CHANGE - NOT JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT

Week 8 29 Sept – 3 Oct
Maid has gone back to Indon, wife will be taking leave this week. It’s been quite tough to finish the write up where I can incorporate the principles learned in my proposed change process. The statistics and analyzing part is not that shabby, in fact quite proud of it but the change management strategy is the most challenging and required much more thought on it than I initially realized. I think that the framework that I am working on is quite alright though, will check with the boss before the holidays whether the change management strategy proposed is realistic and achievable. My biggest concern will be access to the net coz its very limited in my hometown. Fingers crossed then. Don’t think that there’ll be much more things being penned after this though hope that I could submit the assignment by the due date.

Week 7 (22 Sept – 28 Sept)
Had told Che Mazni and also asked for an extension from Jean Francois since only came to realize that 3rd October is the third raya. Been told to submit earlier instead, its easier said than done, fingers crossed that I’ll be able to meet the deadline though. Had done the analysis last week, quite an interesting results that I had. Seems that on average, Opus-NMM is not doing too badly but definitely there are rooms for improvement. This is where I think that the mindset change strategy could be implemented. Am thinking of how the findings could be presented to the boss and the necessary ‘change management’ steps could be undertaken and strategized so that it could be implemented. Will start small ie to implement and monitor the progress for the pavement team before reciprocating it to the other assets.

Some quite important pointers in module 4 though, that could be used for this. Change leaders help organizations plan and implement change by exhibiting attitudes and behaviors that build confidence and model skills that support the change.

The critical skills that change leaders need are; adaptability, strategic focus, results focus, fostering of a collaborative approach, facilitating openness and understanding but last not least, encourage learning. It is important to understand each of these change management skills and the behaviors and attitudes that are part of each one.

The change management plan is the roadmap that guides change planning and implementation activities. It is the guiding framework which change leaders rely on to manage the organizational change process since change is a multiphase process and dynamic in nature.

The change management plan combines aspects of both strategic and tactical planning. Step 1 and 2 help prepare for change. Step 3 creates the change management strategy and Steps 4-6 guide the creation of the tactical plan, its implementation and learning:

Step 1: Prepare for change
Step 2: Create vision and build commitment
Step 3: Create the change strategy
Step 4: Design the tactical plan
Step 5: Implement the tactical plan
Step 6: Learn and adjust

In Module 6, the relationship between change and organizational learning and its importance is described. The main task is to obtain feedback from the organization that had been affected by the change management type employed and to use the information to evaluate and adjust the change process based on the change roadmap initially set. The feedback could be in the form of management reviews, anecdotal information or change-initiative reviews.

Have managed to put up a paper which is definitely more than 3000 words in length. Admittedly, it is by way of regurgitating what’s in the notes, will edit it next week before the raya holidays. The maid will be going back for the raya holidays too, hope that she’ll be back in two weeks time coz if she didn’t, there will be trouble on whose gonna be home when the kids gone back to school.


Week 6 (15 Sept – 21 Sept)
Last week DSAI had won the Permatang Pauh, by a somewhat increased margin. He had been mooting this coming 16th Sept is the D-Day where he wanted to ‘change’ the government. Mixed feelings about it, this uncertainty had caused the KLSE to shed a few points, haven’t actually been keeping abreast on the comings and goings of the share market but on last count, I have lost about 60% of my investment in it, phew… what to do, let it be laaaa…

In module 3 from the notes, change leaders must understand how stakeholder groups will likely respond to change. This ensures the change leaders are able to take a proactive approach and develop strategies to minimize resistance to change. This can equally be applicable to anyone be it an organization or even a government. All relevant parties either businesses, investors, etc would be affected and the change leaders would need to partake the resistance so that the change could be undertaken with relative ease.

Understanding how these stakeholders will respond to change would help the change leaders to:-
- Anticipate how much resistance will be encountered
- Understand the nature of resistance
- Understand what you need to do to build commitment
- Create a stakeholder management plan

September 16 came and went, nothing happens, let’s hope that whether it is, it is for the better.

As for the assignment, will zero in on the work order submission process where Opus NMM is responsible to prepare and submit based on a year long programme initially set at the beginning of the year. Will concentrate for pavement work orders since they are the assets that use approximately more than 70 percent of the annual maintenance budget and have most number of work orders prepared in any year. Obtained the statistics for 2007 and had started analyzing it statistically. From the change management point of view the change management type would be developmental where the expected improvement will be in the process itself.

On another note, I had came across a lot of writings regarding change especially in this trying times of the Malaysian politics. Lots and lots of statements had been made by various parties echoing their political and personal inclinations. There are also a few writings that augurs well with the concept of change management that was taught in the course, and the following writing by Dr Azly Rahman, a Malaysian who is currently residing in New York would provide a good example of it.

