Making transformational changes involves overhauling the status quo to achieve significant improvements. Often, companies become concerned about the impacts on job roles too early, limiting themselves from exploring options that could deliver major advancement.
There are three reasons why companies should put job roles aside as they brainstorm transformational changes.
1. Create unnecessary constraints
If the company let questions such as who will be able to do the work or the number of jobs impacted influence their thinking, it would rule out options with excellent potentials right off the back. Instead, the company needs to keep an open mind. The concerns create unnecessary constraints. They constitute subconscious resistance to change.
2. Relent to sub-optimal outcomes
This happens when the needed change calls for skills that the current employees don’t possess. Instead of focusing on what is needed, sub-optimal modifications are proposed so that the incumbent could do the work. The attempt to fit people with inadequate skills to a job role introduces incompetence. The end result is tolerance of sub-par performance which is contradictory to the intent of the change initiative.
3. Downgrade good options
This is the reverse of the above two problems. A good option could receive low ranking because of the thinking that the existing reporting structure would remain status quo or the incumbent employees would be reassigned. Usually, it is a main concern for team leaders who rely on collaborative support from another team. The fear leads them to take a more conservative approach in supporting major shifts.
Recognizing that finding talent could be challenging, it needs to be dealt with when there is a clear picture of all the needs. It is self-defeating when too much emphasis is placed upfront. Figure out what is the best approach to tackle the business challenge first, then seek the right talent to fill the roles.
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