed correctly.
Tough decisions in businesses do need to be made. However, responsibility to all those around you is paramount to success. It’s all about Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman is a good author on this!)
If you are about to undergo change or looking to make change for the betterment of the organisation in the near future, consider making the first change by getting Coaching to Success in to insure a smooth transition. Call Neil on 07761 187238 or email info@coachingtosuccess.co.uk to arrange an informal ‘discussion’ around how we can help.
Having read this, why not check out Neil too by watching our YouTube video HERE.
