Prince: Waves of Transition...

On 22 July, prince posted a write-up about what he thought of merging & management from zero, merging is a lengthy process which involves two different choices, either starts everything from the scratch again, or creating synergy within the management. The latter is always involving the stages of trust creation which is always, artificially covers the surface of the political war of transition period.

During the merging process, that major concern is the waves of transition, not just one, but a few transition period that will create a high staff turns over. The transition period, not only involves old staff but also new staff in the process, whereby, synergy clashes between both parties’ interest.

If the transition period begins, it becomes contagious, unless the ‘fundamental problem’ is resolved. The fundamental solution is to ‘neutralize’ the old culture in the management. Synergy will only ‘soften the conflict’ but does not solve it. When transition period begins, it shows that the ‘virus’ has infected the management, and the turn over rate will continue to rise, it is called waves of transition, the duration can be vary from time to time but will not stop. New team comes in, and goes at the end of the day before the objective is attained. This is an unhealthy trend in one company because the trend will go on and on without ending, and affect the morale and productivity of one company.

The management can not avoid the plague of transition if the problem of transition has not resolved at the early stages, or otherwise, when the virus permeated the culture and rooted permanently, it will be difficult, almost impossible to curb anymore.

New team working in the company, will have to prepare for a ‘marathon’, it is, somehow, like running a marathon in a sprint! Those who can’t sustain the marathon will suffer from ‘self-eliminating’ effect, which means they are swamped by the waves of transition.

The indicator of the commencement of transition is when any one of the employees decided to leave, and once he/she left, the rest who can not sustain will follow suit, and that marks the start of the transition wave.

If a company is adopting the attitude of continuous improvement, then there may be a solution to the problem before the virus spreads to others, or otherwise, new and old team will be replaced. Most often, when the wave hits, company will be too vulnerable to curb with the virus, practically in real life management.

Footnote:

Fundamental problem – The management sickness which will erode the management value, such as deprivation of employees’ freedom, benefit and etc

Neutralize – Old management, may appear to be over protective, intimidating or too softening, thus, new management needs to first balance the power.

Soften the conflict – to create synergy whereby, mutual understanding becomes important

The transition can vary from time to time – Employees may stay with one company for a certain period of time before they finally leave the company for good sake, they may stay for a few months, or a few years, second teams may stay longer or shorter, similarly to the third transition period which marks the new born of third team.

Running a marathon in a sprint – Marathon is supposed to run at a speed of medium pace, but in an expanding company, they will run the marathon in a sprint due to their speed of expansion, the time frame has set them into fast speed within the certain time frame.

Self-eliminating – Employee resigned, due to in-sustainable condition.

Transition wave – the cycle of turn over or changes

Continuous improvement is one type of management who are continuously looking for improvement, and solution to a problem, instead of creating problem itself.