Commitment to Change by Suzette B. Viñas

Change is the most permanent thing in this world. That is why most if not all organizations go through a change process to improve a product or a service to increase customer satisfaction. The thing about change is not all people welcome it with open arms. Thereby change in this context becomes very challenging for a leader in an organization.

The article Engaging Change Management in Organizational Development: NSO’s Quest for Excellence in Public Service is one concrete example that change management can be done in an organization. First step towards change is the realization that there is something that needs fixing or something that needs to be improved. In this case, the survey showed that to the employees of NSO Region 10. It is an output representative of the insights and issues from the point of view of the public. This is the unfreezing portion in the change process. In reality it takes so much humility to admit that some things need to be change especially if the organization has been in existence for a number of years and has been accustomed to how things are done the usual way.

I commend the leadership and administration of NSO R10 for rallying the support of their employees towards this move for change. I also want to highlight on the phrase being mentioned, “human beings make organizations work, not technology.” I agree with this statement all the way. It is essential not to forget that the role of humans is irreplaceable to that of the machines. The employees have the ability to think, rationalize and make decisions which are crucial in the delivery of prompt service. The technology is there to make jobs easier and faster and employees should also be open-minded to learn new things, to adapt to new environments and update their competencies.

Trust should also be accorded to employees to initiate activities in their level. Those in the grassroots are well aware of the problems they encounter and they have all the information of what works and what does not. It is important to solicit ideas from them to also make them feel that they are contributing to a greater whole. For employees to give out valid suggestions and actionable ones, the administration is also duty bound to equip them with trainings and provide them with due support. Give them space and area to nourish their creative sides and explore possibilities of innovativeness and provide them assistance by assigning them to work in teams or committees.

As human resources are developed, there is also a need to look into the operations side in implementing change management. In this article, there is a significant discovery of the reasons why people from the provinces don’t avail of the services. The logistics problem was carefully thought of and the Touch Base Civil Registration Management Systems proved helpful to the public as well as lessened the volume in their respective offices. This movement improved two parts of the delivery of their services and that to me is quite exemplary especially coming from the public sector. If this movement is effective for NSO R10 I don’t see any reason why this cannot be adopted with the other regions and government agencies.

The transformation part of the model is very thought-provoking as there will be mixed emotions involved in the change process. Because aside from the process, there are also behaviors that needs to be addressed especially the negative ones. Sometimes if policies are not in place to support the change movement then things might go back to the way it was before. Action planning then should involve everyone to create concrete steps which are actionable and realistic. The timeliness of the action plan is also very important because if it were implemented later, it may not yield to desirable results. This stage can also be considered as a trial and error stage to come up with the best of the best plans. Solutions that cater to personalized needs and answers fit to case-to-case basis problems. The more number of people are involved, the more chances of equal representation of ideas and more options to choose from. The culture of initiative and innovativeness is hard to come by thus administration should also be sensible to varying needs of employees as well as changing demands of clients.

Even the refreezing part needs to be unfreeze from time to time because the very essence of change management is actually look into ways of continuously improving the system. Newbies will enter the organization, new technologies will be developed or even change in leadership can also be experienced. For that reason, every move to change management should be coupled with sustainability mechanisms. Strategic plans for the future should not rest on one person alone. It has to be built in within the system. A system that knows how to correct itself, a systems that solicits feedback and a system that is geared towards excellence coupled with people who are empowered and enlightened will prove to be the best assets of any organization.

In a world fueled by change, competition is inevitable. People will fight for resources, people are empowered to demands their rights and the social media has changed the platform of providing feedback and expressing issues and concerns. Organizations placing priority on customer satisfaction and consistently working on its improvement will prove victors in the quest for efficiency and effectiveness of product and service delivery.

In conclusion, I am reminded by one of my favorite quotes which states that, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Those who strive for change are the people with more strength and they can withstand anything that comes along the way. And the best leaders are the ones who can inflict change without sacrificing the belief in the human capital. Lastly, the greatest wonders of the world were made out of a collective effort and not by just one man. If change can be likened to a boat, one needs people to paddle for it to move and more people to arrive at a destination sooner. Most importantly if sailing against the tide, there should be a clear vision to propel those in the boat to paddle hard and motivate them never to stop working. One can only do that if he/she has well invested on relationships rather than on material things.