The fast organizational change manual for busy founders

Ok, so hi ?? and congratulations on clicking the clickbait title and believing that change can be fast and busy founders can quickly adapt their teams to new directions.

This issue won't be about that.?

Instead, I want to change two things:

• The way you view change in general.
• The way you implement change.

The first one will help you to adjust to the timeframe of change. You will be more likely to say YES to any change.?

The second one will help you shorten the change timeframe, so the title is only partially clickbait; I will explain some techniques for implementing changes fast to my clients.

Let's go.

Changing your organization doesn't mean you stop operations.

I work with founders who have operational problems for various reasons. They feel the pain as their teams are missing deadlines, the quality of work is low, production is clunky, they miss an entire team, or their team members fluctuate in and out.

When I tell them I can help, but it will take 2-3, even 4-5 months to see some solid work results, they back down with the most popular excuses: "I don't have time for that."?

It took me a while to understand this excuse.?

Sidenote for salespeople: spend quality time understanding your prospects' excuses. Sometimes the main driver for the excuse is not what you think it is.?

First, I thought they wanted some overnight success of change. That's what the internet tells you; that's what everyone else tells you; I thought it was what they wanted anyway.?

Yes, some founders believed that crap, but that's OK. We won't be working together ever. But most of them were reasonable people with solid business results or backgrounds. They knew change takes time.?

But they thought most of their ops would be on a pause during the change. They view change as a switch that affects everything from day one.?

That's not true.

Implementing organizational changes is a journey, a step-by-step process, and a rollout plan. Each step affects the entire organization but it doesn't mean the journey stops operation.?

To give you an example: documentation. Remote-first companies can enhance productivity by tailoring their communication and collaboration to be more asynchronous. For that, they need to document everything they do. That's a well-known fact now; we can't argue about it.

But how do you start? You certainly won't begin to document EVERYTHING from day 1. You go with the steps:

1. You start with your meetings and document those.
2. Then you go with written project briefing.
3. Then you go with documenting decision-making.
4. Then you lay down processes and SOPs.?
5. Then you start to organize all your documentation into libraries.

It starts small and builds up from there. You do what you did before during the build-up without pausing anything. But gradually, you will see the results of new practices: more clarity, alignment, better information structure, etc.

So change is not a switch button. It's a step-by-step process, a journey. The only switch you need to make is in your mind: decide if you want to start the journey.

Implementing organizational changes shouldn't be a long journey.?

The second one is more practical. Founders think this change is a long journey. It doesn't have to be.

You can take some mandatory steps to ensure the change will be faster. Depending on the organization's size, it can be around 2-6 months.?

I primarily work with B2B scaleups, so it usually means 50-200 people. For them, any change takes around 3-6 months to show some long-term results. For smaller companies, startups with 10-50 people might take 2-3 months.?

There are specific steps that I do to shorten this timeframe.?

First, I do an audit. Sometimes, the audit is part of my sales process, so the initial investment is only the audit from their end. But the bigger the focus, the more robust the audit becomes.?

The audit helps me to understand where to start and what to do first. It maps out the journey. It also helps me understand my clients, how the process will work, and where we can improve.?

Second, I do internal training. It'sn't training more like an orientation workshop. You can only implement changes with people, so those who will do the changes and see the effect of these changes should be onboard and understand how we will do this.

This workshop also helps to understand bottlenecks that are sometimes people related. If everyone's onboard and understands the job to be done - we can start the rollout plan. Without the orientation, I would be alone, pushing the needs through others, which would lead to more time and ineffective implementation.

Lastly, I start with small changes, building up to a milestone, then roll out a massive shift. It helps others ease into the process, but it also guarantees big rewards quickly.?

Let's use the documentation again as an example. We would start with meeting notes, agenda, briefing, and project manuals. Then the next step is a collection of SOPs and templates. And the third step is a company hub where we store all the documents.?

If you go in with building out a company hub from day 1, you will struggle to win helping hands. But after you did around 30-50 documents together, the question is, shouldn't we need a hub to store all of these?

Small steps with a preplanned timeframe for the rollout help you win helping hands and let you continue operations as it was, without interruption or a pause. That's how you do proper operational changes.?

It's a super practical and basic approach. But I love basics, and I'm also super practical.?

How do you implement operational changes?

Peter Benei

If you are ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Coaching: Apply for my 1:1 program to gain traction and establish growth foundations as a founder.
2. Consulting: Book me as a fractional leader or consultant to help you scale up with better ops & growth.
3. Speaker: Invite me to speak on the future of work and flexible operations topics at your event or show.

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