Total Improvement Management is a combination of Total Quality Management, Total Cost Manage-ment, Total Productivity Management, Total Resource Management, Total Tech-nology Management, and Total Business Management. Its effectiveness is primarily measured by Return on Assets (ROA), Value-Added per Employee (VAE), Market Share and Customer Satisfaction (CS).

A critical component of an Integrated Total Improvement Management (TIM) methodology is a structured and disciplined process for managing and implementing change. The adoption of a TIM philosophy will create a great deal of organizational change that will have a major impact on organizational members’ current beliefs, behaviors, knowledge, and expectations. To make this challenge even more daunting, the changes brought about by TIM will impact people who are probably already overwhelmed with the increasing acceleration of change in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, all organizational members must realize that organizational change can, and must be managed. Change cannot be viewed as a one time event or a passing phase. Change must be seen as the manageable process

The Process of Change

In order for TIM to bring about real, sustainable business improvements, it is imperative that managers at all levels of the organization have the ability and willingness to deal with the tough issues associated with implementing major change. They must be capable of guiding their organization safely through the change process.
This involves convincing people to leave the comfort of the Current State, move through the turbulent, new way of doing things, (the Transition State), to arrive at what may be an unclear, distant Future State. These three states are: Current, Transition and Future.
Specifically, these three states are defined as follows:

1. Current State- The status quo, or the established patterns of expectations. The normal routine an organization follows before the implementation of TIM.
2. Transition State- The point in the change process where people break away from the status quo. They no longer behave as they have done in the past, yet they still not have thoroughly established the “new way” of operating. The transition state begins when TIM solutions disrupt individual’s expectations and they must start to change the way they work.
3. Future State- The point where change initiatives are implemented and integrated with the behavior patterns that are required by the change. TIM goals and objectives have been achieved.
The focus of Organizational Change Management (OCM) implementation methods is on the transition between these various states. The journey from the Current State to the Future State can be long and perilous, and if not properly managed with appropriate strategies and tactics, it can be disastrous.

To be continued…

(Source: Organizational Change Management – To Set the Stage for Quality by Dr. James Harrington)