Preparation is key to successful change

Resistance to organizational change often results from fear - employees often fear they will not be able to handle the change or not have the proper skills and knowledge needed to make the changes. One way to lay the groundwork for reengineering is to establish a so-called discovery team whose members represent all levels of management and employees from different departments and processes. The discovery team's mission is to determine if the organization really needs to change and, if so, what specifically needs to change. Team members will conduct an internal audit of all systems - financial, safety, absenteeism, and technological - and benchmark the results against the competition or organizations with similar processes. Team members will then conduct site visits at other organizations. Once the discovery team is in action, it is a good idea to open the process to the entire organization to eliminate the perception that something is being hidden.