HORROR STORY TIME
As if there is not enough unplanned change in our lives, we add to the whirlpool of change by introducing changes ourselves. Let’s talk about planned change.
Many of us can tell horror stories of changes introduced by those in authority. Heart attacks, breakdowns, strikes, resignations, even suicides, all these and more have occurred after changes poorly introduced.
Think for a moment on the one change that you have personally witnessed which you would consider to be a horrific one either because of the matter of the change or the method by which it was introduced.
1. What was the change introduced?
2. What were the circumstances?
3. What effects did it have on the people involved?
4. Were any social relationships affected?
5. What value did the change agent see in the change?
6. Was it the matter or the method that affected people?
7. Was there any participation at all by those affected by the change?
8. Was the change introduced at the appropriate level or place?
9. Could the change have been successfully introduced if another method had been adopted?
CAPITAL GREETING CARDS
At first Tapas Raut did not believe the rumours. Now that the rumours were confirmed, he was in confusion. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “I’ve worked as a greeting-card artist here for 17 years. I love what I do. Now they tell me that I’m going to have to do all my work on a computer.” Tapas was not alone in his fear. The company’s other two artists, Manas Talwar and Mira Lenka were just as concerned. Each had graduated from art school near the top of their class. They came to work for Capital right out of college - Manas in 1989, Tapas in 1993 and Mira in 1996. They chose the company, which was over forty years old, because of its reputation as a good place to work. The company had a stable workforce and people who worked there seemed happy.
Capital Greeting Cards is a small maker of greeting cards and special wrapping paper. It has modest resources and modest ambitions. Management has always pursued progress slowly. Maybe that is why it was so late in introducing computerized technology to its production operations. And why now it decided that it no longer wanted its artists to do hand-rendered work. Management had bought three high-powered computers and equipped them with the latest graphics and photo manipulation software.
Homi Dastur, the company’s owner-manager, called Manas, Tapas and Mira into his office this morning. He told them about the changes that were going to be made. Dastur acknowledged that the three were going to have a lot to learn to be able to do all their work on computers. But he stressed that the changes would dramatically speed-up the art-production and photo-layout processes and eventually result in significant cost savings. He offered to send the three to a one-week course in Bangalore specifically designed to train artists in the new technology. He also said he expected all of the company’s art and photo operations to be completely digitalized within three months.
Tapas was neither dull nor stupid. He had been following the trends in graphic art. More and more work was being done on computers. He just thought, as did Mira and Manas, that he might escape having to learn these programmes. After all, Capital Greeting is not Archie’s or Hallmark. But Tapas was wrong. Technology was coming to Capital and there wasn’t much he could do about it, other than complain and look for another job.
QUESTIONS
1. Explain Tapas’s resistance.
2. Evaluate the way Dastur handled the change.
3. What, if anything, would you have done differently if you had been Dastur?