My entire IT department is getting restructured, to ensure we have the right folks in the right seats on the bus, and so everyone clearly knows what direction we are headed. I’m quite excited about this, as it will give me help in re-writing job descriptions, understanding where I fit into things, and how my team shapes up with what our needs will be for the next 5-10 years.

I’m also excited because the goal is NOT cost cutting, people cutting, or cutting anything. We may even get a little larger.

Taking client service to the next level is our IT department mantra and it is how we live.

Put plainly, “Do whatever it takes to make your customers happy. And you are all customers of each other!”

The name of the re-organization project is dubbed Project Next LEVEL.

Being the inquisitive, helpful guy that I am, I decided to take a crack at what I think it’ll mean to take my team to the next level, and how you might understand and explain a change of this magnitude to yourself or your team.

Learning – You have to learn about your team, about your customers, and about yourself. Learning about your core and what’s needed is essential to doing any process successfully, especially one that impacts 100 people. Assess and understand where your holes are, and where they are not. Do a SWOT analysis. Do some sort of analysis, and then move forward. If you’re going to make some changes, you better do your homework and understand their impact.

Evolution (not Revolution) – The changes we’re going to make are not revolutionary in nature. We’re not overthrowing the organization, seceding from the union, or anything that grand. It’s an evolution, and some changes will be made, mainly gradually, and they may evolve over time. We also are doing a top-down evolution, and looking at the senior level managers first, then the front line managers, and then finally the individual contributors. We didn’t get where we are overnight, and we won’t get to where we want to get overnight. Be patient with the process and allow things to evolve over time.

Values based – This is a key piece of the puzzle. Every decision we make will be based on some core values; integrity, client focused, people focused, and on doing things the right way, not just doing them for the sake of doing them. Each decision will get a hard look, and we’ll focus on the values that have made our firm great. Focus on values first and make decisions that align with these and, if they’re true values that your team has and not just things that sound good to say, you’ll be fine long term.

Execution – Get done what needs to be done. Make the hard decisions. Live with the outcomes. Be decisive and move forward. If the decision was wrong and you made it for all the right reasons, do better next time. Even if it hurts, you have to execute. As an individual contributor, it’s important to KEEP EXECUTING! Keep doing your job to the best of your abilities, keep asking questions, keep the firm’s core values in the front of your mind and do whatever it takes to get the job at hand done.

Leadership – You have to put your faith in the leaders of your organization...or you need to go somewhere else where you do. Believe that those that lead over you have your best interests at heart, even when they are making the tough decisions that may result in your co-worker (or you) being out of a job. How good are your leaders? Do you trust them with your career?

None of this is what I would call an “easy fix.” Change seldom gives us an easy fix. If this was easy, we’d have done it years ago.

They are all honest things you can do as a manager, as a leader, as an individual contributor, to understand organizational change.