Customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal for Marcus Evans. Marcus Evans realizes the importance of providing world class services to its clients. The events organized by Marcus Evans, are highly acclaimed by their clients, which in turn leads to customer loyalty. It is this customer satisfaction which keeps Marcus Evans on its toes to provide excellent services to its clients. The last event organized by Marcus Evans was AT & T National Pro Am which was a runaway success.

With changing times we see that the organizations are competing against each other. In all these competition and rivalry it becomes very important for organizations to take care of their personnel as they work under extreme stress situation. Corporate hospitality has become the need of the hour for every organization, big or small in size. It is very important to keep the internal clients happy, and perhaps there is no better way to achieve it than planning out a corporate hospitality event. These Corporate hospitality events provide a platform for individuals and delegates working in the organization to interact with each other and encourages

It is an old marketing rule, and perhaps the most unquestionable one, that the cost of attracting new clients is more than retaining the old ones. Marcus Evans through its quality service ensures complete satisfaction of its clients. The events that it organizes are meticulously planned, so that there is no scope of any unforeseen incident at all. The AT&T National Pro Am organized by Marcus Evans, stands a testimony to this.

These are things you can ask yourself to analyze the scenario. Do you have any support or credibility anywhere in your organization? If you don’t, you’re probably in trouble already. If you have no support, it’s like being naked; no one takes you seriously. Are the resources you’ve given a joke? A lack of resources indicates an expectation of failure. Were you chosen because people generally perceive you to be weak? Start watching your back if stronger candidates were given a pass for the job. You’re likely a pawn for someone else’s agenda. Do you face opposition that will likely squash you like a bug? When the knives come out, will you be on the alter? If this seems familiar, you need to look long and hard at your situation. Avoiding that cold, hard look at your circumstances could very well mean volunteering yourself to be at the head of the line when the reckoning comes.

If you find yourself confronting this scenario, there are some things you can do to limit your personal damage. Pick fights you can win. Lower your expectations. You are going to have very limited success. If you have any choices, pick the things that are most likely to yield a good outcome. Small successes are better than no successes. Get some kind of support from somewhere. If you can get someone with pull in the organization who might take pity on your situation, swallow your pride and accept their pity. You have to have support to survive. Getting yourself on the shortest possible initiative limits damage. If you have a little luck and can get something that is both winnable and short-term, grab it with both hands.

Don’t stand still: re-negotiate! You absolutely have to get out of that unwinnable position. Expect catastrophe and get a back-up plan into place. You have to be self-interested and know your course if things go bad. Use honesty and accept nothing less from those around you. Don’t lose your cool, but get some real clarity regarding your circumstances. Explain why the business change won’t work. Embrace the time honored tradition of the counter-offer. Agree to take the project forward but not as things stand. If all else fails, bow out gracefully. The objective is keep your dignity and credibility intact. You don’t want to walk away from without those two things intact.

You may be saddled with a business change initiative that makes you one of the walking dead. If that is your circumstance, assess your situation and get an honest read on it. The faster you have a clear picture, the faster you can try to limit the personal damage you will take in the situation. Ahead of all else, defend your dignity and credibility.

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Qaud A stands for Assess, Analyze, Affirm, and Authorize. When change teams lead managers through this process, it helps to garner more willing acquiescence to the need for business change. The assessment step is actually a two stage process. The first task is to surmount middle management’s struggle against change. This is done by creating an understanding of the change that is going to happen. This will be followed with the overall business case. They then need to assess the impact to their responsibility areas. Finally, they need to identify the issues that must be resolved before an analysis of the change can be made.

The second part of the assess stage occurs once the initial resistance has been overcome. This is where objections against the business change should be aired and listed. This is not just air clearing exercise; there needs to be an understanding that solutions will be created for the objections. Middle managers are expected to support the change and help find solutions. These expectations must be backed by authority above the middle managers, in the event that compliance has to be compelled.

The next stage, Analyze, is devoted to plan analysis. This is where impact assessments, risk analysis, and risk mitigation planning occurs. Business will continue whether there is change or not; as such, a business continuation strategy has to created. At this point, it is necessary to identify those most affected by the change and decide what they are to be accountable for doing. This process needs to continue until the middle managers can comfortably offer a stamp of approval for the business change plans.

