Real Changes in Business is Not a Tick-box Exercise
Making changes within a business should be something that is carefully considered to provide the best results. Here, we look at why true change is not a tick box exercise.
Change management looks at the people side of change, whether this is part of creating a new company or implementing new work processes or technologies. If you don’t consider the people’s opinions and needs in your company, you may never really see their true potential.
If the individuals in your organization embrace your changes, you will be more likely to see significant financial improvements.
As any change management specialist will tell you, processes, tools, and techniques used to manage the people element of change may make up the change management process. However, it is how you help your employees to adapt to these new changes that really matter.
Change Management
The process of change management refers to the steps that an individual team member uses for a project or initiative when it comes to helping people work through the changes. This can be split into the following three categories:
- Preparing for change
- Managing change
- Reinforcing change
Changes in Business: Change Management Matters
A team leader or manager needs to have the skills to lead people through a change successfully. This should be at all levels and on all parts of the process. When it comes to change management, whether it is a small scale or large scale effort, it is important to be effective because changes in your organization happen one person at a time. If they are poorly managed, it can be costly, and the most successful changes are effectively managed holistically.
You mustn’t consider a change to occur solely from an organizational perspective. Whilst it is true that a merger, for example, allows you to focus on financial integration and physical location, similar aspects of organizational changes involve people, the people who work for the organization and keep it ticking daily.
If these people do not make the correct changes to their day-to-day schedules, you will not see the desired organizational change results.
Poorly managing change – the cost
When you ignore the people involved in the change, you may see:
- A decline in productivity that is bigger and lasts longer than needed
- Time and resources are not made available by managers.
- Key stakeholders do not attend meetings.
- There are disruptions to suppliers.
- Customers see the negative impacts of the change.
- There is a feeling of “them “and “us,” and employee morale suffers.
- Fatigue, confusion, and stress increase
- Employees who are valued leave the organization.
The effects can be further reaching with budgets overrunning, deadlines being missed, and even abandoned projects.
When you take a look at the human side of a change and manage it effectively, you are more likely to be met with success. People will accept the changes and work with them with minimal disruption to the organization.
Change management training can be a good way of updating those skills you already have so that you are ready to tackle and real-life changes in your organization.
