CARPENTER: STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP IS PIVOTAL TO ACHIEVING RESULT-DRIVEN CHANGE MANAGEMENT

From your over forty years’ experience of leading organisations, what are some lessons from change management initiatives that have succeeded and failed?

Change should never be forced on employees. They must be shown that the change is necessary and of benefit to them and to the company they work for. The must ‘buy in’ to the change and be shown that it is the best way forward. This will require detailed dialogue and all employees must be allowed to voice their opinion. It should be a collaborative effort that is motivational and rewarding.

Inevitably, some people will find it impossible to change or will simply disagree with the proposed strategy. In such cases, it may be best to negotiate their exit rather than risk them jeopardizing the overall change programme, upsetting other employees and being unhappy and unproductive themselves. Human beings are naturally resistant to change.

How could Leaders influence and shape the dialogue across their organisation and achieve buy-in from diverse stakeholders?

Change should never be dictated. It should emanate from detailed discussion amongst a group of stakeholders – shareholders, Directors, senior management, employees, customers, etc. Everyone should be allowed to contribute to the proposed strategy and, overall, it must be shown to be of benefit to everyone.

For some, change may mean early retirement, redundancy or a change of role within the organisation.

There may be significant initial cost to implementing change but leading to increased revenues / reduced costs further down the path of change.

Why should Executives attend?

Please allow me to share some testimonials from previous delegates of TEXEM and please you be the judge.

Testimonials

“Highly interactive and very practical; high profile speakers with excellent pedigree and track record of professional achievements; provided networking among participants”, said previous TEXEM delegate, Dayo Babatunde, Senior Partner, Ernst and Young.

“I regard the These Executive Minds Executive Education programme as the best I have attended in recent times. Not one of them, but the very best as it was humanly perfect” said previous TEXEM delegate, Peter Atolo Irene, CEO, International Energy Insurance Company.

“The content of the programme has been rich and educative, refreshing, enlightening and thought provoking. I enjoyed this programme and I am looking forward to another programme, said previous TEXEM delegate, Andy Uwejeyan, Managing Director A&J Construction Company Ltd.

“I found this programme very, very rewarding. In the past I always had a way of thinking that the matter of sustainability related only to policy matters but during this programme, it has been broken down into the company level and for me there are a number of take-aways that I hope to begin implementing once I get back home”, previous TEXEM delegate, Frank Aigbogun, CEO and Publisher Businessday

“My experience in this programme has been quite enormous...The organisers, we saw that they prepared for us and they were quite good, quite sociable, and quite academic and we had discussion platforms that were divided into groups. On a general note, TEXEM is laying a foundation that will grow like an iroko tree. On this note I want to thank the CEO of TEXEM, Alim Abubakre and his colleagues for making it possible for us to attend”, said previous TEXEM delegate, Godson Mark Torukuru – Chair Bayelsa State Internal Revenue Service