Bill Synnot and Associates

Change is the only thing that is constant,”is a phraseology that has stood relevant since time immemorial, and it’s no surprise that organizations continue to have to walk on a continually transformational journey in order to stay ahead of the pack in this ever-changing environment. And so, enterprises’ success depends upon persuading individuals to learn new skills and adapt to novel work situations. However, Bill Synnot (see photo), Founder and Managing Director of Bill Synnot and Associates (BSA), points out from his 40+ years of experience that dealing with people’s mindsets to alter their performance in a work environment or otherwise is no easy task. Systems and processes are easy to change; however, changing humans themselves is a formidable challenge.

In an effort to co-create change, BSA specializes in providing organisational change management, executive coaching, facilitation, creative thinking, organisational reviews, planning and team development services to clients worldwide.

After a survey of clients highlighted their need for a 24/7 online library on change management, BSA developed a web-based app—an online library or knowledge-base (KB) (see image) that helps businesses address all the challenges associated with change and identify suitable strategies for implementing the desired change successfully. The app draws upon real-world experience gained by working with 700+ worldwide organizations, extensive reading from over 2,300 references around change management, 80+change frameworks, and 300+ change implementation techniques plus information on neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, cognitive biases, soft skills, leadership, motivation, persuasion and many more topics. Already this KB has had tens of thousands of visitors (including Ivy League universities).

“For change to be effective, there must be a holistic approach to creating strong alignment of the mind, emotions, and intuition of staff and the organisation’s change strategy and direction,” says Bill. Most practitioners put too much focus on the mind and ignore the other two (emotions and intuition). This partly explains why most change projects fail.

Bill says “being successful, or perceived to be successful, can be a major obstacle to changing an organisation as the staff cannot see the need to change their currently successful way of doing business. Yet the corporate graveyard is full of these organisations. Remember: past success is no guarantee of future success!!!”

Stability is no longer the norm; yet most organisational development theories are based on it.

Also, most staff are employed to maintain the status quo - not to challenge it!! Change is usually perceived as a threat to the status quo, but flexibility is the key to handling the uncertain future world.

To handle the above challenges, his firm developed the Seven Ingredients of Change Management Framework(see mind map) for organizations to discover how they need to manage change depending on a specific situation.

For change to be effective, there must be a holistic approach creating strong alignment with the mind, emotions, and intuition of staff and the organisation’s change strategy and direction

The fact that no two circumstances are identical and all require an unique approach makes it risky to adopt the ‘one-size-fits-all’ methodology while dealing with organizations. To avoid such risks, the framework works as a checklist in ensuring accurate evaluation of the completed or on-going changes in an enterprise accordingly.

By following the seven ingredients— laying a foundation for new ways, establishing a sense of urgency, forming a transitional team, creating alignment, maximizing connectedness, creating short-term wins, and consolidating performance improvements—firms can easily plan, develop, implement, monitor, evaluate, and check the progress of any change.
BSA expertise is reflected in the case of a client in the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) industry. After facing intense competition from startups in the ICT arena and seeking to change the mindset of people from a monopolistic position to handling a competitive commercial environment, the client approached BSA. Soon afterwards by leveraging the company’s services, the client was successfully able to transform their situation and successfully adapt to the new business environment imperatives.

The founding of BSA is owed to one of Bill’s friends, a senior recruiter, who recognized his talent and potential as a change catalyst. Since then, he has been widely recognized as a management consultant specialist, effective public speaker, trainer, author, and facilitator. He has also co-authored a best-selling management book named: The Toolbox for Change: a practical approach. Today, his firm embodies the virtual organizational concept with over 700 global clients in the private, public, educational, co-operative, professional and not-for-profit organizations. Having partnered with various tertiary education institutions including the Queensland University of Technology, University of South Pacific (Fiji), Charles Sturt University, and others, BSA continues to forge new pathways, including in the community space.

“At the end of the day, the satisfaction of walking into an organization and witnessing them still effectively implementing our change management concepts and problem-solving tools and techniques is the biggest achievement for us,” concludes Bill.