ruben’s posterous

I'm now in Tagbilaran City, Bohol. It's a quaint, old place with gentle people. I am working with the staff and heads of the provincial capitol to assist them in their process management efforts. Bohol is reorganizing its government, removing redundant functions, merging what could be merged and creating new departments if needed. 

In this project, I've had a couple of surprises. First, I was expecting many of the people to be resistant to the change efforts. And yet a good size of them understood the need for change. Some of those who agree to the change even include some bosses whose offices could be dissolved.

Second, in Bohol, as in any other organization public or private, there will always be people who would strongly resist the change. A lot of them are very vocal about it and they affect the neutral or undecided people. This is dangerous. In a change effort, it is critical to identify who the undecided are and then help them get out of indecision and into support of the change. However, if nay-sayers are vocal, the undecided start doubting. In the case of Bohol, the question posed by many of the undecided is, "Can we really do the change?"

I'm a third party consultant and I could see the problem from my vantage point. There needs to be strong leadership, a type that inspires the people to look at the opportunities and not the problems that change will bring. This leadership should be able to rally the people so that nay-sayers will sound anti-progress. It should also be able to admit the inevitability of pain as the change is implemented, and to create safety nets for the people who will be affected the most. In this critical transition, clear and open communication is very important to suppress fears and rumors that could derail the project.

The question should be changed from "Can we do it?" to "What can we contribute to the change?"

I wish I were the change consultant but I'm not. I'm the process consultant in this project :)