Researching Change Before You Make It
In formulating the change initiative, the third stage is doing research to have a more precise identification of problems in an organization, driving forces for a change, and types of required changes. In this stage, you need to look for an answer to the following questions:
Has the problem for which you need to make changes happened to any other organization that works in the same business as yours?
What solutions did other organizations find for solving similar problems?
How did they adapt to the conditions? The change team may follow the same goal defined before assembling the team, or during their research, they may identify other driving forces and goals for making a change in the organization. For example, at first sight, the impact of Coronavirus outbreak may seem the same on two automobile companies such as Iran Khodro and Saipa, and the same changes may be considered as necessary ones in both companies because both of them are working in a specific industry.
However, these companies are two different companies with different structures, systems and assets; therefore, Coronavirus outbreak will have different impacts on them and the changes necessary for each one will be different. The same goes for the tourism industry. Since the Coronavirus outbreak has significantly dried up the tourism industry, it’s necessary to implement changes in the businesses of this industry.
A company may implement such required changes through layoffs or repurposing. In contrast, by carrying out more extensive research and evaluations, another company may conclude that human resources are one of the important assets in the company. Therefore, they need to maintain these resources in a different condition so they can continue their activity while using them when things are back to normal in that respective industry.
Both aforementioned examples indicate that research plays an important role in determining the driving force and goal of implementing changes and types of changes required in a company and in a business.