Eliminate Surprises When Initiating Company Changes (Human Factor by Grey Williams)

If you are an entrepreneur, business owner or executive, the chances are good that you relish the opportunity to improve and innovate, whether that means introducing a new product, automating a process, or even rearranging job duties.

Those improvements and innovations you are instigating will usually change the normal routine for some people — employees, customers, dealers, and suppliers, for instance.

Sometimes change is the key to the improvement, sometimes it’s a side effect. In either case, others may not be as excited about the change as you are.

In fact if we are honest, most of us are not enthusiastic about unexpected changes in our own lives.

We’ve seen many organizations make changes well and others not so well and gathered a few lessons along the way.

First, plan for the change and for the communication of it.

What needs to change, and in what order?

What effects will it have on people, procedures, and other elements of the business?

What else will people need and want to know about it — all the “who, when, where, why” types of questions.

If you can answer these in advance, people will be much more comfortable with the change.

Make sure you can also outline the “invisible” or non-obvious benefits, and perhaps even the obvious ones; this can motivate your audience to support the change rather than resist.

Second, make sure the right people know about it in advance. Who will be making the change?

Who will be affected by it, directly or indirectly?

This may mean management, staff, customers, vendors, and sometimes even the general public or governmental entities.

Who will be questioned about it? If the change affects, for instance, customers, make sure staff know how to respond when customers ask.

In one case, we’ve seen a communication checklist with 17 distinct steps, carefully selected to ensure maximum information with minimum disruption.

Your next change is unlikely to require something that elaborate, but even a few thoughts on a Post-it note is an improvement over haphazard implementation.

Third, communicate at the right time — of day, week, month, and year. Not too far in advance — once people know change is coming, they start to “anticipate” and change their own behavior to match.

That’s great as long as it’s time for the change, but it can be disruptive if some people are changing and others aren’t.

Also, if the change is going to create a lot of “buzz,” communicate it to staff at end of day or just prior to lunch.

This gives them an immediate opportunity to discuss and process the change without disrupting the business day.

Fourth and last and ongoing — once the change is in place, make sure your own behavior is in line with the change, and follow up.

Check to see if the change is working as intended or whether there might be tweaks to make it even better.

If your staff and customers get used to this, they’ll be more comfortable with future changes, as well.

We’ve all heard the old adage “what you do speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say” and it applies doubly when related to leaders and their actions.

Grey Williams is a principal at Dextera Corp. in Little Rock, a business services firm helping small businesses achieve their growth and return goals. He can be reached at [email protected].