Issue link: https://industrialmanagement.epubxp.com/i/656209
march/april 2016 29 represent a temporal dimension that allows us to understand when particular shifts in attitudes, intentions and behaviors occur." They shouldn't be thought of as steps to become imple- mented but rather as a useful tool in implementing a separate structured process that has goals and measure- ments. Change is a natural phenomenon in any organism or organization that desires survival. The rate of change, however, could be throttled in many instances, particularly when the organisms and organizations are man-made. Organizations could select areas to change based on a focused series of objective functions aligned with their principles and strategies. One co-author, Reza M. (Russ) Pirasteh, and Robert E. Fox argued and offered a process for implementing focused and planned change(s) in organizations in their Profitability with No Boundaries: Optimizing TOC, Lean, Six Sigma Results. Pirasteh and Fox suggest that when an organization decides to introduce a change it should consider the following: Employees at all levels have to understand clearly "what is in it for them." • What does the organization stand for? • Why is the change necessary? • What exactly needs to be changed? • After the proposed change has taken place, what does the expected organi- zation look like? • How should the change(s) take place? Experience has proven that when organizations miss out on any of these key considerations, their change efforts likely won't stick and will crash eventually. Well-intended change efforts fail at a variety of organizations for a multitude of reasons. However, enter- prises do have tools and methods to increase the probability of success and the stickiness of their intended change efforts. Let's take a closer examination at the five essential strategic planning elements mentioned above. 1. What does the organization stand for? This represents the core values of the organization. Whether the organization is investing in people, processes or growth, these investments resonate and send a message to employees and management. Communication of this message is a delicate and critical element. The message conveyed could be perceived in various ways by the recipient of the message. For example, a great message could be misinterpreted and perceived as a threat and result in a negative or combative action. Therefore, at this stage of the process, a carefully planned series of communi- cations should take place with the entire organization's staff. These communica- tions should be open, informative and clearly identify the consequences of the change – along with the ramifica- tions of not changing. Employees at all levels have to understand clearly "what is in it for them" in order for them to accept and take active part in the change processes. This stage is tricky because at this point a one-way communication or forced communications could almost guarantee the failure of the change process. The outcome could be an undercurrent of resistance to change, negative activities to undermine the