Change Management for Pochampalli weavers

Pro Bono Consulting project

Tanushree Jana

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Objectives2. Pricing Analysis3. Organizational Behavior Analysis4. Financial Analysis5. Conclusion

1. OBJECTIVES

Analyze the viability and performance of CCW

Identify operational or structural difficulties Present mitigation alternatives 3 approaches:

Pricing Strategy Behavioral Analysis Financial Statements

3. ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

ARE YOU READY TO LEAD A CHANGE?

Fixed Malleable

Internal Ability“I just don’t have the right stuff”

Strategy “If I try x, I can do it”

External Task difficulty“This was a just hard job- no one could have succeeded”

Luck“I was just unlucky.”

Desirable state of

mind for the change leader

THE CYCLE OF CHANGE

1

Random incidents

Recognition

Initial actions Implementation

Integration

Waning activities

PHASE 1: RANDOM INCIDENTS

CCW was founded to help the weavers get a better livelihood and continue the profession of weaving.

It started with the intension of bringing about a change in the way the weavers have been working all this while.

You as a leader put thought into it to find out why this change it needed. You realized that Weavers need to adapt their weaving style and

patterns to the new styles of the market Weavers need to adhere to quality control

mechanisms to get a better margin in the market

PHASE 2: RECOGNITION – BUILD A CASE FOR CHANGE In this phase you need to win the weavers over to

your side and have them vote for the change. You need to study and understand your weavers

before you build a case1. What is the pattern of your change agents and

where is your tipping point? What kind of potential resistance exits?

2. What kind of social network exists in your organization?

3. What are the weavers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to weave with CCW and in general?

4. Do they identify with CCW? 5. What are your and their sources of power ?6. How can you influence your employees?

PHASE 2.1 CHANGE AGENTS IN CCW CCW is very lucky that almost 70% of its weavers come within innovators,

early adopters and early majority. These are the ones easy to convert. The XL sheet has details of which weaver belongs to which class. How to diffuse the change across these categories of change agents? We recommend you start with appreciative enquiry. Ask the weavers ‘When

was it that you were at your best’ and the his answer should make you say and feel ‘Oh wow, is that so’.

Be ready to hear a lot of lashing out as the change takes place. The leader like Lord Shiva will need to digest a lot of poison before the Amrut comes out.

Innovators:+ Love new things. Any new idea

excites them. + Start with them. + Speak to them individually in an

informal setting about the change

+ Get them involved in planning the change and pilots.

PHASE 2.1 CHANGE AGENTS IN CCW

Early majority+ Like to go for the change only if it benefits them.

They may show a cognitive resistance ‘I don’t get it’.

+ Build a case for the change after winning over innovators and early adopters. Give rational reasons, show them their benefit.

+ Pay attention on ‘why’ not ‘how’.+ Do not do an information overload. Keep it simple.+ Have patience, allow them to digest the

informationLate majority

+ Will adopt a change only if necessary. They tend to show the emotional resistance ‘I don’t like it’.

+ Use the early majority broker networks to influence them

PHASE 2.1 CHANGE AGENTS IN CCW

Resistors:+ Are completely against the change. They may

show personal resistance of ‘I don’t like you’.+ Ignore them, keep them out of the change

process, remove them from important leadership or influential roles.

+ They will automatically join the change movement when the late majority gets converted.

PHASE 2.2 CHANGE DIFFUSION & SOCIAL NETWORKS

Brokers+ There are certain weavers who have a more influential

social network than others. We call them brokers.+ Use them to diffuse the change to other weavers who are

late adopters.+ Rotate these brokers across different groups for a short

while and have them diffuse the change over time.+ The XL sheet provided has the details of these weavers.

PHASE 2.3 WHAT ARE THEIR NEEDS? HOW TO MOTIVATE THEM?