We know Sept 16 is tomorrow. We know that radical changes are supposed to happen. Are we ready for such changes?

"The only permanent thing is change" - Lao Tzu

During Mahathirism in the 1980s – change management ideology pervaded the psyche of the civil service sector. The ideology was enculturalised by the corporate sector and universities picked up the trend and fashioned it into their mission statement, pedagogical processes, and curriculum. Everybody was taught to speak the language of change. During that time too, circa 1985-1995, even high school students were taught visioning strategies and how to manage change. Literature of change management, i.e. to change to corporate culture, to change to a society run on cybernetics/information technology became hugely popular. Knowledge of visioning strategies were brought to the grassroots and even kampong people were in tune with the basic ideas of change sometimes equating it with the Arabic words "islah" and "hijrah" to denote and connote "reforming oneself" and "pilgrimag-ising oneself". The Malay word "perubahan paradigma" became perhaps the most popular word on television, as its use signified a "better level of intelligence" as perceived by Malaysians imbued with "corporatist ideology".

Nowadays we hear people speaking of "blue ocean strategy". On how to look at our environment as an ocean of both chaos and opportunities and how to think like a dolphin but act like a shark. The Mahathirist decades essentially prepared Malaysians for that only one thing that is permanent: change. It prepared the country for even for a velvet revolution such as in the Mar 8, 2008 and Permatang Pauh. When he unveiled the mega-project Multimedia Super Corridor (The MSC) which included the Bill of Guarantees for the free-flow of information and no-censorship of the Internet, he called upon the rakyat to "fantasise" with him. The question is - what will tomorrow bring when Sept 16 comes. Are we ready for political change - big time?

Political change
The initial thought is this: corporate cultural changes occur peacefully - why not political change?In light of a benchmarked and scheduled possible change Malaysians will be experiencing and in light of the deliverable promised, to advocate the new regime to disseminate 10 ideas that will augur well with the new era we are ushering into, it can be called "ten steps towards cultural freedom" this nation can conditioned itself with. Independence and freedom are not slogans but existential states of mind and a condition of 'lived democracy', one in which citizens are aware of how oppressive systems are cultivated. We cannot be independent until we arrive at these historical junctures, and until we do the following:
1. Free the human mind from all forms of dogmas, superstitions, mental chains, hegemonic formations, and transitional levels of totalitarianism. Our educational system at all levels must strengthen the scientific and philosophical foundation of its curriculum and practices to effect changes in the higher-order thinking skills of the next generation. We should not tolerate any forms of bigotry, racial chauvinism, and retarded form of democracy in our educational system.
2. Understand the relationship between the 'self and the system of social relations of production' and how the self becomes alienated and reduced to labour and appendages and cogs in the wheels of industrial system of production, a system that hides under the name of the corporatist nation and any other term that masks the real exploitation of the human self.
3. Make ourselves aware that our social systems, through the rapid development of technology and its synthesis with local and international predatory culture, have helped create classes of human beings that transform their bodies into different classes of labour (manual, secretarial, managerial, militarial, intellectual, and capital-owning) that is now shaping the nature of class antagonism locally and globally.
4. Understand how our political, economic, cultural institutions have evolved and are created out of the vestiges of newer forms of colonialism, institutions that are built upon the ideology of race-based interpretations of human and material development that benefit the few who own the means of cultural, material, and intellectual production.
5. Understand how ideologies that oppress humanity works, how prevailing political, economic, cultural ideologies help craft false consciousness and create psychological barriers to the creation of a society that puts the principles of social contract into practice.
6. Be aware of how our physical landscape creates spaces of power and knowledge and alienates us and how huge structural transformations such as the Multimedia Super Corridor or those emerging corridors that create a new form of technological city-scape (technopoles) that benefits local and international real estate profiteers more that they provide more humane living spaces for the poor and the marginalised in an increasingly cybernated society.
7. Be fully aware of the relationship between science, culture, and society and how these interplay with contemporary global challenges and how we clearly or blindly adopt these rapid changes and transform them into our newer shibboleths of developmentalism – one such policy being the National BioTechnology Program.
8. Put a halt to the systematic stupefication of academicians and students in our public universities by first incorporating Academic Freedom Clauses in their mission statements and next enculturalising intellectualism in these learning environments. The public universities must be restructured based on a new paradigm of leadership. Leaders that enable the ability of our students and faculty to think must be removed and replaced with those that pay allegiance to truth. "Veritas!" or "Truth!" as Harvard University sloganises and lives by.
9. Design an economic system founded upon socialistic principles that meet the needs of the many and curb our enthusiasm to consume conspicuously and consequently create a society divided by classes and a postmodern caste system. Rethink the progressive dimension of nationalisation instead of pursuing the excesses of privatisation. What good would Malaysia do if its leaders are siphoning the nation's wealth by the billions, stashing them in places such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands?
10. Restructure the entire education system that would not only create some variant of a classless society but also one that would evolve into a reflective one instead of being rushed to death along the path of Wall Street by those who owns the means of production.

