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When dealing with organizational change, a number
of experts speak about the need to change the
culture within the organization. When considering
cloud computing as a viable IT solution, the focus
on cultural change simply because cloud computing
is already culturally integrated. In many cases, the
business may be farther behind the acceptance of
cloud computing services than their employees.
Unfortunately, many users of cloud computing may
not know they are using cloud computing. Here are
some prominent services that utilize cloud computing
in some capacity:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google Apps, including Gmail
• Android Services
• Microsoft Online Services
• Windows Mobile Operating System
• Bing Search Engine
• Amazon Marketplace and Kindle
• eBay
• Apple Products and Services, including iTunes
• Yahoo Search Engine
The list has no potential end as many Internet
companies are adopting cloud services every day. The
general consumer may not be aware their favorite
Internet services are being supported by a “cloud”. This
realization also highlights an important condition of
cultural change – keep the service simple. Most of the
aforementioned services are simple to access and use:
the startup for most will take 5-10 minutes.
The attractiveness of cloud computing can be
attributed to the level of transparency associated
with cloud services: the service being used is not
dependent on understanding the infrastructure
supporting the service. In traditional business
computing, some systems require understanding
command lines or the functionality built into the
application. Some solutions may require registry
changes or reassignment of IP addresses. With cloud
services, very little of this type of knowledge is
required. From a consumer’s perspective, they start
using the service with very little decision making
required after the initial setup. This transparency
supports rapid cultural change.
Cultural change
The migration away from traditional methods of IT
service provision to the utilization of cloud computing
models will in many ways be a significant cultural
change for all of the stakeholders involved. From
a customer perspective it may mean a change
in the way that services are negotiated, agreed,
priced, charged for and supported. From a security
perspective it means the possibility of relinquishing
local storage and control of data and information.
From an IT staff member perspective it may be
viewed as either negatively or positively. Positive in
that there may be less operational worries to content
with, negative if it could mean the role of the internal
service provider is reduced and a threat to job
security.
So with the significant changes (actual or perceived)
that are occurring, the importance of managing the
cultural change associated with the adoption cloud
computing should not be underestimated.
As a summary, the key principles for successfully
managing cultural change are:
1. To involve and gain commitment from all types
of stakeholders within the affected environments
(e.g. company directors, business managers, IT
users, IT managers and staff, shareholders, external
contractors or consultants etc.).
2. Clearly understand where the organization is at
the beginning and each stage throughout the
change.
3. Understand where you want to be, when, why,
and what the measures will be for defining success
(did we get there?).
4. Plan the actions required to meet the above goals
in appropriate achievable measurable stages
(using Plan, Do, Check, Act sequences).
5. Communicate, involve, enable and facilitate
involvement from people, as early and openly and
as fully as is possible.
No organization can successfully impose change;
instead people and teams need to be empowered to
create their own ideas and solutions with facilitation
and support from change leaders, managers and
executives. Management and leadership style and
behavior can often be more valuable than overly-
specific process and policy, as staff need to be able to
trust the organization and the motivations behind the
change.
John Kotter, a lecturer on leadership at the Harvard
Business School, has gained international recognition
for his research into the factors of success and failure
of change initiatives in the business world. “The most
general lesson to be learned from the more successful
cases is that the change process goes through a series
of phases that, in total, usually require a considerable
length of time”.
Skipping steps creates only the illusion of speed and
never produces satisfactory results” and “making
critical mistakes in any of the phases can have
a devastating impact, slowing momentum and
negating hard-won gains”.
Kotter summarizes the eight phases as follows:
1.
Establishing a sense of urgency
2.
Creating the guiding coalition
3.
Developing a vision and strategy
4.
Communicating the change vision
5.
Empowering employees for broad-based action
6.
Generating short-term wins
7.
Consolidating gains and producing more change
8.
Anchoring new approaches in culture.
If nothing else, using Kotter’s eight-stage process
will help organizations to plan for and manage the
journey in a more effective manner rather than trying
to transform too quickly.
Supporting
Organizational
Change
WilliamManning