Gina Temple: What You Need to Know About Organizational Change

According to Gina Temple, the biggest changes in organizations lead to opportunities. This is ultimately preferable to being stagnant. The state of many organizations is often tied to their willingness to go through internal organizational changes that happen regularly.

That said, people cannot be blamed for being afraid of change, especially if it comes with its own sets of risks and uncertainties. For example, look at investors taking risks and rewards in careful consideration before buying stock or funding an enterprise. In a similar context, organizations have to be cautious in making big changes across the board.

Some companies respond by keeping a conservative attitude toward organizational change. They slow down or even keep changes from happening, all on the mistaken belief of not fixing what is not broken. Taking this route may seem in line with the cautious approach of risk management and the healthy level of skepticism needed in decision-making. Still, it opens to the danger of gradually becoming risk-averse and, of course, eventually stagnant.

According to Gina Temple, some findings suggest that the opposite may be more beneficial for an organization in the long haul. Look at Accenture, a company that discovered how businesses that show the best benefits often have changes occurring at a more rapid pace, though these come along with the risk of falling into setbacks that were not previously anticipated.

These risks often start as pre-existing conditions that are already part of the organization. In the process of implementing organizational changes that are adaptive, companies need to be aware of the possibilities of these potential setbacks and rectify them as they come. Companies should also learn how to detect them early on accurately, says Gina Temple.

Furthermore, all these actions should be done preferably while maintaining the changes organizations mean to implement within the process.

It should also be noted that an efficient and effective organizational structure can give a business the advantage it needs to actually compete in a cutthroat industry. When streamlined, an organizational structure will get things done faster with the lowest reasonable cost. It will later evolve into a legitimate, well-oiled powerhouse headed towards growth and expansion.

A lot of the advantages of a streamlined organizational structure can be seen in its ability to accomplish processes more efficiently. As companies grow and expand, they hire more people. When this happens, there may be relatively simplistic arrangements that work in their startup phase. These arrangements would no longer be able to handle the demands of production later on. This is why the more employees a company has, the more it will need a multilevel system of management that is elastic and can handle the increasing numbers, explains Gina Temple.

On a final note, for businesses to achieve their goals, they will need a system capable of oversight. For example, a business that seeks to increase and improve the quality of its products and services may require a more rigorous inspection protocol, which can keep up with the increasing demands of production.

Gina Temple has served in the healthcare community for over 30 years with experiences ranging from for-profit to not-for-profit organizations, unionized to non-unionized facilities and acute care settings to outpatient centers. Read similar articles on healthcare and leadership by clicking here.