MANAGING CHANGE FOR BUSINESS OWNERS AND MANAGERS
Martin Allison
Certified value builder; works with business-owners, entrepreneurs and investors by coaching, directing, educating and selling!
Modern organisations are never static for long and certainly not in uncertain pandemic times like the present! Neither the local primary school, the country-wide chain of retail stores nor the multinational corporation can shelter from the winds of change that are constantly blowing, soft or strong. For business owners or managers, change is a fact of life. Sometimes you will be introducing changes yourself; at other times you have them thrust upon you by your shareholders/line managers – or by the actions of other departments. Whether it’s just that new equipment is needed in the typing pool or for home-working, or that Head Office has introduced a new accounting procedure, you will need to plan for and cope with the effects and repercussions.
New laws, new technologies, new consumer demands, new competition – these are among the many reasons why organisations must change. Otherwise they will flounder and perish. Some people relish change. Others fear or resent it. Which way we feel is usually dependent on whether we have helped initiate the change ourselves or have had it forced upon is.
To be an effective leader/manager of change you will need to recognise when change is desirable or at least inevitable. You will then need to bring your team to recognise that they will get more benefit by helping decide the precise details of the change than by trying to resist it. This is often easier said than done - especially if you are not too happy about the change yourself.
How do you rate as a “change agent”?
What will be your own strengths and weaknesses in trying to implement change within your organisation? To be a successful agent of change you will need to be able to say “yes” to as many as possible of the first set of questions and “no” to as many as possible of the second set:-
Advantages - please answer YES or NO
- Do you understand your organisation – who has the power, how the networks operate, where the barriers are?
- Do you speak the organisation’s language – its special jargon, “in jokes” etc.
- Do you understand the local ways of doing things and behaving, and can you act in accordance with the organisation’s unwritten rules?
- Are you familiar and non-threatening figure to your colleagues?
- Do you feel that your personal and professional satisfaction is dependent on the organisation prospering?
- Do you believe that change usually brings more gains than losses?
- Do you actively look for ways of improving things?
Disadvantages - Please answer YES or NO
- Are you too involved with your section to see the organisation as a whole and without bias?
- Might people’s expectations of you in your present role conflict with your efforts to work with them towards implementing change?
- Do you have prior experience of introducing changes?
- Do your other duties leave you insufficient time and energy to think about change?
- Do you feel you are too insecure to guard against challenges from other members of staff?
- Might you past successes or failures prejudice people against you?
- Do you believe that change usually brings more losses than gains?
- Are you inclined to be suspicious of new practices?
Evaluating Proposed Changes
Sometimes changes will be urged upon you by other people or circumstances beyond your control. In such cases, you may need to evaluate the proposal, suggest amendments, or perhaps even oppose it. Here are some useful questions to ask:-
Please answer YES or NO
- Are we already doing it?
- Has it been tried unsuccessfully in the past?
- Could it work?
- Is it practical?
- Is it ethical?
- Is it based on empire-building and self-interest?
- Is it based on untested theory or speculation?
- Is it based on fashion or someone’s whim?
- Will it solve the problems?
- Might it create more problems than it solves?
- Are the risks acceptable?
- Is it likely to be cost-effective?
- Is it within the existing budget?
- Will it antagonise staff/customers/unions etc.?
- Are the projected improvements in productivity and/or the quality of working life sufficiently specific, for us to be able to agree on the extent to which they do get attained?
- On balance shall I support the proposed change (with or without suggesting amendments)?
- Or shall I oppose it?
If I feel I must oppose it, how and with whose support shall I prepare the case against it?
NB: You will, of course, be just as critical in applying such questions to changes you think up yourself as to those proposed by other people.