Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash
Last week I was invited by Tim Anderson, ACE Chair for the Leeds area to talk on Managing Change to his group. I had visited them once before so it was a good chance to see how much things had changed (to coin a phrase!). I liken managing change to a trapeze – you as employers want your people to move from A to C, where A is what’s happening now and C is the vision for the change process.
Time is often a luxury you cannot give people, so the best principle is to imagine that if they are to leave A, they first have to know ‘why?’. Then they may quite possibly get nervous or scared because they’re travelling through B. The more they can ‘see’ and ‘feel’ a strategy in place, the more it acts like a safety net underneath the trapeze. Bite size chunks then break the transition down and everything becomes a lot less scary because they can see what’s in it for them and more importantly than anything ‘how’ they are actually to do this. If you can add ‘by when’ you want it then all the better!
Fear is at the root of most difficulties with change that I’ve experienced when I consult in business. To manage change well, plan before you do anything to think ‘what will be the impact on the people’ then put the strategy or safety net in place from the minute you tell them what you want them to do. Even small businesses who have few funds can implement some basic principles and do so consistently. It really does pay dividends!