The affirm step is very straightforward. Initially, the managers are required to offer their affirmation of the workability of the change and their belief that it will create the looked for effects. This is the managers saying, essentially, that they don’t think the plan is going to explode into failure. They then need to affirm that the implementation plans are complete and the resources are in place for it.

The final piece of the model is to authorize. This is where middle managers actually commit themselves. They are asked to authorize the business change in writing. Those authorizations will be released to the change team and sent up the chain of command. They will release the change plan to frontline supervisors with their authorization. This includes identifying the release time for the new work. To handle the unanticipated problems inherent in change initiatives, it will be incumbent on the managers and supervisors to establish a plan for dealing with those issues in real time.

Successful completion of the four stag method with the seclected managers will be followed by a similar process with the remainder of the middle managers. In this way, by dealing with the bulk of the problems with a handful of middle managers, the process should run much more quickly and efficiently with remaining middle managers.

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Let’s use the theater comparison a little longer. If a theater group is transitioning from a Shakespeare drama to a musical comedy the set and costuming are going to have to change. The song and dance numbers in musicals frequently require more room than a straight drama. Period piece costumes appropriate for Shakespeare would be ridiculous for musical comedy. The tools, equipment and plant for the play must transition to make the musical work. No one would expect the actors to bring off the musical with a set from Hamlet.

How does this apply to organisation change? When transitions occur from old processes to new processes, PET also transitions. The strange thing is that even though no one would expect actors to change plays without changing PET, it happens all the time in the business world. New equipment is not purchased when it should be. Sometimes the equipment will be replaced but shoved into a space that is not large enough to support it. It is commonplace in business to expect satisfactory organisation change with conditions that would send actors into a strike. That is astounding because actors are often considered to suffer abuse in their industry. Making due with improper equipment or outmoded software can be an anchor on an organization.

There are four areas to be handled in PET. Initially, the changes required to PET have to be identified. Are custom tools needed for the new process? After that, the identified areas for change need to be upgraded and analyzed. Is the new process functional? Guidelines and operating controls should be transitioned to reflect new equipment and tools. New equipment means new manuals and guidelines. Not replacing those things would like be like asking someone to drive a standard car without explaining the purpose of the clutch. This is the purpose of having manuals and guidelines. Get rid of outdated manuals. They are purposeless junk. No one keeps manuals for things they don’t own anymore, why should a business?

PET is an unavoidable part of organisation change. The required changes may be relatively minor. The things that have to be altered can be epic in proportions. No matter the size, identifying, setting up, and testing the process changes will have to occur. When everything is working correctly, revise and update the guidelines and manuals. Don’t make things harder than they have to be. Get rid of the old manuals and guidelines. It is good housekeeping and good business.

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To avoid the abysmal fail rate of change initiatives, the agenda governing change requires a careful development. It needs to focus on the attributes that must change in the organization to achieve the organizational vision. Change agendas, by nature, are closely related to achieving the long-term vision. After all, the vision is where the business wants to be in the future and change initiatives are supposed to get them there.

Organizations that attempt Business Change are often hindered by the tendency of multiple initiatives to impede one another. It is a hard fact of business that anything not making money is using money; change efforts are not exception to this, at least in the short term. Man hours, equipment use, and conference rooms devoted to change are resources not being used to run the business. If there are only one or two initiatives at work, then they probably are not impinging on one another. If there are 15 or 20 initiatives all running simultaneously, they are probably competing with one another for available funds, equipment and attention from the executive level. Should an organization run more than a few, there is a good chance that both Business Change and run the business are suffering.

Change cannot happen without intense focus. If the rank and file workers are not focused, change will fail. There needs to be focus at the very highest levels of leadership. Inattention from leadership can result in inter-departmental strife during periods of change.

