As your business continues to grow, so will the need for you to better manage change within your business. With each growth spurt, your business requires you to find new ways of doing things to manage the increased workflow while remaining efficient.
My questions for you are therefore: How well can you adapt to the changing needs of your business? How quickly? How effectively?
If you have no established plan to manage the growth of your business, let me share with you my 5 step plan to manage change in your business. The 5 steps that I outline below are applicable across all industries and business sizes. They are a foundation on which you can build your own tailored change plan for your unique business.
Step 1: Design & document new systems to manage the workload(with other stakeholders/managers)
One of the 3 biggest challenges of a growing business is the systematic shifts that are required as the business grows. The only way to meet this challenge is to design new systems that work better than the current ones. Systems get outgrown as the workflow increases. You need to consult with other stakeholders or managers (if you have a team) and design a new way to do things. Then you must ensure that it is documented, so their can be no discrepancies or misunderstandings.
Step 2: Clearly communicate the new procedures & start date
It’s important that once a new system has been designed, that all staff are notified of these changes and when they are to take effect. You may wish to hold a meeting, send an email or memo. Whichever way you choose to communicate, you must make it clear that the new systems have a specific starting date and that they are not optional. It’s always good to communicate why changes are being made. Most people are reluctant to change, but with a good reason, they are more likely to be onboard. The initial communication should also advise who is responsible for this project, so it is clear where queries can be directed.
Step 3: Provide support
Many systematic changes will require some kind of staff training. This can range from a short one-on-one session to show staff how to do a particular process, through to more in-depth day-long trainings for larger, more complex changes. eg. Using new software for a main part of the sales process would likely require a day’s training on how to use the new software in conjunction with the company’s current procedures. You can also provide support to your staff through the change process by providing convenient ongoing access to the new system procedures, with links to further information and contact with the project owner.
Step 4: Monitor implementation over time
With any changes that you implement, you must find a way to monitor the implementation over time. Initially, you will want to keep checking every week to ensure that the new systems are being utilised. This may be a quick check of the way work has been documented over the last week, or it may require direct feedback from particular individuals. It’s important to track that the new changes are being implemented consistently. This also acts as a reminder for the team to stay with the new process. Changing the way your staff work means that they are essentially changing their habits and this takes time. Change is a process, so be patient.
Step 5: Assess the results
After a significant period has passed and you find that the changes have been fully integrated, it’s time to look at the bigger picture. You implemented the changes for a reason, so are the changes helping solve your original problem? It’s important to assess the effect of the system implementation versus the old way that things were done. In most cases, it’s an easy “yes, this is significantly better”. It’s also good at this point to ask for staff feedback. Now that the changes have been assumed as the new way of doing things, ask staff what they think of the new changes versus the old way. Assessing the results as the business owner is one level, but you also want to make sure that you assess staff feedback as well. They are likely using the new procedures in their work more often than yourself and can provide valuable assessment of the outcomes.