Change Matters: Compliance & Change Management

The classic approach to change for organisations incorporates old concepts and tools such as three-year plans, top-down controls, incessant emails and meetings, and rigid policies. How many times have we had to incorporate changes in what we do whilst maintaining business as usual? How do you integrate the new and the different with the old and the reliable? The answer lies in creating the right environment.

Organisations that have already recognised this have started by changing their approach to change management itself. This starts with an appreciation of the importance of change management, accepting it as a discipline, a core competency. Some organisations have change management as a primary function within their structure with a dedicated focus to the same.

Current thinking on change management is moving away from various versions of the five-step process to be followed when implementing change, towards advocating that organisations must transform their operating model in its entirety into one that constantly redesigns itself. Taking such an approach supports the drive towards even greater agility in an organisation. Meanwhile, deepening the understanding of the principles and rules about how to change will make change last.

According to practitioners who specialise in this area, changing an organisation’s operating model requires a new mindset, new practices and a willingness to abandon what you know. I read a piece recently, as I researched this article, in which a comparison was made between businesses and the military. What lessons could the business world learn from the military in terms of change management?

On reading this, my first thought was that the military thrives on discipline and orders and therefore change would be achieved whatever the rationale or consequences. You do what you are told, or lives could be at stake. Surely this is not a sound basis for comparison and therefore what could be learnt would have limited transference to the business environment. But these were not the reasons given.

The following were:

1. Training

If there is one thing the military do it is relentless training with a focus on readiness and preparedness for change. The take-away for businesses is that teams need to be ready for change, which involves changing mindset, which in turn involves, amongst other things, training. Staff are at the centre of successful changes whether they are informal or formal, and having teams with the right attitude can make the most significant impact.

2. The ability to compartmentalise

The military are disciplined to be able to stay focussed on both the short- and long-term mission. They will execute an order as part of a wider plan, focussing on the requirement of the immediate order without losing sight of the long-term plan. This translates quite nicely into business thinking as the importance of a single mission narrative cannot be underestimated. If a business knows where it is going, knows where it wants to be, and can communicate the same clearly and with relevance to all staff, then the route it takes towards that realisation, which may deviate, will enable teams to adapt to changes far more easily, making change management far more impactful.

3. Communication strategies and trusting people with valuable information

Clearly the military must be able to communicate effectively and to know that the information that is shared will be treated appropriately and that those in receipt of said information are empowered to make decisions based on it, leading a change through the ranks. Much has been written about the benefits to be derived from the empowerment of teams within business and the concept for most organisations is widely accepted and adopted. Similarly, businesses know that communication is key but there is still so much more that can be done to improve communication with teams. Communications need to be open and not one way. There are so many different channels available now for communication, which can only help an organisation with constant change.

How can the compliance officer of today be impactful with change? The role is less about pushing through discrete change projects but rather about supporting and overseeing the organisation in a way that enables continuous adaptation to an ever-evolving environment. And if there is one thing we have learnt about governance, risk and compliance, it is that it is ever-evolving.

And how does the compliance officer do this? Several related objectives need to be achieved:

• There must be a culture of true collaboration. This culture of collaboration will emerge through other related activities, detailed below. There are several tools out there to support collaboration including Slack, Trello and Google Drive.
• There must be empowerment of team members to receive information and act upon it. Decentralisation of decision making might be considered here, based on risk and the complexity of the decisions being made.
• Senior management support is essential, including the articulation of a single repeated mission statement and the part the teams play in the realisation of the same.
• There must be open, clear, transparent, constant communication, good and bad, across all channels. Information must be disseminated, and quickly. Teams must be trained and or positioned for lasting change and, when change has occurred, quick wins should be identified and celebrated.

If the workplace can be designed along these lines, then the compliance officer overseeing changes within the organisation will find that change becomes less of something to be managed in, but rather will be taken in its stride as the organisation knows it is constantly adapting.