Despite ideas otherwise, change initiatives can work in conjunction with run the business objectives. Change agendas can be adjusted to facilitate profitable opportunities. The size and timing of the change agenda can also be altered to accommodate business opportunities. For example, if a company wanted to convert over to the lasted version of an operating system, but discovered half the world couldn’t read documents created by the word processor and spreadsheet program (thereby alienating clients), they might put off that change initiative until a serviceable conversion update was issued. In scenarios like these, the needs of current business and Business Change can be accommodated.

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As that last link between upper management and frontline supervisors, they are the conduit through which organisation change plans are funneled down to workers. However, they’re participation in change is often informed from their experiences with running the business. They can be wary of change efforts. Something a middle manager might say when confronted with change might be: “Show me why we have to do this?” This type of response can lead to middle management being thought of as a bottleneck for change.

Since most organisation change initiatives are going to go through middle managers, it is reasonable to have them participate in the development of those initiatives. They can provide insight into how a change will impact daily operations. They are the most credible source for other middle managers when it comes to change. Frontline managers can be especially hostile towards change efforts that appear to come solely from an administrator. If people believe that a someone who actually knows what they do participated in the project design, they will approach it with less angst.

It is vital to select key, credible middle managers to be part of the overall change process. They are experts on the material under discussion. They can be sounding boards for the feasibility of the change design. If the design is a mess, they won’t hesitate to call it that. Implementation design is another area where middle managers can of help. They will be able to shed light on how long preparation for the change will take under real world conditions.

The best way for change leaders to get middle managers on board with a change is by taking them through a set of change steps. By leading them through specific steps, it encourages rational discourse. When organisation change is pushed onto middle managers, there’s a tendency for them to have split-second, irrational responses. The goal is to have them analyze the initiative based on information rather than emotion.

Over the course of these steps, it is fundamental that middle management’s position be given due respect and honor. There opposition occurs because change causes distraction and disruption on the frontline; the very thing they work to avoid. They spend a lot of time trying to get employees to follow policies and changing those policies is a hindrance to running the business. By respecting that reality, it can smooth the way to getting middle managers to support the organisation change rather than oppose it.

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To draw the metaphor out a little farther, to put on a effective, new stage production actors need to receive new roles. They have to learn to their lines for an entirely new character. Then they need to go through the blocking process where they learn where they need to be on stage during the performance. Without the new scripts, there is no way for the actors to learn lines, understand their role, or comprehend the general direction of the play. Without the blocking process, the actors will not be able to work together on stage to perform the new production. This is how the cast learns to maneuver during the performance.

To translate this into a business change management scenario, for change to happen the workers have to be aware the proposed process and its differences from current one. If someone is going to be taking on a new role, it only makes sense to provide them with the new lines. If you ask a factory worker to take on a new production process, why wouldn’t they need to be provided with new procedures? However, such counterintuitive actions are commonplace during change efforts. It is not enough to assign new tasks; employees need to comprehend the tasks.

This typically occurs through five steps. Obviously, processes that are subject to change need identifying. Things cannot change if they are a mystery. Changes to processes have to be initiated. If the present financial crisis has taught everyone nothing else, it is that knowing a change is necessary won’t make it change. They must be altered. Like the process itself, the metrics used for the process must be altered accordingly. They need to identify how to measure the changes. The procedure changes need to be identified and implemented. Nothing good will come from mixing old procedures with an altered process. The final step is to eliminate any remaining vestiges of previous procedures or processes. This could be compared to turning in the previous scripts. It ultimately prevents confusion. In business change management, confusion is the enemy.

Business change management is stuck with the need for Process. The identification and alteration of work processes must occur for a change initiative to succeed. Metrics and procedures will have to be revised or replaced. Metrics and procedures that are no longer in use should be disposed of entirely. These steps can help to create a better transition from old processes to the new processes.

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Resource availability will be your constant enemy. The only way to keep your resources best used is by maintaining attention on it. Be a little stingy with your resources if you have to be. Keeping projects narrowly focused helps to do this. If you like what you do, make sure that your business change management initiative does something by its conclusion. In the end, that is point of your job. You can do your job well by employing practical project design. This entails chasing after outcomes that have high achievability and that will have observable results. These are things that very good change agents do.

