Step 6: Short-Term Wins
Short-term wins imply an organizational change that can be implemented within a period of 6 to 18 months. Kotter (2012) explains that these changes must meet three criteria: success must be unambiguous, it must be visible throughout the organization, and it must be clearly related to the change effort. Thus, properly determined short-term wins can become the basis for future improvements in the organization. These milestones also allow a company to track progress, prepare for larger changes, and identify resistance to changes within the organization. VanDyck Medical Equipment LLC should consider the following short-term wins as the foundation for its future transformation:
- Implementation of activities to optimize the production process, the operations of middle management and employees, which will lead to a reduction in operating costs in the next 12 months;
- Expanding the decision-making power and developing the skills of workers will lead to an increase in individual productivity in the next 6 months;
- Product line optimization leads to higher revenues in the next 12 months;
- New Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will lead to a more efficient record of products manufactured and sold, as well as employee and middle management performance. To assess this point, it is important that new KPIs are developed, taking into account the unique goals of the company and reflecting its current needs.
Step 7: Don’t Let Up!
Determining short-term wins allows companies to start implementing change and initiate the process of organizational transformation. Kotter (2012) goes on to suggest that companies develop more projects, amplifying and extending change to reach deeper aspects of the organization. The main elements of this stage are the further promotion of change initiatives, as well as the transformation of the organizational culture of the company. To achieve sustainable change and its positive effects, VanDyck Medical Equipment LLC can:
- To create a platform for continuous improvement, the company needs to introduce a system for developing the professional skills of employees. It is also important to adopt innovative technologies, especially within the framework of available IT solutions, which will make production more flexible. Additionally, the company can continuously evaluate the results of change initiatives within the company;
- To prevent the helter-skelter of long-time stability, the company needs to adopt an organizational culture that focuses on change. In particular, this requires the elimination of employees who impede change, as well as inefficient aspects of the production process;
- The organization can develop cross-functional teams through the expansion of decision-making power and the development of professional competencies of employees;
- To create effective cross-job-level teams, it is necessary to develop the communicative and leadership qualities of employees;
- To organize cross-departmental collaboration workshops, the company should take the approach focusing on the expansion of the competencies of employees and the promotion of their communication skills;
- The creation of communication systems to get regular feedback from workers is possible using modern IT solutions. Employees can participate in anonymous surveys on a regular basis to encourage honest answers to identify gaps in the organizational process;
- The development of relevant incentive systems for process or outcomes improvement can be conducted based on the new KPIs, which would reflect performance aspects based on the company’s needs;
The creation of responsive quality improvement systems can be completed on the basis of improving customer communication and identifying consumer needs. An adequate feedback evaluation system based on key performance indicators is the basis for analyzing the received data.
Reference
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Harvard Business Press.