How Not to Make Changes in your Company

My husband Yusuf and I have two pets: a cat named MewMew and a dog named Lenny. Of course, from a consistency perspective, Lenny should probably be named BarkBark, but it is what is.

MewMew loves the outside. Although he tends to stay close to the house, he does wander now and then. He seems to like the flexibility.

One day, though, his world changed abruptly: we put up a fence in the backyard. Its purpose was to give us a bit more privacy, not to cramp MewMew’s wandering. But our intention didn’t matter – the result was the same.

Suddenly, he lost some of the freedom he once had. And, to make matters worse, I now realize that the change happened with no warning and without involving him in the decision.

This type of non-participatory decision making is not exclusive to pet owners. Employers often make similarly abrupt and drastic decisions – decisions that have a large impact on their staff – without warning or consultation.

Tell Employees Before The Fact

A few years ago I worked with a company that was changing some of their business processes. Rather than involving all employees in the why of what they were doing, they brought together a small group of managers to make the changes. By the time I came on the scene not only were the new processes developed by managers rejected but some key employees left the organization over the way the project was handled.

Employees need to understand what is happening in the company. They don’t want to walk into the office on Monday morning to something different from Friday afternoon. This breaks down trust between leaders and employees and disengages employees in the workplace. Disengaged employees who don’t trust leaders are not committed to the success of the organization. The bottom line suffers.

Involving employees in an upcoming change (notice I said upcoming…not after the fact…remember how upset poor MewMew was!) is as simple as a communication to your team and ensuring they are involved in what is happening through providing feedback, ideas and comments.

The communication should answer the following questions:

What is happening? Sharing with employees what the change will be so they understand more about it is key to engaging them early on it the process. Be specific about what is changing and what is not changing. (It is nice to know that some things will remain the same.) Be specific. Simply saying we are changing our processes is not sufficient. Rather, note that in order to be more responsive to customer needs processes related to how we service our customers will be reviewed for improvements.

Why it is happening? Share the internal and external factors that are driving change. For example, we might be changing our processes related to how we service our customers because our customers are demanding change (external factor) and because as our organization grows our current processes are outdated (internal factor.) Share the reason for the change not just from the organization’s perspective (bottom line) but also from the employee’s perspective (less time involved in servicing customers.)

When is it happening? Give employees an idea of when the change project is starting and when it is expected to conclude. Ideally the project has not already started. Remember, we want to engage employees in what is happening before it happens.

How can employees get involved? Let employees know you want their involvement. The more we can get employees involved in what we are doing the more we can increase the chances of employees adopting and accepting the change. Following our example above, we might tell employees that we will be reaching out to those involved in servicing the customer to understand what works and what doesn’t about the current process. We will ask them to help by testing a new potential process once one is developed and providing their feedback. When employees have opportunities to get involved in a change, they are more engaged and feel in control of what is happening.

Final Thoughts

Providing employees a “heads up” about an upcoming change in the company enables them to begin thinking about that change and how it might impact them. It enables them to come to terms with what is going on. And it gives them some control by sharing how they can get involved.

This simple “heads up” goes a long way in reducing the disruption that comes about from a change that employees knew nothing about.

?For discussion…

What is the worst change you have witnessed inside a company?

How does your pet react to change?

?

Mindless Netflix Watching

So I always say I get enough intellectual stimulation in my work with clients. Therefore – when the evening comes around, I just want to relax. I don’t want to think.

My recent obsession on Netflix is Ultimatum: Marry or Move On. Nick and Vanessa Lachey are hosts. Six couples are followed. In each case, one of the partners has provided a “marry me or I walk” ultimatum to their partner. You know this isn’t going to turn out well! Need something to relax at the end of a long day – check it out on Netflix. It’s become a topic of conversation with one of my clients who, like me, has enough intellectual stimulation all day long.