Sept 16 and change.We know Sept 16 is tomorrow. We know that radical changes will happen. We know we are ready for such changes. What we need is the will to realign ourselves with the new paradigm and to medicate ourselves of the pain that will come through the changes.
Change is good especially of it means celebrating our diversity, curbing our desire for material wealth, punishing those who have stolen form the masses, and making our systems implement equity, equitability, equal opportunity, and empathy as philosophical elements of change.But Lao Tzu did warn us too against carving the stone.



Week 5 (8 Sept – 14 Sept)
NMM at the moment is Network Maintenance Manager hence the name NMM for PEB expressways which comprises PLUS, ELITE, Linkedua and SPDH. NMM provides the maintenance services which include the inspection, reporting of assets (pavement, drainage, slopes and bridges), repair and rehabilitation to ensure that the assets are properly maintained according to the stipulated condition based on the respective concessionaire’s concession agreements with the government. One of the areas that were constantly highlighted by the clients was the delays in the completion of rehabilitation works with respect to the programmed maintenance set at the beginning of the year.

Several parties were involved in the rehabilitation works namely Opus-NMM as the party who would be assessing the reported defects, prepare the necessary rehabilitation designs and documentation to be submitted to the client for approval, the client as the approving authority, Propel as the contractor who performs the necessary repair works based on the designs. Therefore, the collective delay for the whole process would involve delay by Opus-NMM to submit the rehabilitation designs, delay from the client to approve the necessary rehabilitation designs and delay from the contractor to complete the necessary tasks according to the stipulated rehabilitation programmes. In order to properly asses the delays, some statistical analysis would need to be undertaken at each step of the process so that the main contributor to the delays could be identified and necessary steps could be undertaken to address the relevant shortcomings.

The by-election day is a few days away on the 9th, think that I’ll stop for the time being, see what happens then.


Week 4 (1 Sept – 7 Sept)
Starting module 2. By-election campaigns gone full swing. There are claims and counter claims, swearing in the name of God everywhere. Whoaaa… it’s true when the media dubbed it a the mother of all by-election. Personally think that DSAI gonna win hands down but with the full government machinery going on, maybe its gonna be a close one but to the candidates, a win is still a win by whatever margin its gonna be. The Penang state government had announced that the 8th of August gonna be a public holiday so that voters can turn out to vote, whether it is a good move or not, time will tell coz from the political analyst point of view, a high turnout will be a good thing for the Barisan. There are a few excerpts from DSAI’s speech touches the ‘change’ subject, although in this case on the need to change Pak Lah’s government, that my friend gonna be a major thing, transformational I think in terms of how the government approaches things.

Back to the MBL, every organization may be described in terms of five characteristics. A strategic pressure point is a change that impacts in a significant way at least two of the following characteristics:
Business Strategy
– the way the organization had chosen to pursue and maintain competitive advantage
Organization Structure
– the way the organization divides and organizes work
Organizational Capabilities
– the skills and capabilities of the workforce that, collectively, enable it to deliver its products or services
Culture
– the beliefs, values and behaviors that describe the organization’s culture
Coordinating Systems
– the procedures and methods that enable an organization to do its work efficiently and effectively

Change leaders use their analysis of the impact of strategic pressure points in several ways. Once the impact of change is understood, change leaders can begin to diagnose the organization’s change readiness. Several issues need to be considered when assessing change readiness. They are the organization’s adaptability, the understanding of the need for change and sense of urgency, the alignment of senior leaders, the workforce’s change management skills, obstacles to successful change, clarifying change management roles, how well the organization has managed prior change efforts, including planning and communication activities.

Strategies to be employed to help increase the organization’s readiness for change include; clearly communicating the impact of the change drivers on the organization, making sure the communication describes the urgency and importance of the change, letting the employees know what will change and what will not change, describing the new attitudes and behaviors that support the change and making sure change leaders model these attributes, involving as many people as possible in change management planning activities, clarifying the change management roles and how everyone who is leading the change will work together.

Organizations that have been pursuing continuous change must learn how to manage the rate of change and intersperse incremental changes between developmental or transformational changes.

The other things that change leaders can do to help the organizations manage the scope and speed of change are; communicate upfront the breadth and scope of change, be alert to signs of fatigue, cynicism and burnout, make sure the organization has successfully implemented one change before initiating another.

From the assignment topic point of view, I will write about what NMM Technical is doing right now and the things that I hope would ensure that the organization will be able to deliver its deliverables in a lean way and to ensure that the main objectives set by the client will be met with the current work force. This will ensure that the profit margins could be maintained while the overhead costs could be kept at a minimum without compromising the quality of work expected by the client.