The weavers have a more short-term outlook than outlook. In order to convert it into a long term view you need to

Show them the dream (Intrinsic) Involve them across all activities

of CCW, give them opportunity to grow, learn and demonstrate responsibility. (Intrinsic)


How working with CCW can improve their lives in many ways Good income (Extrinsic ) Status and Social respect – by introducing more responsible and involved work such as quality control, marketing, sales, accounting, middle managers (Intrinsic) CCW cares and matches with their intrinsic

motivations. Giving them a sense of identity. Show them how

their work is pride worthy and is used by large boutiques and exported. Create a sense of pride in handloom. (Intrinsic)


Giving them a sense of identity. Show them how their work is pride worthy and is used by large boutiques and exported. Create a sense of pride in handloom. (Intrinsic)

Better lifestyle – the weaver can work at home and be his own boss, use his own creativity (Extrinsic)

Get trained in better weaving techniques and maintain a high degree of quality. (Extrinsic)

As can be seen, a large number of weavers are interested in learning difficult weaving and teaching the same too. A substantial number are interested in quality control.

PHASE 2.4 ALIGN YOUR GOALS

The good news is that a lot of the goals and interests of CCW are aligned with that of the weavers.

Start with the weavers whose goals are aligned and those who are innovators or early adopters.

Give them resources and ability to achieve the common goals.

Thus they will become your allies.

PHASE 2.5 POWER AND POLITICS !

Power: Ability to get things doneInfluence: process by which one party attempts to

change the attitudes and beliefs of others+ This and the next two slides analyze your and

the weavers’ powers.+ It also gives insights into how can you build

your power, fight their power and influence them

PHASE 2.5 WHAT POWER DO YOU HAVE?

You

Formal authority

Right Unit (N/A)

United front / allies

Resources

Communication network

Knowledge / Reputation /

performance / expertise

Your power You have formal authority and resources. Do

not use formal authority except in the case where a resistor creates too much trouble.

PHASE 2.5 WHAT POWER DO YOU HAVE?

How too build your power Use your resources to build your allies. Give

these resources to the innovators and early adopters.

Use the networks of the influential innovators and early adopters to spread the news about the change and to build your own network

Learn some technical details about weaving. This will help the weavers develop trust and respect.

Move later to the other types of change agents as suggested earlier

PHASE 2.5 WHAT POWER DO THEY HAVE?

Weavers

Formal authority

Right Unit (N/A)

United front / allies

Resources

Communication network

Knowledge / Reputation /

Performance / Expertise

Their power They are strong in their networks and allies. Do not under

estimate the power of resistance. If a weaver is upset with you or against you, he will use his network to put you in a bad light and reduce your credibility.

They can also make a lot of weavers quit CCW. Some of them have power due to their knowledge and expertise. You need to have these people in your side.

PHASE 2.5 WHAT POWER DO THEY HAVE?

How to protect yourself against their power If they are resistors, then you need to keep them

satisfied in an illusion that they do not need to change until everyone else has been converted. They will change in the end.

Weavers do not have resources. If you want to punish someone, you can starve them of resources.

Risks and stakes Your risks and stakes are higher than those of the

weavers. If you fail it is a big deal, if they fail it is not a big deal.

Better option If someone is being difficult, you can trade your

resources with the desired action.

PHASE 2.6 HOW TO PERSUADE PEOPLE?

Liking: people like those who are like themselves and like themselves To show similarity, correlate anything in your

life with that of the weaver. This could be language, culture, smoking, kids, similar taste in colors, criticism about a common person or thing.

To be liked, be sensitive to other people’s body language and reactions

To be liked, develop the desire and ability to change oneself based on other people’s reactions.

Show appreciation, but only when it is honest.