Try to remember, altering the change environment isn’t what you’re being paid to do. Only the executive can exert the necessary force to create that kind of change. Change of that magnitude is not a bottom-up process. You can and should try to exert some influence toward getting those changes. Pragmatism demands that your investment in effecting those changes be minimal. Even the world as change environment in a company is a very complex thing and difficult to change. You need to have some patience with those issues. There is always the possibility of finding like minded people in Human Resources or Training and Development. Affecting the change environment is part of their job description. Model the changes you would like to see.

PR will be a significant part of your change agent work. The best way to build good PR is by building a track record of successful change projects. Be willing to self-promote your business change management a bit. Be your own advocate. It’s a fact that real power rests in winning hearts and minds; so start winning. How much easier is it to sell a friend on something than a stranger? Maintain focus on achievable goals with high impact will result in successful projects. This will increase your resources, allowing you to affect the change environment more, thereby increasing your ability to have project success and so on.

As a change agent, your job is your specific change project. You are getting paid for business change management that gets things done. Don’t get sidetracked with the change environment. Executives are being paid to deal with the change environment. Remember, only successful change projects can fuel long-term improvement in an organization’s change environment.

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Excluding middle managers from participation in the change planning will only make them dig their heels in when implementation comes around. Having them involved in the process usually results in a better plan. It also is a way to get their support for the plan. There is some truth in the idea that people like things better when they have had a hand in the creation. Do not treat them as the opposition. Be mindful that they are going to be put under significant pressure during the changeover. Their objections, by and large, are based in their experience running the business.

Never assume that their resistance to your ideas are indicative of personal flaw on their part. Everyone is trying to do their job. There is a high probability that there are no personal issues involved. Given that, try to give their objections a fair hearing. They are in the work environment every day. They have valid insights and you should note and deal with every objection. Think of them as must fix problems. For a free video tutorial on dealing with middle managers, please see our website: Business Change Management blog

Do not act as though middle management don’t have busy schedules. It’s true that not every person in the room is going to be struggling to keep their head above water. Many middle managers are doing just that though. They will have very little tolerance for business change management efforts that look as though they will result in wasted time. It is to your benefit to assume that they are just as busy as you are on a day-to-day basis.

On a more general note, there are two things you need to avoid for the sake of the business change management project. Do not allow the project to stall. While analysis may be part of the process, it should never lead you down the road to paralysis. The change is not optional. Keep it moving forward. The other thing you should avoid is rejecting fast workaround solutions. They may not be perfect and they don’t need to be. There’s no reason why the workaround cannot be replaced later. While you plot better solutions, use lesser solutions to get the change happening. That’s the whole point.

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The word vision is used only for lack of a better, less vacuous, term. It brings to mind stories of cloudy hallucinogenic experiences. Moreover, when it comes to organization change, visions tend to be non-specific in nature. If a vision is being passed around in a bulleted list, it is almost certainly not a coherent strategy. When vision is used in engineered organizational change, it means a complete and specific strategy. If used this way, a vision fits in nicely with the idea of a blueprint..

The set of reasons for change in an organization is the case for change. Normally, the benefits the business can expect to enjoy are covered. To say it another way, this is what the corporation gets from the change. It will, in most cases, handle explaining the incentives employees will take away from the change. This answers the question most workers will pose regarding proposed change, “What will I get out of it?” They just want to know that the extra work change represents is not going to be without some reward.

The blueprint is covers several objectives. It enables the creation and affirmation of goals for change. It promotes the development of a case for change and its subsequent validation. Having created a case for change, the blueprint is also meant to communicate the case for change to everyone involved in the organization change. The use of management work-through sessions to discuss the transition process is a key feature. Of course, it is meant to communicate the expected impact to the individuals that will be affected by the organization change.

The blueprint should be both very clear and have specificity. It should encompass vision and the case for change. As part of the organization change, the blueprint should effectively deal with the intended goals, management meetings for dealing with progress, the communication to individuals of the impact the change will entail. With a blueprint that has clarity and specificity, the transition from one process to another should occur more easily and with fewer snags.

For more information, please see our website: Organization Change