CrysTel Change Management Plan Paper and Defense

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Introduction

Telecommunications services firms have been facing many challenges in recent years. The industry has been in a constant state of change, which has kept it unstable and chaotic. This unpredictable environment has left many telecommunications firms straining to remain competitive and to retain their clients.
CrysTel, a thus far successful telecommunication firm is one such company which has been struggling to maintain its market share because of increased competition in the telecommunications industry as well as from cable companies who offer complete home and small business communications packages including internet service, television and land and cell telephone services.

CrysTel is planning to implement a range of new and emerging telecommunications technologies in a bid to increase its products offering in the market. To become and remain an agile organization that keeps up with the volatile demands of the market, CrysTel must change and expand its services menu and continue to offer new products on an ongoing basis. Such major changes have the almost certain potential to impact the entire organization.

CrysTel realizes that Companies which achieve long term success are those that are able to develop and maintain competitive advantages. The current telecommunication market is so unstable that today's competitive advantage can easily become tomorrow's minimum level of acceptable performance. Unique products, shortened time to market, high quality, and excellent customer service have all at various times, provided competitive advantage, however competitors have replicated each all too quickly.
To secure these advantages CrysTel must implement major changes in its various departments. To implement the changes successfully CrysTel must develop a multidimensional strategy to remedy the internal issues that will arise as a result of the changes. The strategy must be multi-faceted enough to addresses all stakeholder concerns in a win-win manner while still allowing the company to execute its change strategy. This will enable the company to make decisions and implement solutions that will speak to stakeholder concerns and at the same time allow it to achieve critical organizational goals.
Implications of Organizational Change
Organizational change can be described as the process of moving away from a current condition to realize some future state. Change management involves managing the process of achieving this future state (Nickols, 2004). Change can be viewed from two vantage points, that of the people making the changes and that of the people experiencing the changes (Prosci, 2006). In the top-down, or strategic viewpoint associated with management, the focus is on technical issues such as the investment required, the processes for implementing the change, how soon the change can be realized, and the outcome. In the bottom-up viewpoint of the employee, the focus is on what the change means to the individual, how they can cope with the change, and also how management can assist them through the transition. In this context, effective change management should be able to help individuals evolve from negative feelings such as fear and anxiety towards positive feelings about the changes being made (Zinnov.com) Effective change management deals with diagnosing problems and determining an alternative that involves changing the organizational structure or processes. It also identifies and deals with the individual responses to change that can hinder the success of the project.

John Kotter's leadership model is an extension of Lurt Lewin's model that identifies three phases to the change process. These three phases are described as:

? Unfreezing the status quo in preparation for the change
? Implementing the change
? Refreezing and reinforcing the new culture

The first phase involves preparing the people for change with the focus on getting them to let go of what is familiar. The second phase involves taking the steps that actually implement the change, while the last phase involves returning the organization to a stable state again based on the new culture. In Kotter's leadership model, the emphasis is on leadership and not just management of change since change involves people and their emotions. In each of these phases, he identifies important concepts that management needs to follow in order to lead the organization through the transition. In the first phase, the goal is to convince the employees that they need to abandon the old way of doing the work and to embrace the concept of change. This requires a lot of work in breaking down the barriers that hinder change. For most people the natural instinct is to resist change, and in this phase, it is management's job to convince the employees of the validity of the change based on a business need. They need to create a sense of urgency, and build a team of supporters that can act as a catalyst to develop a buy-in for the project. Management also needs to develop a clear direction for the future and effectively communicate this vision. During the second phase management needs to empower employees to take the required actions to remove both organizational and individual obstacles. They need to establish short-term goals, and consolidate these victories in ...