Reciprocity: People tend to return favors. Do as many favors as possible. They could be

simple ones like giving a lift, giving an honest appreciation, sharing a resource, sharing food

Social proof: People tend to commit themselves if they have spoken in public Get your innovators and early adapters to

speak in public about why the change is a good idea

Authority : People tend to obey authority figures Get external speakers to motivate the early

majority


Commitment and consistency: People tend to justify their actions whether they were right or wrong. If you have a bad relationship with a weaver,

be nice to him and ask him for a small personal favor. Example: a smoke, a pen, a book anything that is trivial. After reluctantly offering you the favor, the opponent will justify his behavior towards you , that he gave it to you because you are a good person. The next time he will be far more approachable.

If an early adopter agrees to your proposed idea of change, ask him why. He will try to find all the reasons to justify his actions.


Commitment and consistency: If a resistor disagrees to your proposed change,

do not ask him ‘why’. If you ask him why, he will find more justifications and convince himself even more about why it is a bad idea. Instead ask, what can you do to win him over.

Associate weaving with something desirable e.g. fashion models or film stars wearing handloom. Associate the desired results with intrinsic explanations not extrinsic ones. Example: Wow these sarees have no defect, you must be a perfectionist, vs, FabIndia will be very pleased as there are no defects.

If any of your arguments to convince people is weak, admit it before the opposer can jump on it.

PHASE 3: INITIAL ACTIONS

Make a project plan as to how will you implement the change. Who all will be involved, in what manner, what will be their responsibility. Involve your supporters to create this plan. The plan could also include starting with a pilot.

Determine how will you measure success, based on what parameters. Examples: no. of sarees woven in x number of days, of y number of knots, with z number of defects.

Make it pretty: Prettiness, tidy-ness builds a cognitive innovative mind. Whenever a person see a beautiful product, even if it is difficult to use, the person is able to think in many ways to finally operate it. If a product is easy to use but ugly, chances are that it may not be used as much. Make sure your weavers find their saree designs beautiful.


Provide channels of implementation. Make it easy for the weaver to implement the change after he has agreed to it. Example: If you are the editor of a college

magazine and are finding it hard to convince students to write, take a pen and a paper, put it down in front of them during their break and ask them to write just about anything they like. This is far easier than finding time, opening the laptop, putting too much thought etc to write.

For a weaver, provide him with encouragement, support, resources, training, anything that he needs to get things done.


Involve the weavers (only those who are on your side) in implementing the change. Let them take over responsibilities other than weaving, if they show an interest (which they have as indicated in earlier slides)

Keep enough time and space for contingencies Build the right kind of organizational structure to

support the change process

PHASE 4: IMPLEMENTATION

In order to keep the momentum going on, celebrate small periodic wins with your people

Showcase the wins in public Follow up on targets Create a structured, consistent environment Make clear decisions / contracts Make the key stake holders feel the ownership Make sure there isn’t any resource constraint

PHASE 5: LAUNCH AND INTEGRATION

Launch the change Observe if the change is no longer new but is now a

norm Evaluate the change process and different initiatives

PHASE 6: WARNING SIGNS

When the change has become a norm and there is a sign of disruption either externally or internally, it is perhaps time for yet another change

LEADERSHIP STYLES AND THE CYCLE OF CHANGE

Com

e w

ith m

e!

Come with me!

Com

e w

ith m

e!

Do as I do. Now!

Do as

I say

!

What do you think?

Let's

try

it...…

Let's try it...…People come first

People come first

People come first

People come first

Affiliative styleIncreases trust and closeness

Commanding styleIncreases control and execution, works well in crisis

Democratic styleIncreases involvement and commitment

Visionary styleGives hope and direction

Pace setting styleIncreases result, ambitionCoaching styleIncreases competence, innovation

5. CONCLUSIONS

5. 2 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Use the change management principles to diffuse the change

Use both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation techniques. The former are more effective

Build your power base Win them over

5.4 SUMMARY

If all 3 measures are implemented, then with highly motivated weavers can be possible to produce more and better products and also sell them at a higher margin.

This, combined with some structural and financial adjustments, could lead to the viability of the organization.

The entire change management process will take a longer time perhaps 2-3 years.

Business

Change Management for Pochampalli weavers