What is the role of change management in the military financial management community?

What hasn't changed in the Military financial management community in the last 10 years? Who is giving guarantees that our environment won't change even more in the next 3, 5, 7, or 10 years, or perhaps even more than once? More importantly, how have we survived past changes? What will it take to survive future changes?

The seemingly ageless stability of the military financial management community has been significantly shaken during the last decade; today, many community members approach the future with apprehension. Flags signaling change still fly. At the most basic, do we call our community the "DoD Comptroller" (as in American Society of Military Comptrollers), "DoD Financial Management," or "DoD Financial Management and Comptroller" community? Have we even settled on what that change implies?

Even though the Defense Finance and Accounting Service has been in existence for over 10 years, many members of our financial management community have yet to totally accept this change. Financial management work in what was viewed by most to be an organized, stable environment---with predictable annually cyclical workload fluctuations--has been turned topsyturvy. World events and ever-increasing pressures on DoD budgets have created more and more what-if drills, short-turnaround "numbers please submissions," and a frenzied drive for more and more detailed financial and program information on quicker and quicker timelines.

The nebulous risk factor that financial management personnel were accustomed to dealing with only in budget and cost estimates suddenly has become personal in daily work and job stability. Could the cumulative risks associated with past, on-going, and unknown (but impending) changes to the military financial management environment really be causing the increasing number of worry lines we see in the mirror every morning?

Then there is the human reaction to change and uncertainty. Sometimes it's overt, but most often it's covert. One hears mutterings:

"They can't do that to me."

"They don't care."

"I'm important. My work is important. I'll show 'em!"

Whoa! Certainly there must be a way to capture and redirect this intense level of reactive, defensive energy towards adaptive coping and positive resilience.

Enter change management.

To manage change, the military financial management community must first understand the dynamics and the components of change. We often confuse ourselves by concentrating on the elements of physical change, such as an organizational realignment, a technology replacement or upgrade, workflow or workload reassignment, or new skills training. In that environment, those most affected by the change often react with resentment and resistance: "This change will never work. I'm not changing my time-proven methods to accommodate this nonsense. I should just quit!"

This dynamics illustration highlights the single most important requirement in successful change management. To quote Lynda Rogerson, an active change management consultant, "Change only happens when each person makes a decision to implement the change."

People evaluate and support or, more often, resist change based on their individually tailored perspectives. How does the change impact their lives, their identity, their work environment, their view of reality, and their opinion of what is really wrong, if anything, with status quo? Reaction to proposed change is human nature. The uncertainty of change---good or bad---can unintentionally and negatively affect those soft variables so important to productivity and performance: pride, perception of self-worth, organization identification, and team cohesion. Ignoring the soft human variables frequently leads to the type of change resistance previously cited. When implementing change, the error at the program or the organizational level is in not readily addressing the "me" dynamics of change.

OK. Now that we have an understanding of the dynamics of change and its most important human aspects, what is its role in the military financial management community? After all, we are a tough lot. Or are we?

Most members of the military financial management community have witnessed much and frequent change during the past decade. Almost every DoD financial management person can provide copious examples of work environment changes he or she personally has experienced.

Think about it. What was the nature of your work yesterday? Is it the same today? What tools did you use yesterday? How much time did it take? Are the tools the same today? Is it taking the same amount of time? Does today's technology make your work easier or has it changed the scope of your work? Are you in fact doing more with less, but have never taken the time to recognize it?

Now, here's the toughest question of all (and be honest in your answer): With it behind you, were all the changes you experienced negative? Or did your individual perspectives and emotions initially classify all change as bad? And are you still stuck there?

If you are reading this essay, more than likely you are a change survivor. How ever, even though you survived past changes, what is the health of your mental attitude toward change today? Are you mentally prepared to survive change again (and perhaps again and again in your financial management career) ?

The role of change management is to prepare us, the members of the military financial management community, to be receptive, resilient, accommodating, and supportive of change. Change management can best prepare us to become proactive agents and positive survivors of change by giving us five essential ingredients for successful change:

* A comfortable expectation of the nature and timing of forthcoming change. Advance knowledge of change tends to create change partners rather than change victims. The initial forecast of change doesn't have to be a thorough explanation with an absolute timeline in order for people to be comfortable. Simple communication of the type of change, relative timing, rationale, and probable impacts is enough to mitigate many forms of early resistance.

* Change plans acknowledging that individual defensive reactions to change are natural and contain actions to address them. The best change management plans recognize the human side of resistance and provide avenues to channel reactive energy to deal with change in a positive, proactive manner.

* Recognition that we are not alone in having defensive reactions to change. Effective change management enables positive alliances to be formed on the basis of common values and common fears. On a personal level, look behind people's stoic work facade and you will see peers and coworkers with similar concerns and worry lines!

* Interactive change discussion. A framework in which individuals can freely express and share concerns about impending change facilitates the release of personal anxieties. It also encourages individual buy-in to change and its implementation. As important, it is often the genesis of additional good ideas that make the change even more acceptable, effective, and efficient.

* Leaders in the military financial management community who sincerely care about their personnel and who both publicly and privately demonstrate this care. Such leaders provide a rallying point for people affected by change and serve as the nucleus for the team cohesion needed to bring the organization and individuals through change.

In short, change management is most beneficial when we deal proactively with change together, as opposed to when we allow change to manage us destructively on an individual basis.

The fog in my military financial management community crystal ball is beginning to clear. I see change coming. But I am not frightened; we're in this together with change management now! The President and the Secretary of Defense continue to announce reforms and restructurings. The Department of Defense Component senior financial managers are instituting "transition" programs--but transition (change) to exactly what remains somewhat unclear. Significant progress is being made and plans are being formulated for DoD Business Management Modernization. Pressure on the Administration will inevitably change national funding priorities once we are beyond our current security challenges. And large numbers of financial management baby boomers are maturing into retirement. (Hey! Wait a minute. Was that a mirror?)

What we can't see remains in the fog at the back of the crystal ball---but that's OK. The things we see in the immediate future are enough to tell us that change management has a role today and tomorrow in the military financial management community. The number and scope of impending changes also tell us that we should embrace change management if, as a community, we want each and every one of us to be a change survivor!

Charles (Chuck) Marsh is a consulting staff member of Engineering, Management & Integration, Inc. (EM&I), Herndon, Virginia. A former chapter president, Mr. Marsh has been a career-long member of ASMC and is currently a member of the Washington, D.C., Chapter. He con be reached at [e-mail].