Page 186 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Competence development in handling change
(c) focus on technology;
(d) integration across corporation;
(e) systematic capture, analysis and retrieval of customer information.

For example, Kao Japlin’s leading household and chemical products business
handles 250 customer calls a day and now has 350,000 customer questions/com-
plaints stored in the system, which can be analysed and recalled using 8000 key-
words by customer name, product, division, date or geographical area.

Competence development in handling change

I set out a model widely used in the training literature which looks at the stages
of competence development. In any change setting we move from unconscious
incompetence to unconscious competence via conscious incompetence and then
conscious competence (Figure 10.1).
The typical analogy to draw is that of learning to drive: the process of moving
from unconscious incompetence (in which we are not aware of lack of competence
or what it means) to a state of conscious incompetence when we first sit behind the
driving wheel. In a state of heightened awareness we become immediately aware of
lack of competence. This initial process is one of awareness raising. In a change set-
ting, this may come via communication processes, visits and so on, but will often
come from facing new demands from customers or sources of competition which
cannot readily be met. The latter are generally brought out through diagnostic stud-
ies, internal reviews, etc., undertaken by consultants (external or internal), task
forces, etc.
The next process is that of skill building as we move from conscious incom-
petence to conscious competence. Here we have the first stage of implementation.

Unconscious

Performance management competence
Learning organization
Personal development
Developing
mastery
Conscious
Change workshops competence
Skills training Learning
Staff surveys vehicles
Customer surveys Skill
Benchmarking building
Conscious
incompetence
Briefings
Diagnostic studies Awareness
Task forces, reviews
raising
Unconscious
incompetence
Figure 10.1 Competence development in change

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