Week 3 (25 Aug – 31 Aug)
Had some idea on the topic to do for the assignment. Been ‘sleeping’ on the topic for quite a while, ad asked a few fellows in the course on what their possible topic gonna be, most of them are in the same boat as me, just flicking through the notes and pondering what to write about.

Crikey, still haven’t finished module 1. Gosh, subject felt boring now, unlike when it was taught a couple of weeks ago.

From the notes, the line manager’s role begins with setting the strategic direction and helping the organization understand the business case for change. It includes :-
- Communicating the reasons for change
- Leading the way in shifting attitudes, behaviors, and habits
- Monitoring how well the change is being implemented
- Working with human resources to design the change management strategy and plan
- Helping human resources clarify and sequence change initiatives

Without going through the course, little did I realize that HR managers also plays a big role in change management. Thought all this while their role is to hire, fire, placement of staff based on needs and also the main kahuna is to ensure that the paycheck is in order. How narrow minded was I then…

They play quite a big role in change management especially in the facilitation at all phases of the change process, from inception to implementation. Other roles also includes :-
- Assessing change readiness
- Helping diagnose the impact of change
- Helping employees shift attitudes and behaviors
- Working with line managers to develop a change management plan and sequence change initiatives
- Helping to keep change focused and on track
- Monitoring how well the change is being implemented

Happy merdeka, a long weekend is very much anticipated. 1st September… aiyaaaa… fasting month is also coming, no smoking throughout the day….


Week 2 (18 Aug – 24 Aug)
There is going to be an interesting by election in Permatang Pauh, gonna see what’s gonna happen then to the current Malaysian political climate. Will keep an eye on what’s happening coz this will determine whether Malaysia would have a very capable leader in the Opposition.

On the MBL front, started flicking through the notes and try to summarize the key points highlighted. In a nutshell, module 1 of the notes goes as follows:-

Change management is a process of how a proactive strategy can be adopted that encompasses content (what), process (how) and people (who). Why this is so? It is to ensure that the change envisioned would achieve the desired results.

The strategic approach taken has to consider three key elements namely:-
Content - understanding what must change in the organization;
Process - deciding how the organization will change and the flow of activity that will produce the content change
People - the human dynamics that either influence the change or are the products of it.

Five types of change experienced in organizations today are :-
i. Evolutionary adaptation
Change is slow and incremental, producing sweeping changes with less upheaval.
ii. Developmental change
Change that creates an improvement in an organization’s way of doing things.
iii. Transitional change
Change that results in the design or implementation of something that is different. Unlike developmental change, the organization needs to do more than improve what it is doing.
iv. Drastic action
Change that is immediate and is forced on the organization in the face of a significant event.
v. Transformational change
The most extreme type of change in which the organization realizes that merely improving what it is doing is not enough to achieve its business strategies. This change is so significant that an organization has to shift its entire way of doing business.

Some examples of each type of change :-
Evolutionary adaptation - phasing out a product line
Developmental change - improving a business process
Drastic action - mandated regulatory change
Transformational change - moving from an old economy into an e-business one

Change leaders make sure they do certain things in planning and managing organizational change. They should take responsibility for:-
- Understanding the need for change.
- Assessing the organization’s readiness for change.
- Designing strategies for increasing change readiness.
- Managing the scope and speed of change.
- Understanding stakeholder needs, and their intellectual and emotional responses to change.
- Communicating the purpose and direction of change
- Understanding and dealing with resistance to change
- Creating a change management strategy and plan
- Demonstrating sound change management skills
- Making sure change initiatives are aligned with strategic direction
- Helping the organization learn from change
- Keeping change initiatives on track

Apart from regurgitating whatever in the notes, still do not have any idea on the topic of the assignment yet. Think that will stop for now, got a lot of work going on and the main topic of conversation nowadays is Permatang Pauh by-election. Been getting a lot of information about the election, this week, finally the government had nominated a candidate to go against DSAI, don’t know him but expect an information avalanche about him through the news and media.

Week 1 (11 Aug – 17 Aug)
Started the blog last week with assistance from Adely coz have not blogged before although had read a few blog myself. A bit apprehensive about it coz don’t have internet access at home and most of the tasks or reading would be done at home, don’t think that I could manage to “steal” the time at work. The boss will be hounding me all through till Raya coz the fees agreement had not been finalized yet and that my friend is the mother of all KPIs for the year. Therefore would be jotting my thoughts as I progress through this assignment on my notebook and probably will be able to copy it to the blog that I had created.

The course was made quite interesting by Cliff coz if it was done in a more somber mood, I would be bored to death there and then. Don’t know what the assignment topic gonna be yet, will go through the notes first, and since there are 5 modules in it, I figured that if I go through 1 module per week, I should have enough time to digest and revise what had been taught through the course and (fingers crossed), can have a topic in mind by then.