Talking with clients I sometimes end up doing a Q&A on why change needs to be managed a certain way.
Here is a typical exchange.
Q: "So, why should I approach business change differently from my normal, day-to-day management style?"
Pragmatick: Because, after making a decision to put a change in place, the tendency for many businesses is to start work straight away – ‘moving things’ in the direction they want to go… “The sooner we start, the sooner we’ll get there, yes?” No.
Unless you’ve defined your destination very clearly and you’ve planned the route carefully, you could end up somewhere you had no intention of going, and will have spent time, effort and money on getting there.
Q: "OK. Then how SHOULD I approach business change?"
Pragmatick:
Start by defining where you are going in detail. Unless your change is regulatory, all changes have a vision, something that is desired, usually involving a new way of working. If so, then that new way of working needs to be defined as clearly as possible.
This helps to reduce effort, timescales, and the cost of change, particularly for small and medium sized businesses. Larger businesses that deal with change on a regular basis will probably have a structured approach already in place and will probably have a dedicated team to deliver change.
So, taking your time to define your destination will help in a big way.
Q: "New way of working..?"
Pragmatick: All businesses, even one-person businesses, evolve a business culture – The Way We Do Things Round Here. This includes how the processes the business uses are carried out, and these, along with any openly stated values (and any that evolve as a matter of course) will define the culture and, hence the ‘Way of Working’.
Any proposed changes will need to take into account that Way of Working, as the change may deliver outcomes that can be uncomfortable, or even disruptive to your working style. Thus, understanding the detail of why you’re making the change and where your change will take you becomes important because you don’t want surprises. Which means…
You need to look at how that destination will impact your wider business.
As I’ve hinted above, if you make changes to one part of your business, it will very likely change how other parts work as they are intertwined – one business process rarely works in isolation from others. Some of these knock-on changes could well be positive, some negative. Whichever they are, it is by far better to understand their impacts and understand how your business will be affected. This can then be approached in such a way that any negative impacts are managed appropriately, and the positive impacts can be investigated for any opportunities that could be advantageously used to benefit your business.
Plan the route to your destination very carefully. By definition, change usually involves a change of state – moving from one way of working to another. Think of it as though you are planning a journey, except you don’t yet know all the travel options – do you go by car, train, plane..? Could you walk there or cycle it?
The point is that it will contain some unknowns, so you will need to look at how each stage of the change journey needs to be undertaken. It might need a range of journey solutions to make sure that you end up at the right destination.
Get your people involved, making sure they understand the destination, so they can provide input on where they think the journey could go badly wrong.
No one likes change – we all like to ‘get into the smooth groove’ of work. Which means changes to the way we work can be unsettling; a transparent approach to change will always deliver a better outcome than a surprising reveal after it’s all in place. Once bought-into a change most team members will be able to provide valuable insights and then challenges become constructive rather than blocking.
Involving your people will always bring benefits… it just may not look that way at the time.
Pick apart the risks that could stop you succeeding.
If you leave the journey to chance, it will be eventful, it will be time-consuming, and it will be expensive.
By planning in as much detail as you can and involving key people who will be affected by the change, you can identify those areas of risk that could derail your change.
Understanding a risk can be problematic – if you don’t identify all the impacts, you may never see the whole risk, if you don’t understand the risk’s causes, you may not fully identify all the impacts. This is where your team comes in. In this case, many cooks can make sure the recipe for the broth is very clearly understood and followed.
If you don’t have a team, find a trusted person who knows your business, who you can use as a soundboard. Maybe get help from an expert. Whichever you choose, be open to possibilities so that you see the whole picture, that you gain a clearer understanding of all the aspects surrounding your decision.
All the above allows you to build a clearer plan of your journey that will show how you will move through each step of the change.
A plan that includes who you need help from, when that help is needed, what their input will be, and how long for.
A plan that defines how much it will all cost – after all, you don’t want to leave it to the end of your journey to find out how much you’ll have to spend to get there… better to know the cost of the ticket up front. But do allow for some detours.
Q: "Which makes me think twice about doing the change… How do I justify the cost?"
Pragmatick: That question brings us back to the beginning. Why is the change needed?
The key aspect for any change is benefits – how the outcomes from this change will benefit your business. If there are no perceivable benefits, then the change might just be a nice-to-have.
The key to cost effectiveness is whether the outcomes and resulting business benefits will pay for themselves over a reasonable timeframe.
What cost savings will it generate; what extra income will it generate; what other opportunities might be developed from it in the future…
Place that against the capital and revenue costs of the change (one-off costs, running costs, recurring license costs, loan repayments, etc.) and you should have what is commonly called a Business Case.
