Expert tips on how to prepare for and manage change pragmatically.
How can preparing for change become a more productive, performance-enhancing experience, one that delivers sustainable improvements with minimal disruption to business as usual?
In a less stable world where change is now constant, the best organisations understand how the world is changing and that they need to be constantly changing to meet customers’ needs today and tomorrow. Yet, too often leaders and managers forego preparing employees for change when there is ample time to do so in favour of executing quick fixes in turbulent times, and achieving less than satisfactory outcomes.
We say, if change is the one constant, leaders and managers of all kinds of enterprises need to be preparing themselves, their team, their organisation, markets and stakeholders for tomorrow’s change, today. Why? Because with increased competition, changes in government regulation and dynamic economic conditions people can be far more embracing of change and productive about it when change is planned, managed and communicated as “something we do all the time”, with stakeholders throughout and beyond the organisation.
The purpose of this article is to recommend tips for achieving meaningful, sustainable readiness for change with minimal disruption to business as usual. Because the energy, inspiration and support necessary to create the conditions for sustainable change will most often come from change agents (organisational leaders and managers) this article primarily focuses on the pragmatic activities change agents can undertake to affect change in business enterprises with minimal disruption. External change agents also have a key role to play in helping internal change agents prepare themselves for change. Training, educating and sharing external insights on how well the organisation is perceived with internal change agents can all help keep things on track, particularly when change is imminent or implemented over a relatively short time.
Preparing for change and its execution on any scale is one of the most challenging critical issues confronting Boards, Chief Executives, senior management and of course organisation members themselves. Particularly when key people have not had the experience of leading or preparing for change, ensuring survival, growing customer loyalty and securing business continuity are all the more challenging to prepare for. Customers, suppliers, trades unions, regulatory bodies also want to be confident that the enterprise has the capacity and capability to change in its blood, as the purpose and survival of some of these organisations depends upon it.
Delivering business as usual whilst getting ready for change means preparing people inside and outside the organisation for the future on a continuous basis. Rather than being an episodic obligation associated with occasional changes in strategy, structure, processes and culture, our experience, research and practice indicates that change agents need to start preparing to succeed at change before it is occurs to them or is forced upon them.
