Change management: when should a new arrangement be reviewed after launch?
A launch attracts attention; subsequent adjustments often have to compete with returning operational pressures. The managerial question is specific: when should a review of the new arrangement take place so that observed difficulties can still lead to corrections?
What the literature establishes
Marcie J. Tyre and Wanda J. Orlikowski (1994, Organization Science) show, in their study of technological adaptation in organizations, that adjustments are not distributed evenly over time. An initial window for adaptation can close quickly as usage becomes habitual and production regains priority. Difficulties may then persist without prompting a review of the arrangement.
A deadline can reopen the discussion
Connie J. G. Gersick (1988, Academy of Management Journal) observes that the project teams studied do not progress through a regular succession of phases: periods of relative inertia alternate with pronounced transitions. Awareness of the time remaining, particularly around the midpoint of their allotted working time, plays a role in these shifts. This suggests treating the schedule as a possible support for reassessment, rather than merely a tracking tool.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that every deviation should be corrected immediately, or that a redesign should always be scheduled halfway through. Neither study provides such a universal rule. The point is instead to preserve a genuine opportunity for revision before everyday pressures make decisions harder. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence cannot determine
These studies draw on field research in specific settings, not on an experimental comparison of different review schedules. They establish neither an optimal interval after launch nor a rhythm suitable for every transformation. In a regulated activity, the point at which a difficulty is examined must also be distinguished from the point at which a modification can be authorized and implemented.
A practical check in Bâle
Within SHR's change management programme, an exercise applicable in Basel is to schedule a review after the first complete operational cycle, before launching a coordination arrangement linking pharma, life sciences, Rhine logistics and international R&D. Record difficulties and their dates, then calculate at the review the proportion of recorded difficulties that have received an explicit decision: an authorized correction, an assigned investigation or a reasoned decision to retain the current arrangement. The log should make it possible to verify the owner and deadline for each agreed follow-up, without equating a review decision with regulatory authorization to make a modification. This measure does not prove that the change has succeeded; it checks whether the opportunity for reassessment was actually used. To go further: explore the Change Leadership training in Basel in the canton of Basel-Stadt, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Change Leadership in Basel
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